- Joined
- Oct 24, 2013
- Messages
- 1,251
- Motherboard
- Asus ROG Z690 Formula
- CPU
- i9-13900K
- Graphics
- RX 6900 XT
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
Completely agree with you! Alder lake processors certainly punch far above their weight in terms of price for performance.Having reached the 5th stage of grief -- acceptance -- my views on this are simple:
Now let's look at official pricing:
- Let's assume E-cores never existed in Alder Lake.
- We still get:
- 20% uplift in performance per clock (IPC)
- Ability to sustain all-core high frequencies indefinitely
- 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes from CPU
- 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes from CPU
- Up to 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes from Chipset
- Up to 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes from Chipset
- DDR4 and DDR5 memory
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 built into chipset
- x8 DMI connection between CPU and Chipset (versus x4 in previous generations)
- This translates into:
- 4 or more NVMe SSD slots
- 6 SATA ports without disabling M.2 slots
Comparison (forget about E-cores):
Motherboard prices are generally higher, but DDR4-based boards are relatively inexpensive. Gigabyte Z690 Aero G is only US$289.95.
- 6-core / 12-thread parts:
- i5-11600K was $262
- i5-12600K is $289
- Difference = 10% more
- 8-core / 16-thread mid series:
- i7-11700K was $399
- i7-12700K is $409
- Difference = 2.5% more
- 8-core / 16-thread high end:
- i9-11900K was $539
- i9-12900K is $589
- Difference = 9.3% more
So if we disable E-cores for Hackintosh, is that really such a bad thing?
We should remember that with Alder Lake we don't just get an upgraded processor, we also get a vastly upgraded chipset.
- 12600K not only beats the 5600x but also the 5800x (once a $450.00 processor at microcenter and elsewhere - if you could find it in stock).
- The 12700k trades blows with the 5900x (which is still a $520.00+ processor) and wins in gaming. The 12700k is currently $399 at microcenter with a $20.00 discount if also you buy a z690 motherboard at time of purchase.
- And the 12900k does the same to the mighty (and still expensive) 5950x.
Alder Lake is impressive.
And you’re right in that it runs macOS just fine without any major headaches, just some elbow grease needed to coax macOS to run it. And even though macOS wasn’t designed to use P + E cores on the x86 side (it does have functionality to handle hybrid ARM cores), macOS still benefits from Golden Cove’s single-threaded and multithreaded performance uplifts.
Speaking of Golden Cove, I’m hearing that Sapphire Rapids Xeons are coming in 2022 and will have possibly up to 56 Golden Cove cores. And no Gracemont. A mighty beast in its own right.