It’s a rumor we’ve talked about on several occasions. Intel has processors in its drawers for socket 1700 (yes, it does) to regain market share in the entry-level segment. Now it seems that the rumor is about to turn into a launch. Indeed, a marketing kit promoting the Core 5 120F has been spotted by @momomo_us, suggesting an imminent launch of these processors.

But what is Intel trying to achieve with these Bartlett Lake-S CPUs?

First of all, it’s worth noting that if these processors do arrive very soon, they will prolong the life of Socket 1700 and motherboards designed around them. Today, these boards are much cheaper than those designed for Arrow Lake-S. They will make it possible to build less expensive machines, but also to carry out a few upgrades for those on a tight budget. The Core 5 120F is the ideal candidate for “small” gaming machines. It’s an entry-level processor with the ideal qualities for gamers on a budget. It features 6 cores, all P-cores, with no E-cores, and supports hyperthreading, enabling it to manage 12 threads simultaneously. Its base frequency is 2.5 GHz, but it reaches 4.5 GHz in boost mode, i.e. 100 MHz more than the Core i5-12400F. It supports DDR5-4800 memory up to 192 GB, as well as DDR4, an advantage not only for cost reduction but also for upgradability. What’s more, with a TDP of 65W, it shouldn’t require any additional investment (power supply or cooling) for those who want to upgrade their PC. At this stage, we don’t know whether the Bartlett Lake-S range will be broad or limited to a few references. A reference with 12 cores is mentioned in a September 2024 Intel documentation. However, its arrival will make the LGA 1700 a socket that has supported 4 generations of processors… A record for Intel. All this as AMD launches yet another Ryzen on socket AM4

A sign of an imminent arrival, the official Intel website is already referencing this reference, but restricting access to the dedicated page.