Intel has officially launched the 12th generation Alder Lake-HX processors for enthusiast workstations and gaming laptops. The company calls them the fastest laptop chips released to date, offering insane performance and the highest number of cores yet to appear in the laptop segment.
Intel Alder Lake-HX 12-generation Intel GPU line release: designed for high-end workstations and gaming laptops with up to 16 cores, 5GHz and PCIe 5.0
Simply put, the Intel Alder Lake-HX 12th generation processors, Alder Lake-S “Desktop” have been redesigned for the laptop segment. The new chips may not be much different from the lineup of desktops, but they bring some interesting changes over the existing SKU Alder Lake-H (45W). Intel has specifically designed these processors for mobile workstation platforms targeted at engineers, scientists and enthusiasts. To make this possible, the existing Intel Alder Lake-S “Desktop” crystal had to be scaled down to integrate into such devices with limited dimensions.
To that end, Intel has reduced the height of the 12th-generation Alder Lake-HX crystal to 2.0mm (vs. 4.4mm). This is a reduction of 2.2 times in height, and the rest of the package has the same dimensions – 45 x 37.5 mm. The die also comes in BGA form factor compared to the LGA form factor used in the desktop lineup.
12th Generation Intel Alder Lake-HX Processors: The Most Versatile Platform for Laptops!
As for opportunities, a lot is happening here. The 12th generation Intel Alder Lake-HX Mobility processors are equipped with DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200 memory support. Some laptops even allow users to equip with ECC (Error Correcting Code) memory. In terms of capacity, workstation platforms require a lot of system memory, and therefore processors allow you to store up to 128 GB of capacity in four DIMMs with 2 DIMMs per channel.
Another key upgrade over the Alder Lake-H is that the Alder Lake-HX has broader IO support, made possible by its advanced PCIe capabilities. The processors offer 16 Gen 5.0 and 4 Gen 4.0 bands. In addition to these, PCH offers 16 Generation 4 bands and 12 Generation 3 bands. In total, you get 16 Generation 5 bands, 20 Generation 4 bands and 12 Generation 3 bands, which are destructive to the laptop platform. This allows the use of a discrete graphics processor, up to 4 SSDs and up to 2 discrete Thunderbolt controllers on an upscale laptop running on these chips.
Other features include 14 USB 2.0, 10 USB 3.0, 8 SATA III ports, WiFi6E (Gig +), DFP1.4 and HDMI 2.0b, support for eDP 1.4b and DBR3. Storage capabilities also come with support for RAID 1.0 and 5. In addition to I / O, Intel Alder lake-HX processors are also fully ready to overclock CPU and memory with advanced capabilities. For the processor, Intel has updated its Speed Optimizer – an improved utility Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, and for memory overclocking laptops will have full support for XMP 3.0 and include Dynamic Memory Boost.
Overclocking memory on 12th generation Intel Alder Lake-HX processors:
- Overclocking DDR5, in addition to DDR4
- Support Intel XMP 3.0 for DDR5
- Intel’s new dynamic memory boost feature
Kernel overclocking on 12th generation Intel Alder Lake-HX processors:
- New Efficient-Core overclocking
- Updated Intel Speed Optimizer
- Improved Intel Extreme Tuning utility
Specifications of the Intel 12th generation Alder Lake-HX processor: up to 16 cores, 5 GHz clock speed, 157 W TDP
In the line of Intel Alder Lake-HX 12th generation processors are available in 7 different versions, each in its own category. There are two Core i9, three Core i7 and two Core i5 SKU. All chips have a hybrid core design based on the Golden Cove (P-Core) and Gracemont (E-Core) architectures.
Starting with the top SKU, we consider the Core i9-12950HX and the Core i9-12900HX. Both offer 16 cores and 24 threads in an 8 + 8 configuration. They have 30 MB of L3 cache, a core clock speed of 3.6 GHz and 5.0 GHz overclocking. The main difference is that the upper SKU comes in a version of vPRO, and the second has full overclocking support. Overclocking is available for each SKU, but parts of vPRO only offer partial kernel overclocking.
The Intel Core i7 line also includes two similarly tuned parts, the Core i7-12850HX and the Core i7-12800HX. They offer 16 cores and 24 threads in an 8 + 8 configuration, but have a smaller cache of 5 MB. The clock frequency is 4.8 GHz. The Core i7-12650HX offers 14 cores and 20 threads in a 6 + 8 configuration with 24 MB of cache and a clock speed of up to 4.7 GHz.
Finally, we have a Core i5 SKU that has an i5-12600HX with 12 cores, 16 threads in 4 + 8 and a Core i5-12450HX with 8 cores and 12 threads in a 4 + 4 configuration. The first has 18 MB of cache memory up to 4.6 GHz, and the second has 12 MB of L3 cache memory up to 4.4 GHz. All chips, except the Core i5-12450HX, have an iGPU of 32 EU, and the 12450HX itself has an iGPU of 16 EU. It operates with a variable clock speed for different SKUs.
One of the main differences between the Intel Alder Lake-H and Alder Lake-HX processors is the TDP. While the PL1 rating is only 10 watts higher, the PL2 or Turbo Power’s maximum power has been increased to 157 watts (vs. 115 watts), up 37%. This change applies to all SKUs and makes the Alder Lake-HX the most energy-intensive processor to date.
Intel Alder Lake-HX processor waffle:
CPU specifications for Intel Alder Lake-P laptop:
| CPU name | Kernels / threads | Base hours | Watch raising | Cash | GPU configuration | TDP | Maximum Turbo power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i9-12950HX | 8 + 8/24 | 2.3 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 30 MB | 32 EU @ 1550 MHz | 55 W. | 157 W. |
| Intel Core i9-12900HX | 8 + 8/24 | 2.3 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 30 MB | 32 EU @ 1550 MHz | 55 W. | 157 W. |
| Intel Core i9-12900HK | 6 + 8/20 | 2.5 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 24 MB | 96 EC @ 1450 MHz | 45 W. | 115 W. |
| Intel Core i9-12900H | 6 + 8/20 | 2.5 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 24 MB | 96 EC @ 1450 MHz | 45 W. | 115 W. |
| Intel Core i7-12850HX | 8 + 4/20 | 2.1 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 25 MB | 32 EU @ 1450 MHz | 55 W. | 157 W. |
| Intel Core i7-12800HX | 8 + 4/20 | 2.0 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 25 MB | 32 EU @ 1450 MHz | 55 W. | 157 W. |
| Intel Core i7-12800H | 6 + 8/20 | 2.4 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 24 MB | 96 EC @ 1400 MHz | 45 W. | 115 W. |
| Intel Core i7-12700H | 6 + 8/20 | 2.3 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 24 MB | 96 EC @ 1400 MHz | 45 W. | 115 W. |
| Intel Core i7-12650HX | 6 + 8/20 | 2.0 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 25 MB | 32 EU @ 1450 MHz | 55 W. | 157 W. |
| Intel Core i7-12650H | 6 + 4/16 | 2.3 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 24 MB | 64 EU @ 1400 MHz | 45 W. | 115 W. |
| Intel Core i5-12600HX | 6 + 4/16 | 2.5 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 20 MB | 32 EU @ 1350 MHz | 55 W. | 157 W. |
| Intel Core i5-12600H | 4 + 8/16 | 2.7 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 18 MB | 80 EU @ 1400 MHz | 45 W. | 95 W. |
| Intel Core i5-12500H | 4 + 8/16 | 2.5 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 18 MB | 80 EU @ 1300 MHz | 45 W. | 95 W. |
| Intel Core i5-12450HX | 4 + 4/12 | 2.4 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 12 MB | 16 EU @ 1300 MHz | 55 W. | 157 W. |
| Intel Core i5-12450H | 4 + 4/12 | 2.0 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 12 MB | 48 EU @ 1200 MHz | 45 W. | 95 W. |
| Intel Core i7-1280P | 6 + 8/20 | 1.8 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 24 MB | 96 EC @ 1450 MHz | 28 W. | 64 W. |
| Intel Core i7-1270P | 4 + 8/16 | 2.2 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 18 MB | 96 EC @ 1400 MHz | 28 W. | 64 W. |
| Intel Core i7-1260P | 4 + 8/16 | 2.1 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 18 MB | 96 EC @ 1400 MHz | 28 W. | 64 W. |
| Intel Core i5-1250P | 4 + 8/16 | 1.7 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 18 MB | 80 EU @ 1400 MHz | 28 W. | 64 W. |
| Intel Core i5-1240P | 4 + 8/16 | 1.7 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 12 MB | 80 EU @ 1300 MHz | 28 W. | 64 W. |
| Intel Core i3-1220P | 2 + 8/12 | 1.5 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 12 MB | 64 EU @ 1100 MHz | 28 W. | 64 W. |
Intel 12th Generation Alder Lake-HX processor tests: much faster than AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HX and Apple’s M1, but at the cost of power consumption
Intel is also sharing tests in which it not only compares the new 12th generation Alder Lake-HX processors with its predecessors and Alder Lake-H chips, but also the AMD Ryzen 6000H “Cezanne” processors and the Apple M1 Max processor.
In the benchmarks of specific processors Intel Core i9-12900HX leads by a wide margin and even shows a significant improvement in multithreading performance compared to the very powerful Intel Core i9-12900HK. Performance is measured for different content creators and applications for workstations.
Intel is also making an extra mile to show some three-digit numbers in various AAA games running on a high-end Core i9-12900HX laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti laptop and 64GB of DDR5-4800 memory, though they didn’t share in which settings these games ran .
Also, in one test where Unreal Engine 5.0 and Blender are used to demonstrate multitasking capabilities, the i9-11980HK comparative laptop ran on a 165-watt RTX 3080, and the Alder Lake-HX laptop ran on a 175-watt RTX 3080 Ti. The blue team also did not show power figures in any of these results, but it is easy to assume that the latest processors consumed more than 100 watts during each workload.
The 12th generation Intel Alder Lake-HX processors now come in a variety of laptops such as the AORUS ROG STRIX Scar 17 SE, ASUS ExpertBook B6, Dell Precision 7770/7670, MSI GT77 Titan, MSI GE77 Raider, Lenovo Legion Ao 7i, Gigabyte / 15X and HP Omen 17. Expect premium prices for these laptops for high-end workstations.
https://wccftech.com/intel-launches-12th-gen-alder-lake-hx-cpus-the-fastest-laptop-chips-yet-with-up-to-16-cores-5-ghz-16-pcie-gen-5-lanes-full-range-overclocking/
