As retailers begin to receive the first commercial 12th Generation Core 'Alder Lake' processors, images of the CPUs ready for retail begin to emerge on social media. Such photographs reveal S-Specs of the CPUs as well as confirming their specifications just in case someone expected Intel to change them in the last minute.
We already know how the packaging of Intel's 12th Generation Core processors looks like, so hardware bloggers DDAA117 (via @9550Pro) and @momomo_us concentrated on the contents instead.
Retail versions of Intel’s Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K CPUs look exactly as we expected LGA1700 processors to look like, but unlike engineering and qualification samples, these chips are properly marked. The 12900K features SRL4H S-Spec, whereas the model 12600K features SRL4T S-Spec. It is noteworthy that with Alder Lake generation, Intel no longer etches base CPU clock speeds on the processor’s heat spreader.
(Image credit: @momomo_us)
The base clock speed may be missing from the CPU but Intel does print all the frequencies on the packaging. As expected, the Core i9-12900K clocks its eight 'Golden Cove' P(erformance) cores between 3.60 GHz and 5.0 GHz, whereas eight 'Gracemont' E(fficiency) cores operate at 2.70 GHz – 3.80 GHz (lower than expected). Base TDP of the processor is 125W, but when installed on a high-end motherboard and equipped with a high-performance cooling system, the CPU can devour 228W for short periods to boost performance.
Intel is rumored to officially introduce its 12th Generation Core 'Alder Lake' processors next week and they could be on sale from soon after.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
