Intel Announces Raptor Lake CPUs, Undercutting AMD

Intel has just unveiled their latest CPU line, with a clear strategy to compete with AMD.

Today, Intel launched their 13th gen core desktop processors, codenamed Raptor Lake. These processors are compatible with the LGA1700 socket, meaning they can be used in older 600-series and 700 series motherboards.

This coming October 20, 2022, the Core i9 13900K, Core i9 13900KF, Core i7 13700K, Core i7 13700KF, Core i5 13600K, and Core i5 13600KF will be available, with more lower end chips coming down the line.

Now this announcement may seem innocuous on its face, but Intel did a few things that made it clear it was serious about competing with AMD this year.

First, a little context. Six years ago, AMD launched the Ryzen line of CPUs, a game changing line of processors that came with built in integrated graphics, at a considerably higher performance than was seen possible in the industry at the time. This made it unnecessary for many consumers to buy a separate GPU for their computers, but Ryzen computers with GPUs also performed better than many Intel computers, and were cheaper to boot. Ryzen CPUs were subsequently so cost effective that it immediately vaulted them ahead of Intel in the consumer market for CPUs.

Jumping forward to today. Intel timed this announcement of their new Raptor Lake chips literally a day after AMD had officially launched their Ryzen 7000 chips for sale. Their newer Raptor Lake chips claim better performance for several reasons, but more importantly, come with very good prices, in many cases lower than AMD’s offerings. You can make a direct comparison of their products’ MSRP prices below.

• AMD Ryzen 9 7650X – $ 700
• Intel Core i9-13900K – $ 590
• AMD Ryzen 9 7900X $ 550
• Intel Core i7-13700K $ 410
• AMD Ryzen 7 7700X – $ 400

To compound AMD’s problems, their newer Ryzen 7000 chips require an upgrade to new motherboards with the new AM5 socket. They also require an upgrade to DDR5 ram as DDR4 ram is not supported. For many consumers, this will require a partial upgrade to their entire computers, something that they won’t have to do if they were using Intel’s chips.

As for Intel’s performance claims, they have not been tested at the moment of this announcement. Both Intel and AMD are also known for getting creative with benchmark tests. It is generally safe to assume that both companies consistently improve their CPU manufacturing efficiency and comes up with new innovations to improve performance, both for the price and the power draw.

Raptor Lake’s innovations specifically lie in a higher amount of L2 cache, and a higher amount of E (efficiency) cores for significantly larger multithreads. The most likely beneficiary of these improvements are creatives, including content creators and 3D animators. Video game performance is dependent on whether the individual game developer takes advantage of these Raptor Lake CPU innovations, as was the case with XeSS. However, if it turned out the performance of Intel’s and AMD’s new CPUs turned out to be roughly the same, the price proposition alone may be more than enough for gamers to gravitate towards Raptor Lake.

You can read some of our earlier reporting on Intel below.

Intel’s Head of Overclocking Reflects On Their Mission Goal

Intel CEO Says AMD Is “In The Rearview Mirror”

Source: HardwareCanucks via YouTube, PCGamer