The (*7*) Core i9-12900KS is already in the hands of a customer of the service, according to a new report, which is supposed to launch very soon.
Tom's Hardware has warned that French tech site Overclocking.com received images of a 12900KS purchased from a reader, Daginatsuko. The photographs seem genuine -although one must be careful with such a leak, of course- and show the box, the chip itself and the gold plate (which accompanies the 12900K).
The box is labeled "Singular Edition", which notes that it is the "KS" variation, which is twelve thousand nine hundred K higher (subtly better performance), and is a darker blue color compared to the processor box. Alder Lake's existing badge.
The alleged 12900KS owner also gives a screenshot of the CPU overclocking (using the Asus tuning utility, on a computer with a ROG Strix Z690-F motherboard), showing an increase of each and every one of the cores of five with two GHz and a single maximum. Five point five GHz base boost (which matches what we saw with the (*7*) reveal of this processor entering CES XNUMX, when the chip was tested with Hitman XNUMX).
Analysis: A precautionary strike in the battle against AMD?
Sounds like a real leak, and indeed, it's plausible that the processor is already here, as we've seen retailers take the plunge and "accidentally" (or fail) sell hardware immediately before the official release date, and that we know the Core i9-12900KS from (*7*) is imminent anyway (expected already before the end of March, therefore within the next couple of weeks). In fact, we've already seen leaked online retailer listings for this processor as well.
Also, it makes sense that (*7*) would want this revamped flagship from Alder Lake to be free immediately, since we now know that AMD will launch its new Ryzen 7 5800X3D on April 3th. In the first Team Red reveal yesterday, the new 12900D V-Cache processor was proven to outperform the 1080K in a number of XNUMXp games, even though AMD simply claimed its chip was faster, instead to provide fine details in terms of actual performance. benchmarks and frame rates.
(*7*) will want ammo to counter the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, naturally, and if it does break out this month, the Core i9-12900KS is going to be a precautionary attack. However, the precise efficiency of Alder Lake's new best canid depends more on cost.
The fact is that the 12900K is already considerably more expensive than the 5800X3D; at least when the recommended costs are equated, the (*7*) processor is about thirty percent more expensive (according to US cost labels).
It's a remarkable piece and naturally the "KS" is going to be a bit more expensive than that, no doubt. It's a rare edition, after all, and while the 9900KS, (*7*'s) latest of this genre's bestie, didn't really raise the cost, it did raise things quite a bit, and in those days of silicon scarcity, we can't imagine that Team Blue won. Do not attach a little more premium.
The result is that the 5800X3D could theoretically compete with the 12900KS in terms of value proposition. But there are other considerations here, most obviously the availability of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and how AMD could cope with demand if it turns out to be a convenient purchase as expected, and the specters of speculation and inflationary costs, of course.
As always and at all times, it's all about waiting and seeing how this next high-profile battle plays out on the real planet as the respective CPUs hit the shelves (or even disappear from the shelves in the blink of an eye). and close your eyes). However, it looks like (*7*) could beat AMD by a long shot in terms of time to launch if this first sighting of the 12900KS in the wild truly signals that the Alder Lake Special Edition chip is about to be released.