Intel expands range of 12th Gen Core Mobile processors

For months now, we've seen countless leaks and rumours around Intel's upcoming 12th Gen Core Mobile processors. We got a good look at some of these processors already during CES 2022, but now, Intel is launching its full stack, including the new U-series CPUs for low-power thin and light portable PCs. 

Intel first gave us a look at 12th Gen Core Mobile processors back at CES, but today marks the full launch for the full range of processors, including the new P-series and low-power 15W and 9W U-series SKUs.

At a glance, Intel's 12th Gen Core Mobile processors bring multiple improvements, starting with the new hybrid architecture, which debuted with the Alder Lake Desktop processors last year. With this new hybrid architecture, Intel has packed ‘Performance Cores' (P-Cores) and ‘Efficient Cores' (E-Cores), allowing the CPU to deliver balanced single-thread and multi-thread performance in real-world scenarios.

The jump to Alder Lake also brings support for DDR5 memory, although DDR4 is also supported. PCIe 4.0 is now present with up to 8 lanes, and there is also support for up to 16 CPU PCIe 5.0 lanes. As you would expect, there have also been improvements to integrated graphics, Optane Memory, connectivity options like WiFi 6E and new features like VNNI and GNA 3.0 to accelerate AI and deep learning workloads.

In the gallery above, you can see all of the specs for the H-series, P-series and U-series Intel 12th Gen Core Mobile processors. As we can see, at the top-end, we have the Intel Core i9-12900HK, offering 14 cores (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores), 20 threads, 24MB of L3 cache and up to 5GHz boost speeds on the P-Core. By comparison, the Core i7-12800H processor offers the same cores, threads and cache, but has a lower boost speed, capping out at 4.8GHz.

All of Intel's 12th Gen Core Mobile processors come with an iGPU based on the Xe architecture. The top processors in the H, P and U-series all come with an iGPU with 96 Execution Units, although clock speeds differ, as you can see in the spec tables. The number of Execution Units scales down to a minimum of 48 EUs for the entry-level processors in each stack.

According to Intel, we'll see up to 70% faster performance with the new P-series processors. Compared to an 11th Gen Core i7, a Core i7-1280P can render the Blender 3.0 Car Demo in 50% less time, and we can also see performance gains in other professional and productivity apps.

In terms of gaming, Intel shared a series of 1080p benchmarks at medium and high graphical settings. For esports games, you an expect solid performance from the iGPU, allowing for 60+ FPS in CS:GO, Dota 2, Rocket League etc. In addition, we see solid performance in titles like GTA V, although the iGPU does struggle with some games, as we see with Rainbow Six Siege, which only nets 47FPS in Intel's benchmark at 1080p/medium. With that in mind, enthusiast gamers are still going to want to pick up a laptop with discrete graphics to run demanding titles.

Intel 12th Gen Core Mobile processors are launching today, so expect to see a bunch of new laptop announcements over the next few weeks as companies like Dell, Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Razer and others get their hands on these new chips.

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KitGuru Says: Are any of you planning on picking up a new laptop this year? What do you think of the new Intel 12th Gen Mobile line-up? 

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