Intel Raptor Lake with Z690 Platform and AMD Ryzen 7000 with X670 Platform Reportedly Launching in Mid-Late Q3 2022

CPU giants AMD and Intel are both set to release their next generation of desktop processors later this year. The release is so close, in fact, that popular computer monitoring software CPU-Z has already added official software support for next-gen processors already. This simultaneous addition is well-representative of how Intel and AMD’s next-gen CPU launches are also going to overlap, increasing the stakes even more.

This will likely be the most fierce competition we’ve seen between the two companies probably ever. This is due to AMD launching its new AM5 platform with Ryzen 7000, the biggest leap forward for Team Red since Ryzen’s inception. Intel on the other hand will be looking to build upon the monumental success of Alder Lake by pushing the big.LITTLE hybrid design even more.

Intel and AMD have officially confirmed that their next-gen CPUs, Raptor Lake aka 13th Gen and Ryzen 7000 aka Zen4, will be hitting store shelves in the next half of the year. We already have a head start on both platforms thanks to various leaks and rumors, some of which are all but official. Today, prominent leaker Enthusiast Citizen has added to the rumor train by posting new details about both releases. Let’s go over Team Blue first.

Intel Raptor Lake – Launching in Late Q3 or Early Q4 2022

Intel is all set to debut its Raptor Lake processors very soon in the form of its 13th Gen Core series. Current reports suggest we can expect a noticeable improvement in gaming performance due to an increase in both L2 and L3 caches, a strategy similar to AMD’s. While single-core has always been Intel’s domain, this time multi-core will also see a significant bump as Intel is planning to double the amount of Efficiency Cores in Raptor Lake.

Intel Raptor Lake specs breakdown | Intel

That would most likely put Intel on par with AMD’s multi-core performance, which has been historically superior, though don’t expect Intel to dominate in all workloads like AMD. Intel’s Alder Lake brought a much-needed increase in multi-core performance to Team Blue in the first place but due to the nature of the hybrid design that Raptor Lake will build upon, Intel will still trail behind in some scenarios.

The big.LITTLE design philosophy relies heavily on the single-ring bus interconnect which will be pushed to its absolute limits with Raptor Lake. Again, on Alder Lake this is already a prevalent issue that if you enable all the Efficiency Cores on a SKU, the ring frequency is unable to surpass the maximum clock speeds of the Atom Cores. It remains to be seen how much this phenomenon will actually impact Raptor Lake in the real-world, however.

Coming back to the primary specs, Raptor Lake is said to carry on the PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 support introduced in Alder Lake. Despite launching with a new platform chipset, Raptor Lake will still support DDR4 memory as well. Speaking of which, Raptor Lake will work on both 600 and 700-series motherboard due to their shared LGA 1700 socket. Moreover, Enthusiast Citizen expects Raptor Lake to launch in late Q3 or by early Q4 2022.

Intel will first debut the unlocked K-Series 13th Gen Core processors along with the flagship Z690 motherboards as mentioned above, then later down the line, in Q1 2023, we’ll see more Raptor Lake SKUs including locked chips. That’s also when the more mainstream 700-series motherboards for Raptor Lake will hit the market. You can see a summary of all Raptor Lake features and specs below.

Up to a maximum of 24-cores and 32-threads
Brand new Raptor Cove CPU Cores (Higher P-Core IPC)
Based on 10nm ESF ‘Intel 7’ process node
Supported on existing LGA 1700 motherboards
Support for Dual-Channel DDR5-5600 memory
20 PCIe Gen5 Lanes
Enhanced overclocking features
125W PL1 TDP (flagship SKUs)

AMD Ryzen 7000 – Launching in Mid-Q3 2022

AMD’s answer to Raptor Lake come in the form of its Zen4-powered Ryzen 7000 series of processors. For AMD, Ryzen 7000 is a big deal because it will debut on the brand new Socket AM5 platform. Since the launch of Ryzen, AMD has stuck with Socket AM4 for five generations but Ryzen 7000 will finally bring a new platform with it. Not only that, Ryzen 7000 will be powered by Zen4 cores, built on TSMC‘s 5nm process node, which are said to bring massive improvements across the board.

Ryzen 7000 will therefore also launch with a new platform chipset, X670, which will be a part of its new 600-series of motherboards. While Ryzen 7000 will launch with X670 motherboards, the B650 lineup will release at a later point, Enthusiast Citizen claims in late Q3 or start of Q4 2022. Unlike Intel’s strategy, AMD most likely won’t be coupling a few CPUs with its B560 motherboard launch, though we do know that B560 motherboards have already entered pre-production stages due to a leak from yesterday.

As far as the actual CPUs are concerned, we’re looking at DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5.0 support along with up to 170W maximum TDPs in the flagship SKUs. Moreover, the AM5 socket is based on an LGA design (AM4 is based on PGA), which means it is will be using the LGA1718 socket. AMD has also hinted at integrated graphics throughout the entire lineup for the first time in mainstream Ryzen’s history.

What’s interesting, though, is how the 3D V-Cache technology AMD has tested already on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is now said to not be a part of the Zen4 launch lineup. A recent leak from a credible source indicates how Zen 4 with 3D V-Cache will most likely launch in the first quarter of 2023, after production targets for Zen3D (5800X3D) are met first. So, don’t expected enormous cache sizes in Zen4 CPUs, at least in 2022.

AMD’s 2022 timeline of desktop releases | AMD

Most importantly, Enthusiast Citizen says that we could see Zen4 processors be announced as early as Computex 2022, which is in May. This information coincides with a leak from December of last year also claiming that Computex 2022 will be the launch-floor for Ryzen 7000. However, this will only be an announcement event with the actual CPUs launching three-ish months later, similar to Ryzen 5000.

Check out the highlights of Ryzen 7000 below:

Brand new Zen4 CPU Cores (IPC / architectural improvements)
Brand new TSMC 5nm process node with 6nm IOD
Brand new AM5 Platform with LGA1718 Socket
Support for Dual-Channel DDR5 memory
28 PCIe Lanes (CPU exclusive)
105-120W TDPs (upper bound range ~170W)

Consumer wins at the end

With both Team Red and Team Blue set to deploy their soldiers on the battlefield this year, it’s us, the illicit gun traffickers who sell weaponry to both to reap the ultimate benefits. That analogy might be a little extreme, what I mean is that all this competition is only going to benefit us consumers in the end. AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Apple, all of these companies seem to be at their most driven at this point in time due to just the sheer amount of options available.

Today, it’s harder than ever to win the consumer’s pocket so stagnation and monopolistic behavior won’t cut it anymore. Genuine innovation and cut-throat rivalry is what’s going to impress the consumer. AMD and Intel have showed that they are capable of both when they want, and with demand at an all time high, it won’t take much to win over the average crowd than just a good-ass product that is timed and priced right.

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