With 'Alder Lake,' Intel is dispensing with TDP as a measure of power or thermals. All that has chanced is an increase in the iGPU frequency to 1.55 GHz from 1.30 GHz. The Intel UHD 770 iGPU is based on the same Xe LP graphics architecture as the UHD 750 found in 11th Gen 'Rocket Lake' processors, down to the same execution unit count of 32. As an unlocked K-SKU, you get the ability to easily overclock both core types, as well as the integrated graphics. 25 MB of 元 cache is shared between both the core types. That's 1.25 MB per P-core, and 2 MB for the E-core cluster. The processor features a total of 14 MB of L2 cache. The Core i7-12700K is clocked at 3.60 GHz base and 5.00 GHz max boost for the P-cores, and 2.70 GHz base with 3.80 GHz boost for the E-cores. The Intel Thread Director technology is a hardware middleware that interfaces with the operating system at a very low level and ensures the right workload distribution to the two core types. Intel has also adjusted the instruction sets available to the two core types for a high degree of ISA coherency between the two core types. The 'Gracemont' efficiency cores take up a quarter of the die area and a fraction of the power of the P-cores, but at the right clock speed are able to match the 'Skylake' core in IPC. Intel claims the 'Golden Cove' performance cores offer a massive 28% IPC gain over the 'Skylake' cores powering Intel processors for a bulk of the last decade, and 19% over the 'Cypress Cove' cores powering the 11th Gen 'Rocket Lake' processors. Built on the Intel 7 (10 nm Enhanced SuperFin) silicon fabrication node, which offers comparable transistor-density and power characteristics to 7 nm-class nodes by TSMC, the 'Alder Lake-S' silicon features up to 8 'Golden Cove' P-cores and up to 8 'Gracemont' E-cores, of which all 8 P-cores and 4 out of 8 E-cores are enabled on the i7-12700K.

HyperThreading is enabled on the P-cores, which works out to the 12-core/20-thread count. The Core i7-12700K features eight P-cores and four E-cores.

4th gen vs 6th gen i7