Intel is expanding its 12th-gen Alder Lake portfolio in a big way in 2022. The Alder Lake-S desktop family now has as many as 22 new SKUs including both mainstream as well as entry-level parts. The company didn't show much love to the laptop space last year with its initial Alder Lake rollout, but that's changing today with the launch of the Intel 12th-gen Core H-series processors.

The 12th-gen Intel Core H-series chips are what Intel calls the enthusiast processors for the next generation of mobile gaming machines. These 45W chips carry the all-new Core architecture that we've come to love from the Alder Lake desktop series. The new H-series chips bring next-gen feature support and best-in-class connectivity with DDR5 support, Thunderbolt 4, and more.

What's new?

Intel Alder Lake Mobile procesor family

Intel's H-series processors are designed for performance-based laptops. We've already seen the Tiger Lake H-series chips do their trick to power a ton of performance-oriented gaming and content creation workstations. For the new generation, Intel is taking things up a notch with a new custom ADL die for the H-series. The H-series processors will use the Alder Lake 6P+8E die for performance-oriented notebooks. This means the company is essentially bringing the hybrid core architecture to the laptop space too.

The Alder Lake H-series chips will have up to 14-cores -- a combination of 6P+8E cores -- working together with the help of Intel's Thread Director. The H-series now has a total of eight SKUs, starting with an 8-core unit, going all the way up to 14 cores. Here's a look at the specifications of all the new H-series chips that'll make their way into consumer notebooks in 2022:

Intel 12th Gen Core H-series processors: Specifications

Specification

Intel Core i9-12900HK

Intel Core i9-12900H

Intel Core i7-12800H

Intel Core i7-12700H

Intel Core i7-12650H

Intel Core i5-12600H

Intel Core i5-12500H

Intel Core i5-12450H

Cores

14 (6P + 8E)

14 (6P + 8E)

14 (6P + 8E)

14 (6P + 8E)

10 (6P + 4E)

12 (4P + 8E)

12 (4P + 8E)

8 (4P + 4E)

Threads

20

20

20

20

16

16

16

12

Base Frequency

2.5GHz (P-core) | 1.8GHz (E-core)

2.5GHz (P-core) | 1.8GHz (E-core)

2.4GHz (P-core) | 1.8GHz (E-core)

2.3GHz (P-core) | 1.7GHz (E-core)

2.3GHz (P-core) | 1.7GHz (E-core)

2.7GHz (P-core) | 2.0GHz (E-core)

2.5GHz (P-core) | 1.8GHz (E-core)

2.0GHz (P-core) | 1.5GHz (E-core)

Max Turbo Frequency

5.0GHz (P-core) | 3.8GHz (E-core)

5.0GHz (P-core) | 3.8GHz (E-core)

4.8GHz (P-core) | 3.7GHz (E-core)

4.7GHz (P-core) | 3.5GHz (E-core)

4.7GHz (P-core) | 3.5GHz (E-core)

4.5GHz (P-core) | 3.3GHz (E-core)

4.5GHz (P-core) | 3.3GHz (E-core)

4.4GHz (P-core) | 3.3GHz (E-core)

L3 Cache

24MB

24MB

24MB

24MB

24MB

18MB

18MB

12MB

Default TDP

45W

45W

45W

45W

45W

45W

45W

45W

Max Turbo Power

115W

115W

115W

115W

115W

95W

95W

95W

Processor Graphics

96EU

96EU

96EU

96EU

64EU

80EU

80EU

48EU

The cream of the crop, as you can see, is the Intel Core i9-12900HK --  a 14-cores, 20 threads behemoth with a maximum turbo boost frequency of 5.0GHz. It's safe to say that this particular unlocked CPU is reserved for the best and it'll compete with the high-end chips on the market including the Core i9-11900HK, AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, Apple M1 Max, and more.

According to Intel, these chips outperform the competition by a huge margin. The Core i9-12900HK is touted to be the fastest mobile processor with a performance uptick of up to 28% in gaming when compared to the Core i9-11900HK. It also appears to handily beat Apple's new M1 Max chip, which we think is one of the most powerful chips out there on the market right now.

Intel 12th-gen H-series mobile chip performance

The H-series chips are more in line with the desktop parts when it comes to the board memory support. We're looking at support for DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. DDR5 memory kits for desktops are still not readily available on the market, so it remains to be seen how things change over on the laptop space. This could perhaps be one of the best ways to experience the best of what Alder Lake has to offer with all recommended compatible parts coming together. Notably, the H-series chips also support Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 6E, and more.

We'll have more to talk about these new chips as more laptops start to show up on the market. Intel says the H-series ramp has more than 100 designs spread across different form-factors including the Ultraportable, Thin Enthusiast, and the Halo Enthusiast notebooks.