** Some Tidbits on Next Generation **
With Z490 inventories drying up and Z590 not being a compelling upgrade, we can look ahead to November (around the 19th) when Intel is expected to release their 12th Generation desktop processors,
Alder Lake, and the top-end chipset,
Z690. And before saying another word, it must be mentioned that there's no guarantee either of these will work with macOS. But they are the next generation and worth examining.
A leaked image of the Z690 chipset reveals some especially interesting features:
- PCIe 5.0 (16 lanes from CPU)
- DDR5 memory support
- x8 link between CPU and chipset versus x4 today, but some questions remain on the exact meaning of x8 DMI 4.0
- 5Gbps Ethernet tied to chipset (optional feature for motherboard vendors to choose)
- WiFi 7 also known as 802.11be. Some of the benefits (source):
- Will this be available at launch using a Draft Spec? Most likely not. Z690 will start with WiFi 6E.
- Multi-band/multi-channel aggregation and operation to deliver higher spectrum and power efficiency
- Better interference mitigations
- Higher capacity density
- Higher cost efficiency
- Support up to 30Gbps throughput, roughly three times faster than Wi-Fi 6
- Support of 320 MHz transmissions, which is double the 160 MHz of 802.11ax
- Release date of WiFi 7 spec is 2024
View attachment 529863
Alder Lake CPUs:
- Hybrid design with High Performance cores (P-Cores) and High Efficiency cores (E-Cores)
- High performances P-Cores: Golden Cove architecture that is an update to:
- Sunny Cove (Ice Lake processors)
- Willow Cove (Tiger Lake processors)
- Cypress Cove (Rocket Lake processors)
- High efficiency E-Cores: Gracemont architecture based on Intel Atom
- Configurations:
- Alder Lake-S: Desktop PCs
- Alder Lake-P: High-performance notebooks
- Alder Lake-M: Low-power devices
- Alder Lake-S Desktop Processor Configurations:
Model |
P-Cores |
E-Cores |
Physical Cores |
Total Threads |
i9-12900K |
8 |
8 |
16 |
24 (P-Cores x 2 + E-Cores) |
i7-12700K |
8 |
4 |
12 |
20 (P-Cores x 2 + E-Cores) |
i5-12600K |
6 |
4 |
10 |
16 (P-Cores x 2 + E-Cores) |