I'm mildly interested in what work anyone is doing in Photoshop for which a 10th vs 11th gen perf boost will matter at all.
PS is generally I/O bound. Going from SATA to NVMe drive (5x–10x depending on PCI version) perf bump is a possibly a game changing upgrade for a commercial workflow that deals will tons of images. This is where Bridge (or Lightroom) users find a big boost in smoothness.
IMO if you are a PS paint artist, or amateur noodler, batch image processing hasn't been restricted by a PC for a decade.
The AL single core bump of up to 40% is worthwhile but not going to enable any job that couldn't be done before. Big changes in workflow require an order of magnitude bump greater than 2x, not an incremental bump.
4K video is still hard work, but it's multicore and compatible graphics that matters. Alder Lake's additional cores can score here. But they are at about the same perf best-case as 10980XE on x299. When RocketLake arrived, it's 20% instructions-per-clock bump was offset by 20% reduction in cores (10–8), netting a small single core increase overall. PCI4 offered a 1.5x bump in NVMe, but this also is in no way a game changer. Similar effects apply to Alder Lake vs 10980XE. Alder Lake is a lot less $ per chip, and way more board choices, but in the total system cost the premium gets absorbed, and if you are ok with board compromises, then top-rung performance is obviously not your only concern, so where does Alder Lake fit in to your total systems view?
For hackintosh users, the loss of the iGPU / Quicksync-VDA counts for 2–4 cores because while the Intel GPU is not much for gaming, for key and common multimedia workloads it is optimal — some care went into fitting it into the system design and it pulls its weight in die area. They key is the total application stack, from HW thru OS to app has to be organized to take advantage. This vertical arrangement is what Apple far does better than any other PC maker.
WinTel PC has been at the point of fiddling while Rome burns for many years. This will become obvious to everyone as Augmented / Virtual Reality scene accelerates over next 3 years, the vertical integration is key to the new way, and is where all Apple's efforts have been heading. An Office / Gaming Wintel PC is going to suddenly look very stupid when AR hits.
"Word Macros are infecting my PC 2x faster!" and "The sweat in Call of Duty has never looked so sweaty". This is how WinTel PCs are designed and marketed.
The hackintosh community is generally oblivious to this evolution due to appropriate perception that macOS and Windows are pretty much the same: a layer of GUI icing on an Intel PC.
But you don't have to look hard to see that Apple views the PC innards as just a stepping stone. One place to look for differences is XCode vs Visual Studio.
The iPhone was released 1 year after Mac went Intel (based on Jobs' Next holdings) and the iPhone has gone on to redefine Apple's business. The Mac was made to build the phone. Stuff like Final Cut and Aperture were merely proving grounds for core competencies that enable the worn device.
The phone has never been Intel, and new Macs are now built from same architecture as the phone. Look at how the phone presents its compute power and see the future, while realizing Apple has been at this for 15 years. In the same timeframe the PC has evolved the Start Menu 4 times and added "the Ribbon" to Office. Go to Dell's website and customize a PC. What you will find is actually the same thing they were selling in 2006! These days they connect a NUC and soundbar to a 55in LCD TV and add $12,000 premium for a "teleconferencing center" where an i3 iGPU does all the heavy-lifting.
It's an cranky thing to say this, but hackintoshers are generally a confused nerdy hobbiests who think they will get something for nothing by making their PC seem Mac-like. "I just feel so much more comfortable with MacOS". And this is fair because it's the best desktop design — It's how I feel! But hidden within this idea is the option that you might still care about Windows (Linus heads are truly another breed of cat — look at the Framework laptop: they're on a mission to return PC architecture to the 1990s!)
I don't mean to get far off track of perseveration over 10th gen vs 12th gen. If you are a PC hobbyest, 12th gen is where the action is. You will also find it does nothing that a 10th gen can't do. If you are a mac user who wants one last hurrah at hackintosh before the doors to Valhalla close for eternity, 10th gen is the only one with hope of something like support at Apple level. If you are a retiree or man-cave dweller who likes to fiddle (I am both) then Alder Lack hack is a fine way to stay in touch with trends. No trying to use this stuff on a commercial production schedule can be considered sane.
The future is almost here, what with Oculus-Meta, and TBA Apple AR device. When this AR stuff fully launches, it will make old PC seem very quaint. Intel's operates in hope is that somehow PCs will still be meaningful, but they've got so far off track, they might have to make do with opportunity of every headset needing a server in a farm somewhere. Microsoft are the smartest idiots in the world.
Enjoy your 50% PC. I hear these are still the wave of the future!
