Intel’s 12th generation Alder Lake lineup is hungry for more power

We are all excited for the arrival of the 12^th generation Alder Lake CPUs, but I am not. Want to know the reason I am not much excited about the latest generation intel? Read below.

A couple of days ago we received the power requirement of the 12^th generation Alder Lake family and boy I am shocked. We thought that the 10^th and 11^th generations empty our laptop batteries, but the 12^th generation is going to suck them dry like a hungry battery sucking vampire.

From the sources, we know that intel’s 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake CPUs will be featuring the brand new ‘Intel 7’ process node, and is slated to be a major departure from the existing 14nm process that has been in use since Skylake. This is a much-needed update for intel since its rivals are already using the 7nm process node from TSMC. The power requirements of Intel’s Alder Lake Desktop CPUs scream only one thing and that is “I am hungry”.

According to the power requirement (PSU 12V2) requirements table, Intel Alder Lake-S CPUs will be coming in four TDP segments:

• 165W (Enthusiast)
• 125W (Unlocked)
• 65W (Mainstream)
• 35W (Low-TDP)

All segments retain the same continuous current ratings but the peak current rating has gone up by an average of 20%. More detailed numbers are provided below by Harukaze:

165W TDP CPU

• 10/11th Gen: 40A/480W
• 12th Gen: 45A/540W (+12.5%)

125W TDP CPU

• 10/11th Gen: 34A/408W
• 12th Gen: 39A/468W (+14.7%)

65W TDP CPU

• 10/11th Gen: 30A/360W
• 12th Gen: 38.5A/462W (+28.3%)

35W TDP CPU

• 10/11th Gen: 16.5A/198W
• 12th Gen: 20.5A/246W (+24.2%)

Intel Alder Lake Desktop CPUs Power Ratings

If we go with the numbers then Intel’s demand for its latest generation has increased by 50-100W but the already existing Core i9-11900K has a PL2(Tier 2) rating of 250W which is already a huge amount. So with the Alder Lake CPUs, we can expect over 250W PL2 ratings for the higher-end SKUs.

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