Intel confirms Alder Lake CPUs, Z690 platform launches November 4

We're in the home stretch of Intel's mammoth 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU and flagship Z690 chipset launch, with it all kicking off on October 27 (pre-orders, news) and November 4 (review NDA, official launch).

Intel will reportedly be announcing its new Alder-Lake S family of processors on October 27, 2021 @ 9AM PST, with the announcement of the Core i9-12900K, Core i9-12900KF, Core i7-12700K, Core i7-12700KF, Core i5-12600K, and Core i5-12600KF processors as well as the Z690 chipset.

The new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs and Z690-based motherboards will be made available the following week on November 4, 2021 @ 6AM PST. Reviews of the new Alder Lake CPUs and Z690-based motherboards will be allowed to go live at the same time.

The Z690 chipset is going to be a big deal, bigger than most people realize: DDR5 memory is supported, and PCIe 5.0 connectivity is included. Intel's new Z690 chipset and 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs will be the very first to market with DDR5 support, and the very first to market with PCIe 5.0 connectivity.

There's not going to be a hell of a lot of DDR5 memory available instantly, and there's no PCIe 5.0 products available, period. It's very future proof, but considering Intel is making the largest leap in a decade+ with its new Golden Cove architecture handling the Performance Cores, and the Gracemont architecture handling the Efficiency Cores, the new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs are going to be their very best yet.