More leaks about the new Intel Raptor Lake (13th Gen)

15/4/2022

The Intel Raptor Lake CPUs are will become the 13th Generation of Intel Core processors, for both desktop and laptops, once they launch in the tail end of the year.

Intel is looking to build o the success of its Alder Lake 12th Gen Intel Core processors by continuing with the hybrid design, making use of both high-performance cores and energy-efficient cores in the same vein as Apple Silicon.

YouTube channel, Moore’s Law is Dead, claims Raptor Lake will boast up to a 40% improvement in multi-threaded performance compared to the Alder Lake generation, despite the fact it will seemingly stick to the same Intel 7 process node.

Keep reading on for everything you need to know about Intel Raptor Lake, and keep this page bookmarked for future updates.

Release date
Intel has confirmed that it plans to launch its Raptor Lake desktop processors in the second half of this year.

Renowned leakers such as Moore’s Law is Dead and @momomo_us suggest that Raptor Lake could launch in Q3 2022, which is anytime between July and September this year.

That doesn’t sync up perfectly with previous Intel Core launches, with Alder Lake officially unveiled on October 2022, before hitting stores in the following month. But we think anywhere between September and November is likely.

In terms of the Raptor Lake laptop processors, they’re not expected to arrive until 2023, although that’s no great surprise since Intel is still in the process of rolling out its Alder Lake mobile chips.

Price
It’s far too early for Intel to reveal how much its upcoming processors will cost, but it’s likely that the company will stick to similar price points as the recent Alder Lake range.

The Intel Core i9-12900K launched with a US$589(~S$803.34) price, while the Intel Core i5-12600K was priced at US$289(~S$394.17). Of course, it’s possible that Intel could hike up prices since the market has been rocked by the silicon shortage.

Specs
The Intel Raptor Lake processors have been confirmed to use the same Intel 7 process node as the Alder Lake chips. That means it’s using a 10nm process node, while AMD is reportedly moving onto TSMC’s 5nm node for the Ryzen 7000 CPUs.

That would seemingly give AMD the advantage, as smaller nodes allow processor manufacturers to squeeze on more transistors. However, Intel is keen to point out that the size of the process node is no longer the be-all and end-all of a processor’s performance.

Instead, Intel plans to introduce a new high-performance core, with the next-gen Raptor Cove replacing the current Golden Cove cores. However, It seems like Intel will be sticking to the same energy-efficient E-cores as Alder Lake.

But how many cores will Intel be fitting on its Raptor Lake processors? Intel has already demoed a new Raptor Lake processor with 24 cores with 32 threads. For comparison, the existing Intel Core i9-12900K only packs 16 cores and 24 threads, so it looks like Intel will be increasing the counts next generation.

According to Moore’s Law Is Dead, these spec upgrades could result in a single-core performance boost between 8% and 15%, while the multi-core performance could see an even greater improvement, between 30% and 40%.

The power requirements have seemingly been leaked by Igor’s Lab, which indicates there will be three different TDP (Total Design Power) tiers: 125W, 65W and 35W. If such leaks are accurate, this means the most powerful Intel Raptor Lake processor will consume more power than the high-end AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU, which is said to have a 120W TDP.

Intel Raptor Lake will also support the existing LGA 1700 socket, so you may not have to upgrade your motherboard if you already own an Alder Lake chip. And of course, the new processors will support DDR5 RAM, just like the preceding generation.

Of course, it’s important to remember that all of these rumoured specs and performance metrics are for the desktop processors. There’s very little information available for the laptop variants right now, but they’re not expected to launch until 2023.

That’s all we know about Intel Raptor Lake right now, but we’ll be updating this article with more information as soon it becomes available.