There has been plenty of jostling in the CPU arena at this week’s CES, with Intel and AMD laying out their plans for both desktop and mobile. Team Green reckons the upcoming Ryzen 7 5800X3D is set to become the world’s fastest gaming CPU, but Team Blue may well refute such claims.
Gregory Bryant, executive vide president and general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel, took to the stage to demo the fabled Core i9-12900KS. This top-binned limited edition chip, thought to be exclusive to OEMs in the first instance, has the ability to hit a heightened top speed of 5.5GHz, or 5.2GHz when all eight performance cores are under the cosh.
A six per cent single-boost uptick isn’t going to change the landscape dramatically – multi-core speed is up by just a fraction from 5.1GHz on the regular Core i9-12900K to 5.2GHz on the i9-12900KS – but system integrators are certain to be lining up for a chance to feature Intel’s very best part.
No details have yet been revealed on power or cooling requirements, but given the regular chip’s 241W MTP, the hastened i9-12900KS is certain to be thirsty. Whether or not the chip will be able to purchase as a standalone solution also remains to be seen, but with Intel and AMD locking horns, special edition parts touting that extra smidgen of performance could well become a regular thing.
