Intel’s Z790 motherboards will soon be available for 13th Gen Raptor Lake desktop processors and will feature improved DDR5 and DDR4 memory support.
Intel Z790 motherboards will feature faster DDR5 and DDR4 memory support for 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors
In a spec sheet leaked by Videocardz, presumably from MSI, we can see that Z790 chipset motherboards will offer faster DDR5 and DDR4 memory speeds compared to existing Z690 motherboards. A total of three motherboards have been listed, with one supporting DDR5 and the other two supporting DDR4.
Intel Z790 DDR5 motherboard specs from MSI (Image credits: Videocardz):
According to the datasheet, the DDR5 Z790 motherboard will feature four DIMM slots supporting capacities of 128 GB with speeds listed as follows:
- 1 DIMM per channel (1 rank) – Up to DDR5-6800+
- 1 DIMM per channel (1 rank) – Up to DDR5-6400+
- 2 DIMMs per channel (2 ranks) – Up to DDR5-6400+
- 2 DIMMs per channel (2 ranks) – Up to DDR5-5600+
When it comes to Z790 DDR4 motherboards, it looks like the maximum memory speed supported here will be up to DDR4-5333+. Here are the speeds listed for the faster Z790 DDR4 configuration:
- 1 DIMM per channel (1 rank) – Up to DDR4-5333+
- 1 DIMM per channel (1 rank) – Up to DDR4-4800+
- 2 DIMMs per channel (2 ranks) – Up to DDR4-4400+
- 2 DIMMs per channel (2 ranks) – Up to DDR4-4000+
Intel Z790 DDR4 motherboard specs from MSI (Image credits: Videocardz):
On Z690 motherboards, the fastest memory speeds are listed as follows for DDR5 and DDR4 motherboards in each respective segment.
- MEG (DDR5) – Up to DDR5-6666+
- MPG (DDR5) – Up to DDR5-6666+
- MAG (DDR5) – Up to DDR5-6400+
- MPG (DDR4) – Up to DDR5-5200+
- MAG (DDR4) – Up to DDR4-5200+
For comparison, the AMD X670E motherboards listed so far range from DDR5-6600 to DDR5-6000 speeds. We recently reported two ASRock X670E motherboards and Biostar’s X670E Valkyrie, whose specs were recently listed in detail. You can find out more here.
Biostar X670E Valkyrie motherboard:
- Supports dual channel DDR5 6000+(OC)/ 5800(OC)/ 5600(OC)/ 5400(OC)/ 5200(OC)/ 5000(OC)/ 4800
- 4 DDR5 DIMM memory slots, max. Supports up to 128 GB of memory
- Each DIMM supports 8/16/32GB non-ECC DDR5 module
ASRock X670E Taichi Carrera Motherboard
- Dual channel DDR5 memory technology
- 4 DDR5 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR5 ECC / non-ECC, unbuffered memory up to 6600+ (OC)
- Max. system memory capacity: 128 GB
- Supports Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) and EXTended Profiles for Overclocking (EXPO) memory modules
Intel Z790 motherboards will launch in October with the 13th Gen Raptor Lake line of processors. Motherboards will support PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 memory, but they will not have PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 slots directly connected to CPU Gen 5 lanes, unless the board vendors decide to split the lanes x16 discrete GPUs.
Expected Features of 13th Generation Intel Raptor Lake Desktop Processors:
- Up to 24 cores and 32 threads
- New Raptor Cove processor cores (Higher P-Core IPC)
- Based on 10nm ESF ‘Intel 7’ process node
- Clock speeds up to 6.0 GHz (planned)
- Double the E-Cores on some variants
- Increased cache for P-Cores and E-Cores
- Supported on existing LGA 1700 motherboards
- New Z790, H770 and B760 motherboards
- Up to 28 PCIe lanes (PCH Gen 4 + Gen 3)
- Up to 28 PCIe lanes (CPU Gen 5 x16 + Gen 4 x12)
- DDR5-5600 dual channel memory support
- 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes
- Improved overclocking functions
- 125W PL1 TDP (flagship references)
- PCIe M.2 AI technology
- Q4 2022 launch (possibly in October)
Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop processors, including the flagship Core i9-13900K, are scheduled to launch in October on the Z790 platform. The processors will be up against AMD’s Ryzen 7000 line of processors, which will also launch in fall 2022.
Intel Raptor Lake vs AMD Raphael “Planned” Desktop CPU Comparison
| Processor family | AMD Raphael (RPL-X) | Intel Raptor Lake (RPL-S) |
|---|---|---|
| Process node | TSMC 5nm | Intel 7 |
| Architecture | Zen 4 (Chiplet) | Raptor Cove (P-core) Gracemont (E-Core) |
| Flagship SKU | Ryzen 9 7950X | Core i9-13900K |
| Cores / Threads | Until 16/32 | Up to 24/32 |
| Total L3 Cache | 64 MB (+ 3D V-Cache) | 36 MB |
| Full L2 Cache | 16 MB | 32 MB |
| Full Cache | 80 MB | 68 MB |
| Maximum clocks (1T) | 5.7GHz | 5.8GHz |
| Memory Support | DDR5 | DDR5/DDR4 |
| Memory channels | 2 channels (2DPC) | 2 channels (2DPC) |
| Memory speeds | DDR5-5600 | DDR5-5600 DDR4-3200 |
| Platform support | 600 series (X670E/X670/B650/A620) | 600 series (Z690/H670/B650/H610) 700 Series (Z790/H770/B760) |
| PCIe generation 5.0 | GPU and M.2 (Extreme chipsets only) | GPU and M.2 (700 series only but split) |
| Integrated graphics | AMD RDNA 2 | Intel Iris Xe |
| Socket | AM5 (LGA 1718) | LGA 1700/1800 |
| TDP (max) | 170W (TDP) 230W (PPT) |
125W (PL1) 240W+ (PL2) |
| Launch | September 2022 | October 2022 |
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