To optimise how tasks are allocated to different cores and threads, Intel have also created the Intel Thread Director, which quickly delivers feedback to the existing OS scheduler so the latter can more intelligently adjust task allocation to maximise performance and minimise thermal strain. Besides the less power-intensive E-cores taking on background tasks like voice chat, recording, or streaming apps, all while leaving more power and thermal headroom for the P-cores to handle the game itself, some games are more multithreaded and will be able to offload certain calculations to the E-cores when they’re available. However, the hybrid design could very feasibly help out with games too. The most obvious applications to this new hybrid design also appear to be multitasking and productivity rather than gaming, an approach that AMD have historically fared better at. There are some familiar traits from previous Intel generations here, like how the Core i7 options has the same core count (of P-cores, anyway) as the Core i9 flagship models, just with lower clock speeds. The P-cores, at least on the six chips announced thus far, can also use Intel’s Hyper-Threading to spread the load around further. Similarly to most smartphone processors, the idea here is to allow the P-cores to bulldoze through lower-threaded apps like games, while the E-cores handle background processes or split the load more effectively in programmes that are more heavily multithreaded. The big change here is the hybrid architecture, which moves away from the conventional sets of identical CPU cores and instead splits them up into high-speed, high-power Performance cores (or P-cores) and smaller, less PSU-hungry Efficiency cores (E-cores). There will almost definitely be more Alder Lake desktop CPUs to come, though it’s likely these six will be the ones to focus on from a gaming standpoint, especially as they all come unlocked for overclocking. These include the top-tier Core i9-12900K, the high-end Core i7-12700K and the mid-range Core i5-12600K, as well as “KF” versions of each, which are technically identical with the exception of lacking integrated graphics.
Intel has kicked off the 12th Gen era with six new processors. Hopefully the 12th Gen Alder Lake lineup’s ambition can drive the kind of meaningful performance gains that previous generations often lacked, but for now here’s everything we know about the new CPUs so far. About time, too – while AMD has been stuffing the ranks of the best gaming CPUs with its Ryzen chips, previous Intel generations have been mere incremental updates.
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