If past experience is any indication, Intel’s 12th-generation Core CPUs for laptops, codenamed Alder Lake-P for mainstream notebooks and Alder Lake-U for ultraportables and tablets, went on sale today.
If you’re going to buy a notebook computer, you’re going to get one with one of these new Intel processors inside. With the launch of the Alder Lake-P and Alder Lake-U series in January, Intel revealed its 2022 notebook CPU ambitions. We already have our first review of the 12th-generation Core i9-12900HK, a fire-breathing, gaming-class processor that annihilated the (previous) laptop competition because of the manner Intel releases new processors.
However, a gaming laptop is less likely to be purchased in 2022 than a more mainstream gadget. With these new P- and U-series CPUs, Intel expects more than 250 distinct laptop models to be equipped with these new chips. Although we don’t have a new P-series or U-series notebook in for testing, we’ve listed the new CPUs’ specifications, features, and projected performance below.
Introducing Intel’s new Alder Lake-P chips: mainstream performance.
Intel’s new Alder Lake-P chips What is it’s mainstream performance
Keep in mind that the Alder Lake-P series CPUs from Intel create a brand new product category. Intel’s P CPU is referred to be “performance thin and light,” which suggests that this will be the company’s mainline laptop. For those who prefer a thinner, more powerful machine without having to sacrifice portability, this processor is already being used in some business laptops. The P-series chips draw 28 watts of current.
As Intel senior director of mobile product marketing Dan Rogers explained, PC makers have previously been able to push power consumption and performance up to 28 watts with Intel’s existing chips, but they weren’t taking advantage of it. For clients and consumers alike, carving out the new P brand meant they could expect better performance, he said.
With up to six performance cores and eight efficiency cores, Intel’s Alder Lake-P CPUs can handle up to twenty threads. (Alder Lake’s new P-Cores and E-Cores are explained in this explainer.) The Core i3 processor’s performance or P-cores will clock in at 1.5GHz, with the possibility of a 4.4GHz turbo. The basic clock speed of the performance cores will rise from 1.8GHz to a maximum turbo clock speed of 4.8GHz at the high end.
According to Rogers, Intel’s Alder Lake-P series processors are aimed at enthusiasts, but they lack some of the features found in a high-end PC powered by Alder Lake-H chips. Intel’s P-series processors, for example, do not have an x8 PCI Express connection to a discrete GPU because they were not built for this purpose. For storage, the Alder Lake-P has two x4 PCI Express ports for up to two SSDs. Additionally, two Thunderbolt 4 ports are available for use with docks or external monitors that require Thunderbolt 4 connectivity.
In Rogers’ estimation, the great majority of P-series systems will be equipped with built-in graphics. It’s possible that discrete GPUs may ship, but they won’t be as prevalent as they once were, according to Rogers.
How Intel’s U-Series is optimized for low power
Alder Lake P-series notebooks will feature an integrated Xe graphics core that is akin to Intel’s 11th-generation integrated GPUs: up to 96EUs, with support for four 4K displays. According to the chart above, the Core i3, i5, and i7 Alder Lake-P processors all have different graphics capabilities compared to one other. There will be a drop in graphics performance if the number of EU cores falls.
Although you may see some P-series PCs with a discrete GPU installed, Intel’s 12th-generation Core (Alder Lake) P-series CPUs are not especially built for discrete GPUs. Source: Intel
DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267 are all supported by the new Alder Lake P-series, which is also available in Intel’s desktop version of Alder Lake and its mobile H-series CPUs. If you ever need to change your laptop, this will give you a little more leeway.
The IMX488, an Intel image chip you may see in some laptops, is also known as the Intel IPU 6.0 by Intel. However, Intel promises superior webcam performance, even if it doesn’t appear on the list of specifications. When it comes to Intel’s premium Evo brand, it still recommends a 720p webcam, because some laptop bezels don’t have room for 1080p camera modules. As an added bonus, your Zoom call won’t be interrupted by the vacuuming of your roommate thanks to a new intelligent audio noise suppression feature from Intel.
There are no 11th-generation P series CPUs from which to conduct generational-to-generation comparisons, hence Intel is making the claim that it can’t do so. There are two different benchmarks, one for common productivity programmes and the other for more broad gaming scenarios, published by Intel. According to Intel, although at lower settings, you’ll be able to play numerous games utilising the chip’s integrated graphics.
As measured by Intel in two popular application benchmarks, the performance of Intel’s 12th-generation Core (Alder Lake) CPUs.
Low-power Intel U-Series processors
The Alder Lake U-series CPUs from Intel are available in either a 15 watt or 9 watt version. Now that these processors are being used in ultralight laptops and Windows tablets, Intel may have used the term “Y-series” in the past. Although Microsoft is expected to include them in its Surface tablets, it’s not clear if they’ll be part of the larger, more expensive line of Surface Pro tablets or the smaller, less expensive Surface Go line. 9W chips are also intended for future foldable PCs, which have so far remained a mystery. In this case, though, it’s the lengthy battery life that’s more important than the actual performance.
Although the number of cores is the same across the U-series line: two performance cores and between four and eight efficiency cores, performance will be affected when the same processor is designed for two different types of devices. A Core i3 processor with a base P-core frequency of 1.2GHz and a turbo frequency of 4.8GHz will be included in a thicker, more feature-rich laptop equipped with an Alder Lake-U series CPU. The two performance cores of the U-series Core i7-1265U run at 1.8GHz in base mode and 4.8GHz in turbo mode. Because of the lower clock rates and reduced power, the graphics performance will be similar to the P-series processors in terms of EU count.
These processors can also be found in 15W or 9W variants, reducing the core count to save on costs but sacrificing performance.