Intel releases Core i9 12900KS on April 5 for 815 euros

Intel’s new top model, the Core i9 12900KS, will be available for purchase from next Tuesday, April 5. The processor manufacturer has also announced the suggested retail price: it is 739 dollars, converted and including VAT, that is 815 euros.

In the title of its press release, Intel calls the 12900KS “the fastest desktop processor in the world,” basing it on the maximum turbo clock speed of 5.5GHz. By that yardstick, those up until now have been the 11900K and 10900K, both of which had a 5.3GHz single-core turbo. If all major P cores are loaded simultaneously, the 12900KS can reach a clock speed of 5.2GHz.

Technically, the Core i9 12900KS is very similar to the existing 12900K. So it has eight fast P-cores and just as many economical E-cores, which together share 30MB of L3 cache. To accommodate the higher clock speeds, the processor base power (formerly PL1) has been increased to 150W. The max turbo power (PL2) seems to remain the same as that of the 12900K, namely 241W.

The introduction of Intel’s new 12th Gen flagship model can hardly be separated from the imminent release of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This is AMD’s first consumer processor with 3D V-Cache, which should lead to better performance, especially in games. So it will be exciting who will be able to claim the gaming performance crown; right now, Intel’s Alder Lake processors have a slight edge of a few percent at most.

After a bios update, the 12900KS will work in existing socket 1700 motherboards, with both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. As mentioned, the new processor will be on sale from next Tuesday. The reviews will also appear on that day.

The Core i9 12900KS comes in a special packaging with a plastic ‘wafer’ containing the CPU.