Intel's launch plans seem to have been laid bare by a leaked slide. Tech site WCCF Tech has shared a slide image snippet that appears to confirm the following; the enthusiast SKUs that will be launched, the platform, the pre-order/news/ad embargo date, and the review/sales embargo date.
It is good to get 'confirmation' of the product launch lineup, but it tallies closely to leaks and rumours that have been around for quite some time. In essence, we are going to shortly see an Intel presentation that unveils the following:
- Core i9-12900K and 12900KF (16C/24T),
- Core i7-12700K and 12700KF (12C/20T),
- Core i5-12600K and 12600KF (10C/16T),
- Intel Z690 chipset with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support
On 27th October, next Wednesday, at 9am PT (5pm UK time, BST), these processors and the first socket LGA1700 processor platform will be detailed by official Intel news, and we should get all the background materials to share too. Since there will be pre-orders, we should get a handle on the all-important pricing strategy for the first Alder Lake processors to market. Simultaneously, one would expect Intel's motherboard partners like Asus, Gigabyte and MSI to showcase their enthusiast Z690 motherboard designs. We will start to see ads for these products from this late October date, too.
Sadly, the reviews can't go live until sales of the processors begin, according to this leaked document. There is a full week between soft launch and hard launch, and it is a shame that this leak indicates enthusiasts, at whom these processors are aimed, cannot read the independent third-party reviews such as those published by HEXUS until 4th Nov at 6am PT (1pm UK time, GMT). Such a delay typically means that a comprehensive but suspicious review from a lesser known tech site will leak during the gap.
DDR5 memory kit and LGA1700 compatible cooler launches are coming thick and fast right now. Intel's lower rung and locked Alder Lake-S SKUs are expected to debut in early 2022, alongside mainstream motherboards/chipsets like B660, H670, and H610.
