One of the new things from Intel at CES 2022 was the new members of the Intel Core 12 family, where they hit all ranges in the market and therefore complemented the whole family. Well, we will have to update the BIOS to use the i9-12900KS on our PC with an Intel 600 chipset. The reasons? A new overclocking mechanism to achieve the 5.5 GHz.
One of the novelties in the coming months in terms of processors in the Intel Core 12 family will be the i9-12900KS, which will become the most powerful processor in the Alder Lake-S architecture once on the market. However, this processor adds a series of changes that require an update of the firmware of the various cards in the 600 series.
BIOS update for i9-12900KS
ASRock has already released a BIOS / UEFI update for its motherboards with Intel 600 chipset (Z690, H670, B660 and H610) to support the i9-12900KS, capable of reaching a clock speed of 5.5 GHz. In principle, this would be the same as incorporating the ID of the new processor, however, this is necessary to enable support for the technology. Improved thermal speed increase. We still do not know how it works since Intel has not provided information. Everything indicates that it would be an improved version of its Thermal Velocity Boost which increases the clock speed if there is a temperature margin for it.
At the moment, and in the case of ASRock in particular, they have already enabled support for the new processor on some of their motherboards such as Z690 Taichi, Z690 Steel Legend Wi-Fi 6E, B660M-HDV and the H610M-HDV / M. 2. Although the rest of the manufacturers will soon release the BIOS update for the i9-12900KS for their motherboards. Either way, considering that we’re dealing with a limited edition, high-power CPU, we don’t think it’s a good idea to install it on a motherboard with an H610 chipset, especially if the ‘we take into account the number of phases and their quality in this type of plates and the TPB of the i9-12900KS.
Will we see any KS models from the rest of the Core 12 lineup?
The new overclocking technology that the i9-12900KS will use depends on the cooling quality of the CPU, so this means that if you are interested in mounting a PC around the i9-12900KS then you have to consider the system. CPU cooling. Since this will make a significant difference in the clock speeds that can be achieved and, therefore, affect the final performance of the applications.
The fact that Intel’s ETVB technology requires a simple BIOS update means that hardware support is already available on motherboards and most likely on processors. So this may make us think that it would be possible for us to see not only an i9-12900KS, but potentially an i7-12700KS and an i5-12600KS. Although if we take a look at the specs of the i7-12700K for example, we can see that it is only an i9-12900K capable of achieving lower clock speeds.
So technically the i7-12700KS is the current i9-12900K (and i9-12900KF) and Intel would have introduced both at the same time. So we assume that other than if it is an exclusive model for specific markets or for assemblers, the Intel Core 12 family is already closed and right now they are looking in the direction of Rapaces Lake.
