The CPU provides a total of 20 PCIe lanes, 16 of which are PCIe 5.0 and four of which are PCIe 4.0. The 12th Generation processors are also the first to support PCIe 5.0. You must purchase a motherboard that supports either DDR5 or DDR4 memory, and you can only use that memory with that motherboard. DDR4 memory is also supported by the chips, but not both DDR4 and DDR5 memory at the same time. With native support for DDR5 4800 MT/s and higher speeds unlocked via the new XMP 3.0 profiles, the new 12th Gen chips are the first to support DDR5 memory. At launch, over 60 new motherboard models are expected from a variety of vendors. It will use a new LGA1700 socket, which means the new motherboards and CPUs will only be compatible with each other for the time being. Intel is also introducing a new chipset, the Z690, to accompany these new processors. The Intel UHD Graphics 770 is included in models with an integrated GPU. The cache size has also been increased, with the i9 models getting a 30MB е…ѓ cache, the i7 getting 25MB, and the i5 getting 20MB. The E-cores, on the other hand, have a 2.4GHz base clock and a 3.9GHz boost clock. The P-cores on the 12900K, for example, have a 3.2GHz base clock, a 5.1GHz boost clock, and a 5.2GHz max clock. Intel is now specifying base, boost, and max clock speeds for both the P-cores and the E-cores due to the split in core design.

The 10-core i5-12600K, on the other hand, has 6 P-cores and 4 E-cores for a total of 16 threads. This means there are 8 P-cores and 8 E-cores on the 16-core i9-12900K, for a total of 24 threads. Only the performance cores in these new chips are capable of multi-threading due to the way the CPU design is laid out. When an application requires maximum performance, the P-cores handle the majority of the work, but if you have music playing in the background or some other low-level task, the E-cores can handle it while using far less power than the performance cores.

It works in the same way that most modern smartphone and tablet processors, as well as Apple's M-series desktop processors, do.

The Alder Lake design employs a combination of Performance-cores (P-cores) and Efficient-cores rather than multiple cores with essentially identical performance (E-cores). The switch to a hybrid core design is the highlight of this generation of Intel CPUs, aside from the new architecture. The Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core i5-12600K are three of the six models being released today, with the remaining three being the KF variants of the aforementioned models (the F signifies a lack of an integrated GPU). The six new models are the first in Intel's new generation of processors, which are based on the company's Alder Lake architecture and manufactured on a 10nm process. Intel unveiled its new 12th Generation Core processors for desktop computers today.

Core 2 vs i5