The Intel Core i9-12900 is a desktop processor with 16 cores, launched in January 2022, at an MSRP of $519. It is part of the Core i9 lineup, using the Alder Lake-S architecture with Socket 1700. Intel Hyper-Threading technology is available and effectly doubles the core-count of the P-Cores, to a total of 24 threads. Core i9-12900 has 30 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2.4 GHz by default, but can boost up to 5.1 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Core i9-12900 on a 10 nm production process, the transistor count is unknown. You may freely adjust the unlocked multiplier on Core i9-12900, which simplifies overclocking greatly, as you can easily dial in any overclocking frequency.
With a TDP of 65 W, the Core i9-12900 consumes typical power levels for a modern PC. Intel's processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory with a dual-channel interface. For communication with other components in the computer, Core i9-12900 uses a PCI-Express Gen 5 connection. This processor features the UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics solution.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i9-12900, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) will run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel has added support for the newer AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions, too.