Intel Core i9-12900KS, World’s First & Fastest 5.5 GHz Desktop CPU, To Launch on 5th April – Wccftech

Intel seems to have disclosed the launch date of the world’s first and fastest 5.5 GHz CPU, the Alder Lake Core i9-12900KS.

Intel Core i9-12900KS 5.5 GHz Alder Lake CPU, Tackling 3D V-Cache With Frequency For The Gaming Performance Crown

The Intel Core i9-12900KS is designed as a ‘Special Edition’ CPU, offering one step up over the i9-12900K. It’s a chip for the blue team to prove that they still hold the core speed crown and there are two reasons why Intel is launching this chip right now, first and the most obvious is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D which aims to show the benefits of 3D V-Cache in gaming versus frequency and the second is the 5 GHz+ Ryzen 7000 ‘Zen 4’ lineup coming later this year. With the 12900KS, Intel not only wants to offer the best chip to enthusiasts but also showcase how they are already going to achieve 5.5 GHz frequencies on a 16 core part versus Zen 4 and how frequency still matters for gaming.

Intel Core i9-12900KS Up To 15% Faster Than Core i9-12900K In 3DMark CPU Benchmarks

Both 3D V-Cache and Higher-Frequency come at a cost. One chip is non-overclockable and comes with reduced clocks while featuring a high price while the other is an enthusiast-priced chip for the LGA mainstream platform that runs hot and consumes lots of power. Intel will be building 4 PCs to showcase the benefits of 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs including the Core i9-12900KS during the ‘Intel Talking Tech’ stream on Twitch.

Join us as we build 4 PCs with industry experts and talk about the 12th Gen processor family features and its newest member!

📅 April 5, 2022
⌚ 12PM PT & 3PM ET
Tune in here: https://t.co/c2XGOm9PJC pic.twitter.com/Cs2Gl9oVQr

— Intel Technology (@IntelTech) March 26, 2022

The Intel Core i9-12900KS will retail for a $150 US higher MSRP than the Core i9-12900K & feature a 19W higher maximum turbo power limit than the standard variant. It will feature a much higher all and single-core boost clock of up to 5.5 GHz but will require lots of cooling to keep it under spec. It looks like overclockers will be eyeing for its heavily binned nature to break some world records and it will end up as the fastest clock CPU on the planet but the 12900K will remain the better option for its price and performance.

Intel Core i9-12900KS 5.5 GHz CPU Specifications

Intel Core i9-12900KS, The World’s Fastest Desktop CPU, Goes On Sale at Newegg For $799 US

The Intel Core i9-12900KS will be the flagship chip in the 12th Gen Alder Lake Desktop CPU lineup. It will feature 8 Golden Cove cores and 8 Gracemont cores for a total of 16 cores (8+8) and 24 threads (16+8).

The P-cores (Golden Cove) will operate at a maximum boost frequency of up to 5.5 GHz with 1-2 active cores and 5.2 GHz with all-cores active while the E-cores (Gracemont) will operate at 3.90 GHz across 1-4 cores and up to 3.7 GHz when all cores are loaded. The CPU will feature 30 MB of L3 cache.

The main change is that to accommodate the higher frequency, Intel has upped the base TDP by 25 Watts over the Core i9-12900K. As such, the 12900KS will feature a base TDP of 150W, and the max turbo power rating has also been bumped by 19W to 260W (vs 241W). Intel has yet to launch the chip officially but that could happen in the next couple of days & motherboard makers have also started releasing their respective support BIOS with updated microcode for the chip.

Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake Desktop CPU Specs