Intel overexcites its Core i9-12900KS: 5.5 GHz peak frequency – Frandroid

Once is not custom, Intel and AMD pull the plug on the maximum performance offered by their best processors. After being briefly beaten on certain benchmarks by the new Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Intel drew a new lethal weapon during its conference at CES: a Core i9-12900KS capable of reaching very high frequencies.

The “classic” Intel Core i9-12900K, under Alder Lake architecture // Source: Intel

Always higher, always further in the rise in frequency … even if it means increasing consumption and forcing us to constantly increase our food needs. These days, this is a bit the motto of processor manufacturers on certain high-end references.

A few hours after that Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, announced at CES As the new Ryzen 7 5800X3D would be able to beat Intel’s big Core i9-12900K on some benchmarks, Intel felt compelled to change it. Tuesday, during his own conference at CES 2022, the American giant has announced that its Core i9-12900KS (“S” for “Special Edition”) is for its part capable of increasing to 5.5 GHz in maximum frequency on a core … while maintaining the cap of 5.2 GHz across all of its high performance cores. A small feat out of the factory.

Intel wants to stay ahead of the game

Remember that this is not the first time that Intel has adopted this strategy of launching a special and overclocked version of its best consumer Core i9. In 2019, the firm had for example marketed the Core i9-9900KS which for its part rose to a maximum of 5.0 GHz on all of its cores. A frequency that the “classic” Core i9-9900K could only achieve on a single core.

Source: Intel via Tom’s Hardware

Note on the other hand that the hybrid nature of the Alder Lake architecture only makes it possible to climb to 5.2 GHz on the eight high performance “P” cores of the Core i9-12900KS. During Intel’s demo, the chip’s low-power “E” cores simply climbed to 4.0 GHz. Another downside: Intel does not yet give details on the consumption of this chip or on the dissipation system required to allow it to maintain these maximum frequencies over time. The price of this special edition of the Core i9-12900K is also unknown.

What we do know, however, is that it will be a priori impossible to get your hands on this Core i9-12900KS, individually, as an average consumer. Intel plans to market it at the end of the first quarter, but in limited quantities (not surprisingly for a CPU resulting from a rigorous selection linked to Intel’s “chip binning”), and only to OEMs. In other words, this new overclocked processor should be mostly accessible on pre-assembled PCs. Its launch to traditional resellers is therefore not at all guaranteed.

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