When Intel launched its 12th Generation Core family of processors late last year, it was only a small set of overclockable parts for desktops that came to market. Featuring Intel's new hybrid core design, the hardware proved competitive and cost effective, making it an interesting time. However, the main battle for volume sales is typically in the mid-range and notebook segments which power millions of devices, and Intel is launching these processors today.

These include the 35 W and 65 W desktop processors, new desktop coolers, and a handful of 45W+ laptop offerings for the creator and gaming markets. These parts make up the bulk of Intel's sales.

Intel usually releases anywhere from 10 to 50+ new desktop processors to fill in the markets where needed. These processors usually come from anything up to four base physical designs, and parts of those chips are disabled depending on yield or market demand.

For Alder Lake, Intel is launching 22 new desktop processors, from $42 dual core Celerons at 35W all the way up to $489 Core i9-12900 parts. The Core names mean:

Core i9: 8 Performance Cores + 8 Efficiency Cores
Core i7: 8 Performance Cores + 4 Efficiency Cores
Core i5: Either 6P+4E, or 6P only
Core i3: 4 Performance Cores only
Pentium: 2 Performance Cores only
Celeron: 2 Performance Cores only

Only a select few have efficiency cores because Intel is using two base physical designs for this hardware: either a large 8P+8E chip or a smaller 6P only chip. The smaller chip makes the economics of the lower core count processors better, however, it means that the hybrid CPU, will be limited to the high-end hardware only.