Intel Alder Lake
According to some rumors, the Intel Alder Lake processors, of which we already know a lot officially, could arrive on the market on November 19, which is increasingly plausible given the appearance of the photos of one of the processors of the twelfth Intel series and the details on the Z690 chipset that confirm the presence of PCIe 5.0 lanes, optional Intel 5G base-T MAC / PHY ethernet, support for Intel Optane, native DDR4 and DDR5 support, Intel Rapid Storage with RAID, Intel Wifi 6E / 7 AX211 and Intel Xe graphics, although reported at old Intel UHD nomenclature probably to distinguish it from Intel Arc gaming GPUs arriving at the beginning of 2022.A complete scheme of connectivity and technologies supported by Intel Alder Lake processors on Z690 chipset Going into the specific features of the Z690 chipset , the one designed for high-end Alder Lake processors, we find 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes, which can be divided into 1x16 or 2x8 modes, which could however and be confidential, according to the information published by Videocardz, to the Intel GPUs and SSDs which would be, if confirmed, the only ones that could aspire to speeds higher than 15GB per second. In support, however, there are also 4 PCIe 4.0 CPU lines dedicated to SSD and Intel Optane Memory, up to 12 PCIe 4.0 lines managed by the chipset and up to 16 PCIe 3.0 lines always managed by the chipset. Enough therefore to guarantee full support for leading video cards, any high-speed SSD currently on the market and a large number of peripherals given the possibility of up to 4 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports and 10 USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 ports. Of course, the presence of three interfaces could create a bit of confusion, but we are still talking about a high-end chipset, designed for those who are familiar with PC hardware.
Intel Alder Lake processors are already around and preparing for the official launch No risk of making a mistake, however, when it comes to memory. The features of the Z690 chipset in fact include native support for new DDR5 memories up to 4800 Mhz and for DDR4 memories up to 3200 MHz, in both cases with higher frequencies, depending on the specific motherboard, in overclocking. All at the service of a new hybrid architecture that promises to adapt smoothly to both extreme-end desktops and ultraportables using high-performance cores and high-efficiency cores at the same time. All seasoned with the aforementioned Intel Xe GPU which in the most powerful version, the 96 execution unit, should enjoy a 19% increase in performance, presumably thanks to both higher frequencies and the evolution of the CPU, guaranteeing a good experience. game in 1080p.
Intel Z690 chipset data sheet
Socket: LGA1700 socket for 12th generation Intel Alder Lake processors RAM: native support DDR4 3200 MHz, DDR5 4800 MHz PCI interface: 16 PCIe lanes 5.0, up to 12 lanes PCIe 4.0 (+4 CPU), up to 16 lanes PCIe 3.0 Network connectivity: Intel Wi-Fi 6E / 7 AX211, Intel Ethernet 10/100/1000, Intel 5G Base-T MAC / PHY ( optional) Storage: 6x SATA 6 Gb / s, Intel Optane support, Intel Rapid Storage with RAID, NVMe PCIe 4.0, PCIe 5.0 for Intel SSD
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Alleged Alder Lake-S Series Benchmarks Leak, Lead By Impressive Core i9-12900K
Intel is close to releasing its first batch of processors based on its hybrid Alder Lake architecture, at which point we will finally have some definitive answers about how it performs. Until then, we're left to leaks and rumors. In theory, leaks should be a little more reliable since we're so close to a retail release. And if that is the case, a new batch of benchmark data for a trio of Alder Lake CPUs bodes well for Intel's upcoming launch.The big deal with Alder Lake is the mixing of high performance Golden Cove cores with power efficient Gracemont cores in the same package, though that fact alone only tells a small portion of the story. During its Architecture Day 2021 event a few weeks ago, Intel shared some more details about the architecture, a key component of which is Intel's Thread Director technology.Intel Thread Director Technology Gives Alder Lake An EdgeThread Director is a hardware-level thread analyzer scheduler that 'provides runtime feedback' to the operating system to benefit any time of workload. This will work in conjunction with Windows 11, which is due to release on October 5. Here's a short video on the technology...
Thread Director also dynamically adapts to thermals, load, and power requirements on the fly without any user input. That means there are no Thread Director dials to fiddle with, it's just part of the architecture and underlying technology that works its magic on the heterogeneous makeup that is at play with Intel's Alder Lake lineup.
How will it actually fare, though? We'll have answers soon enough. For now, though, some newly leaked benchmarks obtained by Persian site Sakhtafzarmag provide some interesting potential hints of what is to come.
Leaked Intel Alder Lake BenchmarksThe site got its hands on Alder Lake benchmark data for the Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700KF, and Core i5-12600K with the following specifications...And here is a look at how they fared in Geekbench...
Source: Sakhtafzarmag
One thing to keep in mind is that we have no idea what the testing conditions consisted of, including the amount of RAM, what motherboard and chipset drivers were in play, and even whether the scores were obtained at stock settings.
Caveats out of the way, all three Alder Lake CPUs posted impressive single-threaded metrics that are a few hundred points higher than AMD's Zen 3 processors, And in the multi-threaded arena, the Alder Lake CPUs also performed well, especially the Core i9-12900KF, which brought parity between it and AMD's flagship 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X.Source: Sakhtafzarmag
A spattering of other benchmarks paint a similar picture. We're not going to re-post all of the performance graphs (that would just be rude), but as shown above, all three Alder Lake chips are adept at encoding, if these results are accurate. Spotlighting the Core i9-12900K again, it bested the Ryzen 9 5950X in X264 HD and X265 HD, though AMD's finest won out in HWBot X265.
The site also posted some supposed pricing details, saying the Core i9-12900K will sell for $599, the Core i9-12900 for $509, the Core i7-12700K for $429, the Core i7-12700 for $359, the Core i5-12600K for $279, the Core i5-12600 for $249, and the Core i5-12400 for $203.
Even if those figures are accurate, pricing can (and often does) vary by territory, so keep that in mind. That said, this is yet another leak that suggests Alder Lake is a step in the right direction as Intel tries to right its ship amid increased competition from AMD.