The Intel Core i7-12700K is a desktop processor with 12 cores, launched in November 2021, at an MSRP of $409. It is part of the Core i7 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 20 threads. Core i7-12700K has 25 MB of L3 cache and operates at 3.6 GHz by default, but can boost up to 5 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is building the Core i7-12700K on a 10 nm production process, the transistor count is unknown. You may freely adjust the unlocked multiplier on Core i7-12700K, which simplifies overclocking greatly, as you can easily dial in any overclocking frequency.
With a TDP of 125 W, the Core i7-12700K consumes a lot of power, so good cooling is definitely needed. Intel's processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory with a dual-channel interface. For communication with other components in the machine, Core i7-12700K uses a PCI-Express Gen 4 connection. This processor features the UHD Graphics 770 integrated graphics solution.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i7-12700K, 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 is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.