Intel has officially announced a new 12th-gen desktop CPU that’s capable of boosting to 5.5GHz on a single core out of the box. This was unveiled during Intel’s CES 2022 presentation when it said the KS-series desktop processor would be shipping later this quarter, but there was no mention of pricing.
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The new chip is called the Core i9-12900KS, and according to Tom’s Hardware, the “S’’ suffix suggests it’ll be a limited edition. As well as hitting a maximum of 5.5GHz on a single core (a 300MHz improvement over the i9-12900K), an onstage demonstration of the new CPU powering Hitman 3 showed the processor running at a sustained 5.2GHz across all its performance cores. However, there Intel never gave any details on what sort of power draw or cooling solution was needed to achieve these results.
If you are in need of this CPU it doesn’t sound like you’ll be able to buy it for your own rig anytime soon. Intel executive vice president Gregory Bryant noted only that the CPU would be shipping to “OEM customers” during the presentation suggesting that, in the immediate future, you’ll have to buy a prebuilt PC to get your hands on one of the chips. As well as this new top-of-the-line CPU, Intel also used its CES presentation to announce a range of new mainstream desktop and laptop 12th Gen CPUs.