In brief: If the latest leaks are proven correct, people who have been planning to upgrade or build a new PC based on Intel's Alder Lake platform will have to pay a hefty price for the privilege. And that's non even accounting for scalpers, which could send retail prices into the stratosphere.

Alder Lake is poised to be the about heady family of Intel processors in recent years, afterwards several iterations that have been stuck on the same 14 nm process node as Skylake and more or less the same overall recipe. Rocket Lake was supposed to represent a central interruption from the past, just information technology didn't quite capture the interest of consumers in the mode the company wanted.

As we're getting closer to the arrival of Alder Lake's first wave, early benchmarks bespeak Intel might finally have some promising CPUs for gamers and enthusiasts. And thanks to a tiny slip-up at European and The states retailers spotted past @momomo_us, we now know what to await in terms of pricing for the new processors, as well as some new bits nigh their specifications.

Model European Price (w/ VAT) Usa Cost (w/o VAT) Cores/Threads L3 Cache Size
Core i9-12900K €736/€741 $705 16/24 30MB
Core i7-12900KF €704/€708 $674 sixteen/24 30MB
Core i7-12700K €524/€520 $495 12/20 25MB
Core i7-12700KF €492/€487 $464 12/20 25MB
Cadre i5-12600K €365/€358 $343 ten/16 16MB
Cadre i5-12600KF €333/€326 $312 10/16 16MB

The leak suggests the flagship Core i9-12900K will offer a combination of 8 Golden Cove performance cores and eight Gracemont efficiency cores at a price that's higher than the $610/€523 list price for the Cadre i9-11900K, but besides lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which is currently listed at $749/€789 on Amazon.

The aforementioned tin't be said nigh the twelfth-gen Cadre i7 and Core i5 parts. For instance, the Cadre i7-12700K will be priced college than both the Cadre i7-11700K and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. The same applies to the Core i5-12600K, which will be more expensive than the Cadre i5-11600k and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.

For people who don't demand the iGPU, Intel will have KF variants available at around $xxx/€30 cheaper. Of course, we're comparing leaked prices with actual listing prices, but information technology looks like Intel is more confident nearly its more mainstream Alder Lake CPU models. If the functioning uplift is indeed loftier enough to warrant the higher price, and then Alder Lake may seem a bargain when it launches adjacent month.

Another aspect to go on in mind is that Alder Lake CPUs can only be slotted into new motherboards equipped with an LGA 1700 socket, an additional expense for those looking to upgrade from an older platform. And if you're planning to become an early on adopter of DDR5 retention, exist prepared to pay a hefty toll for that, too. On the other paw, Noctua cooler owners tin can get a complimentary mounting kit for Alder Lake CPUs in both standard chrome and Chromax versions.