Intel Core i5-1250P

The Intel Core i5-1250P is a mid-range Alder Lake-P family SoC designed for use in ultra-light, ultra-thin (yet actively cooled) laptops. It was announced in early 2022 and it has 4 performance cores, as opposed to the 6 cores of the top-of-the-line i7-1280P (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) mated to 8 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The i5's P-cores are Hyper-Threading-enabled for a total of 16 threads when combined with its E-cores. The clock speeds range from 1.7 GHz to 4.4 GHz for the performance cluster and 1.2 GHz to 3.3 GHz for the efficient cluster. The shortcomings of this processor as compared with the slightly faster Core i5-1260P include the smaller L3 cache, slower iGPU model, lower clock speeds. Full vPro feature set is enabled in the case of this i5, though ("Enterprise" tier, allowing for remote device management).

Architecture

The i5 is a continuation of Intel's efforts to use the ARM-developed big.LITTLE technology for its own benefit. A single "little" Alder Lake core is supposed to be as fast as a Skylake core (as found in the venerable Core i7-6700HQ among other options) which is six years old at this point. All of Core i5-1250P's CPU cores enjoy access to 12 MB of L3 cache. The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to LPDDR5-5200, DDR5-4800, LPDDR4x-4267 or DDR4-3200; Intel recommends using no more than 64 GB, for reference. Just like the other 12th Gen Intel Core processors, this Core i5 comes with the Thread Director which is a new functionality designed to help Windows 11 decide which cores to use for what workload for best performance and efficiency possible. Hardware acceleration of AI algorithms is supported via GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). The alluringly fast PCI-Express 5.0 spec has not found its way into Alder Lake P processors, so users will have to be content with PCI-Express 4.0 for the time being. Four PCI-Express 4 lanes allow for a read/write rate of up to 7.9 GB/s, provided a suitably fast NVMe SSD is used.

Please note this is not a user-replaceable CPU. It gets permanently soldered on to the motherboard (FCBGA1744 socket interface).

Performance

The 12 CPU cores are not just capable of outperforming any outgoing quad-core Tiger Lake part (i7-11375H and i7-1195G7 included). Provided the long-term Power Limit is high enough (> 30 W), an i5-1250P will be as fast as the 45 W hexa-core Tiger Lake processors (like a Core i7-11600H), coming close to what the octa-core Ryzen 5000 / Ryzen 6000 U-class processors have in store.

The i5's performance sustainability is tied not only to how high the Power Limits are but also to how competent the cooling solution of a system is. The latter is really important as a single Golden Cove core's consumption can be higher than 20 W when under heavy load.

Graphics

The built-in graphics adapter in the form of the 80 EU Iris Xe running at up to 1.4 GHz has seen little change from what was built into certain 11th Gen Tiger Lake UP3 processors, like a Core i5-1135G7, which is hardly a downside as this iGPU is loaded with modern features, AV1 video decoding capability and SUHD 4320p monitor support included. The Xe isn't a stranger to a bit of casual gaming; that said, your mileage may vary depending on how high the Power Limits are and how capable the cooling solution of a laptop is. Expect something close to NVIDIA's MX250 or in other words, acceptable framerates in most games when playing at 1080p / Low settings. Fast RAM is a prerequisite for decent performance as the Xe has to make do with no dedicated video memory.

Power Consumption

The i5's base power (also known as the default TDP value or PL1) is 28 W; its Intel-recommended Turbo power (also known as PL2) sits at 64 W. This processor is manufactured on Intel's third-gen 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for an OK energy efficiency - on paper, that is. The tests we did proved that Intel's way to close the performance gap with AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors entails some seriously high power consumption figures where a single P-core can consume more than 20 W. AMD's Ryzen 5000 chips are not nearly as power-hungry, and Apple's M1-series processors can be several times more efficient while upholding a similarly high performance bar.

Series	Intel Alder Lake-P
Codename	Alder Lake-P
Series: Alder Lake-P Alder Lake-P	Intel Core i9-12900HK 1.8 - 5 GHz 14 / 20 24 MB Intel Core i9-12900H 1.8 - 5 GHz 14 / 20 24 MB Intel Core i7-12800H 1.8 - 4.8 GHz 14 / 20 24 MB Intel Core i7-12650H 1.7 - 4.7 GHz 10 / 16 24 MB Intel Core i5-12600H 2 - 4.5 GHz 12 / 16 18 MB Intel Core i5-12500H 1.8 - 4.5 GHz 12 / 16 18 MB Intel Core i7-1280P 1.3 - 4.8 GHz 14 / 20 24 MB Intel Core i5-12450H 1.5 - 4.4 GHz 8 / 12 12 MB Intel Core i7-1270P 1.6 - 4.8 GHz 12 / 16 18 MB Intel Core i7-1260P 1.5 - 4.7 GHz 12 / 16 18 MB » Intel Core i5-1250P 1.2 - 4.4 GHz 12 / 16 12 MB Intel Core i5-1240P 1.2 - 4.4 GHz 12 / 16 12 MB Intel Core i3-1220P 1.1 - 4.4 GHz 10 / 12 12 MB
Clock Rate	1200 - 4400 MHz
Level 1 Cache	1.1 MB
Level 2 Cache	21 MB
Level 3 Cache	12 MB
Number of Cores / Threads	12 / 16
Power Consumption (TDP = Thermal Design Power)	28 Watt
Manufacturing Technology	10 nm
Max. Temperature	100 °C
Socket	FCBGA1744
Features	Thread Director
GPU	Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs ( - 1400 MHz)
64 Bit	64 Bit support
Architecture	x86
Announcement Date	01/04/2022
Product Link (external)	Intel Alder Lake-P i5-1250P

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