I don't know if you know any numbers, I don't, but I'm guessing that intel keeps producing these old chips, anything that isn't marked as 'end of life' (Discontinued) on the intel website is a product intel still actively produces and sells.
The typical Intel approach has always been to offer a full performance range of products for each generation, often only to cover every niche where a competitor might grow.
Given just how broad that range has become over the last years, that often included parts that weren't actually new, but previous generation parts that were just given a new number to fit into the spread at a matching point.
To my knowledge mobile parts largely remained Alder Lake for Rapter and its Refresh, but they got 13th and 14th generation numbers burned into them, when fabbed.
That Intel might produce 12th and 13th generation parts as new today on the very same fab lines, which also make 14th generation parts, doesn't sound plausible at all to me: what would be the money advantage that they haven't already exhausted via renaming?
So any part selling as 12th or 13th generation today, was produced and packages years ago and has been sitting in a warehouse. 14th gen Intel might continue to make, but they can't afford to reduce production to a trickle nor can they afford huge stockpiles: in high-end chip manufacturing you have to produce at scale or shut down, 25% or 50% utliziation in a fab is a killer, actually only near 100% you make the money you need to stay in business.
So having a good supply of CPUs on the market does not say much about how well or not they sell, it could just be that the supply is good, in stark contrast to everybody else.
When it comes to chips, it's not that different from cars: you won't see Ford making 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2026 models at the same time and on the same assembly lines just to make sure they cover every price segment according to demand.
With 12-14th gen Intels (2020-2024 Fords) still lingering at the dealers when only 15th gen (2026 Ford) is on a differnt assembly line, that means those older models haven't sold. And there is only two ways to get rid of them: scrapping or clear-out sales.
And if the externally and expensively produced i7 265K Ultra is discounted to below 2020-2024 Fords, that can only mean that TMSC is charging more rent for stockpiles kept at their warehouses than Intel charges internally.
I can only conclude that Intel is drowning in insold inventory already and everything points at it getting worse, because the beggars aren't hungry enough to pay beyond what they need.
And those rich enough not to care will simply go with the faster chips from AMD, even if they don't actually need all that Porsche (X3D) horsepower or 400FPS.
By the time the chips are at the retailers intel already made their spread, intel isn't selling chips one at a time from their website.
I don't think it's that simple any more. Not for a long time. Dealers won't stock what they cannot sell so Intel has to insure them against losses, one way or another and including manufacturers, too.
That used to be quite different, Intel could force Atoms on OEMs those didn't want to turn into mainboard and sell below manufacturing price (because Intel wanted to keep ARM out of the PC space), because they wouldn't be given the i7s or i5s otherwise. OEMs either accepted the whole packge or got nothing at all.
AMD changed that with Zen and these days Intel can only get on mainboards and into shops by paying for that path and by playing insurance with money Intel no longer has.
I mind being wrong about this much less than being in Intel's position: who would have thought ten years ago?
But I'm afraid I'm right, which has me rather glad I never have enough money to own shares.
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