24 PCWorld JUNE 2022NEWS INTEL CORE HX LAPTOPS
Intel’s F-series processors, none of the HX
processors includes integrated graphics.
All of the 12th-gen Core HX family is
unlocked for overclocking, including memory
(DDR4 and DDR5) overclocking, though
some of the processor models come with
their own restrictions.
“We can have absolute high frequencies
for the best possible performance and the
desktop form factor,” Rogers said in a pre-
recorded presentation. “And then we take the
same CPU layout, but we optimize that both
on the process and on the design side to
deliver mobile class efficiency and
performance together.”
Interestingly, Intel didn’t ship the “all
performance core” chip that some were
expecting. But Nick Blair, part of Intel’s
enthusiast laptop innovation team, said that
the company had worked with developers
like Creative Assembly to optimize games likeTotal War:
Warhammer III to
use both the
performance cores
and the efficiency
cores at the
same time.
The HX
platform preserves
the advanced
features of the
Alder Lake
platform,
including the x8 DMI data connection
between the CPU and Platform Control Hub,
as well as the 16 lanes of PCI Express 5 (plus
four lanes of PCI Express 4) off the CPU. An
additional x16 PCIe4 and x12 PCIe3
connection hangs off the PCH. That’s
somewhat different from Intel’s Core
i9-12900HK chip (fave.co/3IjREg4), which
did not include PCIe 5 support—though
Intel executives said the 12900HK was
PCIe5 compliant. There are two other
interesting differences.
First, the HX platform supports two
discrete, external Thunderbolt 4 controllers,
while the HK platform integrated them. But
the HX platform includes up to 14 USB2 and
10 USB3 ports, which is far more than the
older HK platform.
Some of the differences can be explained
away by the target audience, which includes
data analysts who need fast, error-free accessIntel is offering a different I/O scheme for the 12th-gen Core HX platform than
what it had on the 12th-gen Core HK platform.