Intel's Alder Lake chips are expected to launch later this year, bringing a performance boost to the next generation of laptops and desktops. The chipmaker used its Architecture Day event to give us a taste of what to expect from the upcoming CPUs.
The main feature is Alder Lake's hybrid architecture, which will combine x86 performance cores with performance cores to deliver fast speeds and great endurance to the next fleet of laptops. What configurations we'll see from Alder Lake remains a mystery, though Intel has promised a full family of chips from 9W to 125W TDP.
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Intel Alder Lake release date
We don't have a specific release date for when the first batch of chips will be released, but we expect it to be early Q4. Some rumors say the chips will launch during Intel's InnovatiON event in October. However, according to WCCFTech, Intel has told its partners that it plans to launch Alder Lake S in November.
Intel Alder Lake 12th Gen Specifications and Features
The main feature of Alder Lake is its hybrid architecture consisting of up to 16 cores and 24 threads. What makes this 12th Gen chipset unique is that these cores will be divided into two groups: high-performance Golden Cove cores and energy-efficient Gracemont cores.
Intel promises that the “big” x86 performance cores, called Golden Cove, are the most powerful CPU cores it has ever built. As for the “small” Gracemont cores, they are “the most efficient x86 CPU core in the world,” Intel claims.
The Alder Lake chips will be based on Intel's 7nm process, formerly known as Enhanced SuperFin 10nm. Alder Lake has the same node size as Tiger Lake. The chips will also be complemented by up to 30MB of L3 cache.
In terms of features, these include support for PCIe 5.0 with 64 GB/s of power and DDR5 memory, doubling the theoretical data rates compared to the current generation. One advantage these chips have is support for Thunderbolt 4, the faster USB-C standard for data transfer and connection to peripherals and displays.
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Intel Alder Lake Performance
Several benchmarks have leaked, giving us our first look at the performance of Intel's 12th-generation Alder Lake chips. The latest, found in the Geekbench 5 database, shows a desktop Core i7-12700 scoring 1595 in the single-core and 10170 in the multi-core tests.
If accurate, these would make the new Intel chip 3% faster than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and 13% faster than the Core i7-11700K. Keep in mind that this listing has not been verified and the specs don't match what is expected.
It's worth noting that only Windows 11 PCs will get the best performance and battery life from Intel's upcoming Alder Lake chips. As for graphics, Alder Lake will use upgraded Iris Xe , although the performance gains it will bring have not yet been revealed.
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Which laptops will run Alder Lake?
As mentioned, Alder Lake will range from 9W to 125W, meaning it will run on the thinnest laptops to the most powerful gaming machines.
Vendors haven't confirmed any models that will support Alder Lake, and they won't until Intel officially unveils the new processors. However, Tom's Hardware reported a leak that suggests Asus is promoting a VivoBook with Alder Lake-P chips.
Information source: laptopmag.com
