Final Intel 12th Gen Core CPU Spec and Pricing Leak Hours Before Official Reveal

For those tired of Intel leaks, please look away now, as this is likely to be one of the last leaks before the official reveal later today. The final specifications, as well as pricing for the first six of Intel’s 12th Gen Core CPUs has made an appearance online and the good news is that the official pricing isn’t as bad as we’ve been led to believe, based on earlier leaks and it’ll at least make up some of the cost increase of the Z690 motherboards over the Z590 models.

Spec wise, we’re not looking at anything unexpected here, it simply verifies what has leaked so far, with one exception, maximum turbo power. Although the base TDP of all six CPUs is 125 W, it seems like Intel is using the maximum turbo power as yet another product differentiator, at least more so than it has previously. The Core i9 CPUs get a maximum turbo power of 241 W, whereas the Core i7’s top out at 190 W and the Core i5’s at 150 W. At least Intel is being open about it and the question is if it will have any affect on overclocking or not. Obviously having fewer CPUs cores would result in a lower power draw overall, but then the question is why the Core i5’s have a base TDP of 125 W.

Price wise, the new Core i9-12900K has a 1K list price of US$589, some $80 cheaper than the leaked pricing from Micro Center, but still about $40-50 more expensive than the 11th Gen Core i9-11900K. The KF SKU is $15 cheaper at US$564, which is a smaller margin than between the 11th Gen K and KF SKUs. Moving down a step to the Core i7 CPUs, the 12700K is listed at US$409, with the KF SKU coming in at US$384, which is in line with the 11th Gen Core i7 parts. Finally the Core i5-12600K is listed at US$289, with the KF SKU at US$264, which is about $15-25 higher than the 11th Gen Core i5 equivalents.

Overall it seems like fair pricing, if Intel delivers in terms of performance and based on some Intel game benchmarks, it looks like the 11th Gen CPUs are going to be outperformed quite easily, whereas it looks like AMD might still hold its own in some titles. We’ll have to wait for official reviews next week before we can say if this will hold true or not.