Intel is looking to make waves in the CPU market on November 19th with its 12 Gen Alder Lake CPU line, which has been dominated by AMD’s Ryzen line for the last few years. We know Windows 11 is going to take advantage of its high-performance cores and new Z690 motherboard chipset. Find out where to buy and preorder Z690 motherboards here.
These will also be the first CPUs to take full advantage of DDR5, which Corsair has announced their newest line of RAM sticks with DDR5 on board to coincide with Alder Lake.
When do Intel 12th Gen series release date and preorders start?
According to an early listing from Micro Center that has now been removed, spotted by The Verge, it looks like the i9 SKU will go on sale on November 4th, with preorders likely starting today or tomorrow to coincide with the Intel Innovation digital event. Our bets are all on preorders going live after CEO Pat Gelsinger’s keynote today at 9 AM Pacific, all the details for the event can be found here.
Intel 12th Gen CPU specifications, features, and cost
Here are the base specifications for the main three Alder Lake SKUs alongside our pricing predictions based on previous-gen and competitor pricing. Other than this, specifications are merely speculative:
| Intel Core i5-12600K | Intel Core i7-12700K | Intel Core i9-12900K | |
| Base Clock | 3.7 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 3.2 GHz |
| Max Boost | 4.9 GHz | 5 GHz | 5.3 GHz |
| Cache | 16 MB L3 | 25 MB L3 | 30 MB L3 |
| Cores/Threads | 10/16 | 12/20 | 16/24 |
| Expected Cost | $300 | $400-$500 | $600-$700 |
Whilst Alder Lake CPUs will be the first to support DDR5 and PCIe 5, they’ll also be backward compatible with DDR4 and PCIe 4. Of course, grabbing a PCIe 5 compatible SSD and DDR5 RAM to go alongside your Alder Lake CPU would be ideal as you’ll be getting the best performance from such a build, but we know that’s not always practical. One thing is for sure, the Intel Core i9-12900K is looking like a strong competitor against AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X thanks to its 16 cores and 24 threads.
Where to buy 12th gen Intel CPUs
Here’s a handy table of links for major US and UK online retailers to help you secure a preorder and purchase of the Alder Lake Intel CPU range:
| i5 Alder Lake CPU | i5-12600K | i5-12600KF |
| Amazon.com | Link | Link |
| Scan.co.uk | Link | Link |
| Ebuyer.com | Link | Link |
| Novatech.co.uk | Link | Link |
| i7 Alder Lake CPU | i7-12700K | i7-12700KF |
| Amazon.com | Link | Link |
| Scan.co.uk | Link | Link |
| Ebuyer.com | Link | Link |
| Novatech.co.uk | Link | Link |
| i9 Alder Lake CPU | i9-12900K | i9-12900KF |
| Amazon.com | Link | Link |
| Scan.co.uk | Link | Link |
| Ebuyer.com | Link | Link |
| Novatech.co.uk | Link | Link |
We’ll be keeping you updated on all things Intel Alder Lake CPUs via our News and CPU hubs, make sure to check them out and bookmark them.
