Intel’s 12th generation Alder Lake CPU lineup has been off to a decent start, with the Core i9-12900K and five other SKUs spearheading the charge. Now, it seems that the chipmaker may be getting ready for yet another event in January 2022: the launch of the “non-K” variants of the latest generation of CPUs.
According to a cryptic message posted by prominent leakster 188号 (@momomo_us) on Twitter, Intel could be preparing to launch at least seven more desktop SKUs under Alder Lake. Specifically, the SKUs may include a Core i9-12900 (F), Core i7-12700 (F), Core i5-12600, Core i5-12500, Core i5-12400 (F), Core i3-12300, and Core i3-12100. Like its overclock-ready siblings, the “F” moniker in some of the CPUs denotes a lack of an integrated GPU.
While the higher-tier, non-K Core i9 and i7 processors are similar to their K counterparts – they carry the same number of cores but have slightly lower clocks – the non-K Core i5 CPUs listed by TPU seems to differ from their “K” counterparts rather substantially. Whereas the silicon of the Core i5-12600K possesses six Golden Cove cores (P-Cores) and four Gracemont cores (E-Cores), the non-K variant of the CPU will just house six Golden Cove cores and zero Gracemont cores, meaning that the CPUs are based on the H0 silicon. This trend continues with the rest of the CPUs at the bottom of the list.
On that note, this is the first time that 12th generation Core i3 CPUs are mentioned. To that end, it seems that there will be a total of two Core i3 processors: the 12300 and 12100, although it is unclear if Intel will also release “F” variants of the two entry-level CPUs. On top of that, there is another rumour suggesting that the 12300 and 12100 could get 12MB of L3 Cache, and up to four P-Cores and no E-Cores. On top of that, there is a very high likelihood that these entry-level CPUs may also ship out without support for the more up-to-date I/Os, including PCIe Gen5 PEG, although it may support DDR5.
