Intel Alder Lake i9 12900K CPUs are being sold for over $1000

At the time of writing, Intel has released very few details regarding the next generation of their CPUs.  Despite Intel's coyness, a leaked production batch of the upcoming Alder Lake i9 12900K is already being sold on the Chinese Black Market.

Reported by Tom's Hardware, the unannounced Intel CPU is spreading through China. However, the leaked qualification samples are currently being sold at a massive price hike for those wishing to grab one.

Alder Lake i9 12900K sold on Black Market

Hardware blogger YuuKi_AnS revealed that Chinese merchants are currently selling test batches of Intel's upcoming CPU. The processors are being sold at a high price; merchants are currently asking between $1,064.95 and $1,157.55.

The initial secret seller who acquired the Alder Lake i9 12900K samples is limiting purchases to the chip. Those attempting to buy the hardware must buy in bulk at 100 units minimum. Hilariously, those who manage to get ahold of a single chip won't be able to use them, unless they can also acquire a LGA1700 compatible motherboard as well.

At the time of writing, there's no motherboard on the market that is compatible with the unreleased chip. However, I guess there's some cool factor in being the first to nab a chip that will undoubtedly be scalped upon official release.

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What are the specs?

Even though Intel hasn’t officially revealed the Alder Lake i9 12900K, the unreleased processor’s specs are well known. The upcoming chip has 16 cores split into two equal-but-different halves: eight Golden Cove and eight Gracemont cores. Furthermore, the chip will have a sizable 30MB L3 cache pool. The chip also had a massive 5.3Ghz dual-core boost clock.

The purpose of Intel's new Alder Lake generation is to provide better power efficiency for massive power. Compared to last year’s i9-11900K, the new processor will have an 8.8% lower PL2 rating while offering around 20% higher single-threaded performance.

Intel's new processor will likely be revealed later this year. However, it’s release date is currently unknown.

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