Intel Corp. today debuted the next major iteration of its central processing unit line for desktops, the 12th Generation Core series, which is launching with an initial roster of six chips made using the Intel 7 manufacturing process.

Intel 7 is an enhanced version of the company’s 10-nanometer process. The six initial chips are headlined by the Core i9-12900K, Intel’s new flagship desktop CPU, which is aimed primarily at video game enthusiasts and users who work with computationally intensive software such as creative applications.

Intel is touting the Core i9-12900K as the “world’s best gaming processor.” For creative application users, the company is promising an up to twofold speedup in certain content creation tasks. Intel says the chip has been shown to outperform Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s Ryzen 5950X in some cases during internal benchmark tests. 

The Core i9-12900K features 16 cores that can run a total of 24 thread. In a departure from previous-generation Intel chips, the CPU’s 16 cores are not based on a single architecture but rather two.

Eight of the cores feature a performance-optimized architecture that allows them to operate at a default frequency of 3.2 GHz. They can boost their speed to as much as 5.1 GHz when running demanding applications. The CPU’s other eight cores, meanwhile, are based on an efficiency-optimized design that trades off some performance for lower power consumption. The efficiency cores have a 2.4 GHz base frequency that goes up 3.9 GHz when needed.

One performance core is reportedly about the size of four efficiency cores. Each performance core has its own cache for storing the data it processes, as does every set of four efficiency cores in a chip. The Core i9-12900K additionally includes a larger, shared cache that can be used by all the onboard cores.  

While running applications that are particularly processor-intensive, some of the performance-optimized cores can slightly surpass the 5.1 GHz default top speed and run at 5.2 GHz. For added measure, Intel has included overclocking support, which allows tech-savvy users to increase performance even further. Overclocking is the practice of increasing a chip’s clock rate above the speed recommended by the manufacturer, a task that often requires installing additional cooling equipment in a desktop.

“The performance hybrid architecture of 12th Gen Intel Core processors is an architectural shift made possible by close co-engineering of software and hardware that will deliver new levels of leadership performance for generations,” said Gregory Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Client Computing Group.

The five other chips in the 12th Generation Core series feature overclocking support as well. The capability is one of several features shared across the entire lineup of CPUs that Intel debuted today.

All six 12th Generation Core chips feature support for PCIe 5.0, a new version of the technology that processors use to exchange data with the other components of a personal computer. The speed at which data can travel between components directly influences a PC’s overall performance. The PCIe 5.0 standard offers double the bandwidth of the PCIe 4.0 technology that is used in current desktops, which could help provide an additional boost alongside the speedup delivered by the enhanced design of Intel’s new chips.

Support for DDR5 random-access memory is another feature that should give desktop applications a boost. DDR5 is a new type of RAM that, similarly to PCIe 5.0, brings significant performance improvements. The technology makes it possible to develop RAM chips that offer double the speed of the previous-generation DDR4 modules used in PCs today. It’s believed that performance could potentially be increased even more in the future.

Integrated software

Alongside CPUs and other processors, Intel provides an extensive array of software tools that developers can use to optimize their applications for the company’s chips. Those software tools were also on the agenda at Intel Innovation 2021, the virtual event where the company debuted its new desktop CPUs today.

Intel is bringing together its various software tools in a new offering called the Intel Developer Catalog. The Intel Developer Catalog includes an improved version of DevCloud, a cloud service that provides developers with on-demand Intel access to chips they can use to their software. There are also code samples and reference designs.

Alongside DevCloud, the Intel Developer Catalog includes the company’s OpenVINO framework for optimizing artificial intelligence models. Another, perhaps even more important component of the platform is the oneAPI toolkit. 

According to Intel, oneAPI is aimed at software teams building applications that run on multiple types of processors. Normally, optimizing an application for different chips requires an extensive understanding of each processor’s architecture, but with oneAPI, some of the complexity is abstracted. The result is that applications can be developed faster.  

Intel announced updates for oneAPI as well at its event today. The next version of the toolkit will ship with new features aimed at simplifying the development of applications that use both CPUs and graphics processing units. New monitoring tools will enable software teams to more easily measure their applications’ performance and find areas for improvement.

Both the oneAPI enhancements and the new 12th Generation Core chips are set to release this quarter. The chips can be preordered starting today, with availability planned starting on Nov. 4. 

Image: Intel