Core i9-12900KS: Dealer names prices

A first retailer has given prices and delivery times for the Core i9-12900KS. The rumors seem to be true in general, also in terms of technical data.

Once again, it is the dealers who are the first to name the prices and availability of hardware. In the case of the Core i9-12900KS, there is not much officially from Intel so far. The rumor mill does that and now a shop that has listed the CPU. The 5.5 GHz boost is confirmed there, as is the 150-watt TDP. The two variants offered are offered for sale for 781 and 792 US dollars. That's about what the rumor mill was expecting. Factoring in an "Early Bird" premium, the retailer's nearly $800 is well within the range of what's realistic. A good comparison would also be the Core i9-9900KS, which Intel sold for $525 MSRP - that's actually less than what's being asked for the Core i9-12900K, which has an MSRP of $599.

The dealer also states a delivery in three weeks for one variant and the beginning of March for the other variant. It remains unclear what the second model variant exactly is. The part number is different, but not the specifications. At the moment, the assumption is that it is OEM goods. Who remembers: There were rumors that the Core i9-12900KS should only go to OEM partners. Intel then changed its mind and also planned a retail version.

With that, everything relevant to the Core i9-12900KS would have gradually leaked out: You get a 3.4/5.5 GHz clock with a 5.2 GHz all-core boost. That's 200 or 300 MHz more than the standard model. The PL1 (PBP) should be 150 watts, the PL2 (MTP) 260 watts. There are apparently no changes to the E-Cores. The CPU is supposed to compete against the Ryzen 7 5800X with a 3D cache.

In other news, the rumor mongers now agree that the Radeon refresh does not include the RX 6850 XT. No reasons are given explicitly, but they could be related to what drives the refresh.

At AMD, one of the hot topics in the rumor mill is the Radeon refresh. Three of the usual suspects now agree that the AMD Radeon RX 6850 XT is not coming after all and is excluded from the refresh. At least for now. At first, it was thought that the Radeon RX 6800 XT would also be relaunched, but they have now refrained from doing so.

Accordingly, the Radeon RX 6950/XT (Navi 21), the Radeon RX 6750/XT (Navi 22), and the Radeon RX 6650/XT (Navi 23) remained for the refresh. The Radeon RX 6500/XT (Navi 24) should generally not get an update, but it has only just been released and already has 18 GB/s fast memory. That is supposedly the main reason why AMD is planning the refreshes at all. This does not necessarily have to be for performance reasons, but can also be due to the availability of the 16 GB/s modules used so far.