At CES 2022 in early January, Intel confirmed a plan to release the top processor in the Alder Lake lineup, the Core i9-12900KS. In terms of the number of cores, it matches the Core i9-12900K model, but runs at a higher clock speed and, of course, consumes more.

Core i9-12900KS is endowed with eight high-performance cores (P-Cores, Golden Cove) and eight energy-efficient (E-cores, Gracemont). Since only high performance cores support multithreading, the CPU can run up to 24 threads.

Golden Cove reach 5.5 GHz with 1-2 active cores and 5.2 GHz with all active cores. The Gracemont clock is lower: 3.9 GHz with 1-4 active cores and 3.7 GHz with all active cores. The third level cache is 30 MB.

The Core i9-12900KS TDP is 150W, 25W higher than the Core i9-12900K. But this is the baseline. The maximum for the Core i9-12900K is 241 W, while for the Core i9-12900KS it will naturally be even higher.

And now the most interesting - the price. The American company Bottom Line Telecommunications offers a boxed version of the Core i9-12900KS for $792, the OEM version is slightly cheaper - $780. Probably, the official cost of the processor will be $750. Its main competitor AMD Ryzen 5950X is already cheaper in the US: back in early February, an American retailer offered it for $650.

bbabo.Net