Although Intel has not yet officially announced the new Core i9-12900K processor it has been sold by a retailer. This unreleased CPU will be the flagship of Intel's new Alder Lake processors. It offers a chance for Intel to regain the performance crown from AMD.
Techspot spotted a Reddit post that allowed two Core i9-12900K CPUs to be purchased in retail packaging by an unknown retailer for $610. Similar mix-ups occurred earlier in the year when Intels Rocket Lake CPUs were being sold by retailers for $610 each.
Without a new motherboard, this unreleased CPU will not work.
Reddit posted a series of photos showing the Core i9-12900K processor still unreleased in its retail packaging. This matches earlier leaks. Although the box contains a wafer ornament it does not provide any information about the processor frequency nor its core count. The Z690 motherboards are not yet available so the processor is inoperable without them. Reddit posters can't post benchmarks and any information about Core i9-12900K.
We are still waiting for Intel to reveal its flagship processor and the motherboards that support it. Several Asus Z690 motherboards were leaked earlier today without any specs or feature lists.
Rumours suggest that Intel will launch its Alder Lake desktop CPUs later in the month, along with the Core i9-12900K. Alder Lake will be powered by Intel's new hybrid architecture, which combines efficiency and performance x86 cores. Alder Lake will support DDR5, PCIe Gen 5, Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 6E.
