Most of Intel’s new 12th-gen Alder Lake desktop chips ditch hybrid architecture

Intel is building on its 12th-gen Alder Lake lineup. The company announced 22 new desktop processors joining the range at CES 2022, most of which don’t have a hybrid architecture, as well as cheaper 600-series chipset motherboards. In addition to more 12th-gen options, Intel announced a range of new coolers to accompany Alder Lake processors going forward.

There are 22 new configurations coming, and you can find all of the details on each chip in the table below. The range initially leaked through Best Buy listings, complete with pricing information. Intel hasn’t announced pricing yet, but the specs of the new chips line up with the earlier leak.

Specs

Out of the range, the three Core i9-12900 variants stick out most thanks to their lower power requirements. The Core i9-12900 and Core i9-12900F have a base wattage of 65W, which is nearly half of the 125W requirement on the Core i9-12900K. The Core i9-12900T is even lower at 35W. All of the new chips seem to have strict power targets, likely in response to the high power requirements of the initial batch of Alder Lake chips.

The i9 variants are some of the few to have Alder Lake’s signature hybrid architecture, too. Out of the 22 new processors, only six of them come with performant (P) cores and efficient (E) cores. Confirming previous rumors, many of the newly announced CPUs only come with P-cores under the hood.

That includes the Core i5-12400F, which has been long-rumored to be Intel’s budget-focused gaming CPU. Leaked benchmarks show this chip outperforming AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X by a significant margin. It should come in cheaper than AMD’s chip, too, though we’re still waiting on final pricing information.

Although some of the new processors ditch the E-cores, they all still come with fit with the various features of Intel’s 12th-gen platform. That includes support for DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200 memory, PCIe 4.0, and Wi-Fi 6E.

New motherboard chipsets

In addition to the new processors, Intel announced three new motherboard chipsets: H670, B660, and H610. The B660 chipset leaked prior to launch, matching the features Intel announced at CES. The B660 chipset comes with half of the PCIe 4.0 lanes, half of the SATA connections, and fewer USB ports overall. Critically, it also doesn’t support overclocking.

Keeping with previous chipset ranges, Intel locked off overclocking on the H670, B660, and H610 chipsets. That makes them a good match with the newly announced chips, none of which are unlocked for overclocking. A slew of new motherboards are being announced at CES 2022, and although we don’t have prices yet, these motherboards should be much cheaper than their Z690 counterparts. Intel says over 200 motherboard options are available at launch.

New CPU coolers

Also revealed through a leak, Intel announced three new CPU coolers that will ship with some Alder Lake processors. The Laminar RH1 is built for Core i9 chips, the Laminar RM1 will come with Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 chips, and the Laminar RS1 is reserved for Pentium and Celeron processors.

Like previous generations, you’ll only find coolers with 65W or lower, locked processors. The existing unlocked models will continue to sell without an included cooler. This is the first cooler redesign Intel has made in over a decade, incorporating features like ARGB lighting on the Laminar RH1.

Outside of some specialty releases, these new processors bring Intel’s Alder Lake lineup full circle. Now, there are chips available across the price and performance spectrum. However, most of the processors don’t come with Alder Lake’s signature hybrid architecture, drawing into question how effective the E-cores are and if Intel will stick with this type of design moving forward.