Intel's Z790 motherboards are coming soon for 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs & will offer improved DDR5 & DDR4 memory support.
Intel Z790 Motherboards To Offer Faster DDR5 & DDR4 Memory Support For 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs
In a datasheet leaked by Videocardz, presumably from MSI, we can see that the Z790 chipset motherboards will offer faster DDR5 and DDR4 memory speeds compared to the existing Z690 motherboards. A total of three motherboards have been listed, one supporting DDR5 and the other two with DDR4 support.
Intel Z790 DDR5 Motherboard Datasheet From MSI (Image Credits: Videocardz):
According to the datasheet, the DDR5 Z790 motherboard will feature four DIMM slots with support for 128 GB capacities 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 DIMM Per Channel (2-Rank) - Up To DDR5-6400+
- 2 DIMM Per Channel (2-Rank) - Up To DDR5-5600+
As for Z790 DDR4 motherboards, it looks like the maximum memory speed supported here will be up to DDR4-5333+. Following 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 DIMM Per Channel (2-Rank) - Up To DDR4-4400+
- 2 DIMM Per Channel (2-Rank) - Up To DDR4-4000+
Intel Z790 DDR4 Motherboard Datasheet From MSI (Image Credits: Videocardz):
On Z690 motherboards, the fastest memory speeds are listed as following for the 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 that have been listed so far range from DDR5-6600 to DDR5-6000 speeds. We recently reported two ASRock X670E motherboards and Biostar's X670E Valkyrie which recently got their specifications listed in detail. You can read more on that here.
Biostar X670E Valkyrie Motherboard:
- Supports Dual Channel DDR5 6000+(OC)/ 5800(OC)/ 5600(OC)/ 5400(OC)/ 5200(OC)/ 5000(OC)/ 4800
- 4 x DDR5 DIMM Memory Slot, Max. Supports up to 128 GB Memory
- Each DIMM supports non-ECC 8/ 16/ 32 GB DDR5 module
ASRock X670E Taichi Carrera Motherboard
- Dual Channel DDR5 Memory Technology
- 4 x DDR5 DIMM Slots
- Supports DDR5 ECC / non-ECC, un-buffered memory up to 6600+(OC)
- Max. capacity of system memory: 128GB
- Supports Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) and EXTended Profiles for Overclocking (EXPO) memory modules
Intel Z790 motherboards will be launching in October along with the 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPU lineup. The motherboards will have support for PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 memory however they won't have a PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 slot directly connected to the CPU Gen 5 lanes unless the board vendors decided to split the discrete GPU x16 lanes.
Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs Expected Features:
- Up To 24 Cores & 32 Threads
- Brand New Raptor Cove CPU Cores (Higher P-Core IPC)
- Based on 10nm ESF 'Intel 7' process node
- Up To 6.0 GHz clock speeds (expected)
- Double The E-Cores on certain variants
- Increased Cache for both P-Cores & 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)
- Dual-Channel DDR5-5600 Memory Support
- 20 PCIe Gen 5 Lanes
- Enhanced Overclocking Features
- 125W PL1 TDP (Flagship SKUs)
- AI PCIe M.2 Technology
- Q4 2022 Launch (October Possibly)
The Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs including the flagship Core i9-13900K is expected to launch in October on the Z790 platform. The CPUs will be going up against AMD's Ryzen 7000 CPU lineup which also launches in Fall 2022.
Intel Raptor Lake vs AMD Raphael Desktop CPUs Comparison 'Confirmed'
| CPU 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 | Up To 16/32 | Up To 24/32 |
| Total L3 Cache | 64 MB (+3D V-Cache) | 36 MB |
| Total L2 Cache | 16 MB | 32 MB |
| Total Cache | 80 MB | 68 MB |
| Max Clocks (1T) | 5.85 GHz | 5.8 GHz |
| Memory Support | DDR5 | DDR5/DDR4 |
| Memory Channels | 2 Channel (2DPC) | 2 Channel (2DPC) |
| Memory Speeds | DDR5-5200 | DDR5-5600 DDR4-3200 |
| Platform Support | 600-Series (X670E/X670/B650/A620) | 600-Series (Z690/H670/B650/H610) 700-Series (Z790/H770/B760) |
| PCIe Gen 5.0 | Both GPU & M.2 (Extreme chipsets only) | Both GPU & 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 |
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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