Intel has announced its 13th-generation Raptor Lake CPUs and Arc A770 Limited Edition GPU

The latest processors and the most powerful graphics card will be released in October.

It appears that time of year again, as Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced the 13th Generation "Raptor Lake" chip family at Intel Innovation 2022 last night. These chips will continue to use the hybrid Performance core/Efficiency core design introduced by the 12th Gen Alder Lake range (a wise decision, given that this family features some of the best gaming CPUs ever). Still, they will increase the number of E-cores, the size of the L2 cache, and the clock speeds. After the recent release of the AMD Ryzen 7000 series, sales of Raptor Lake will begin on October 20.

Details about the top-tier graphics card in Intel's long-delayed Arc Alchemist family of gaming GPUs, the Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition, were also revealed at the expo. On the 12th of next month (October), it will also be available for $329. I must admit that a small part of me doubted this would ever happen, but indeed, Intel will eventually release a graphics card even though it is more like an RTX 3060 competitor than a low-cost RTX 4080 alternate.

Intel's 13th-generation central processing unit (CPU) lineup will initially consist of three powerful chips, each of which will have a significantly cheaper 'KF' variation without integrated graphics. Find below a detailed specifications table and the current preorder cost.

Let me make two points. Number one: what the heck is going on with the cost of living in the UK? Here on this side of the Atlantic, the processor families have seen price increases compared to their 12th Generation counterparts. Still, this is limited to the Core i5 chips in the United States. I get that the pound is through a rough patch, but wow.

In contrast to Intel's latest Alder Lake and AMD's newest Ryzen 7000 processors, this release is more of a maintenance update than a complete redesign. However, the Core i9-5.8GHz 13900KF's Turbo Boost is nothing to scoff at, and larger E-core counts may improve performance in games that rely heavily on multithreading (such as Assassin's Creed Valhalla).

Here's a graph showcasing how well Ryzen 7 5800X3D performs in games, proving Intel's boasts about its processor's superiority a lie. In a few games, AMD's one-off CPU can outperform the Core i9-13900K.

All six disclosed processors support PCI Express 5.0 and are compatible with DDR5-5600 memory, and they are also fully unlocked for overclocking. While the Ryzen 7000 processor only supports DDR5 RAM, Raptor Lake motherboards will provide compatibility for both DDR5 and DDR4 RAM. Raptor Lake works with the new 700 series and the older 12th Gen/600 series motherboard chipsets, which could make upgrading a breeze. Intel rarely makes new Core processors compatible with older motherboards. Thus this is a particular case.

Unfortunately, we still don't have a firm release date for the Arc A770 Limited Edition outside of China. We haven't heard much about the rest of the Arc Alchemist range, which includes the standard Arc A770 (which has 8GB of VRAM instead of the Limited Edition's 16GB and should be cheaper) or the A750.

The Arc A770 Limited Edition appears to be aiming for buttery-smooth 1080p performance with strong 1440p capability; if it can beat out the likes of the RTX 3060 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT in performance while simultaneously undercutting them in price, it may be a serious contender. However, on November 3, new AMD RDNA 3 graphics cards will be introduced. NVIDIA is probably working on more affordable RTX 40 series GPUs that haven't been seen yet; the Arc A770 Limited Edition will also have to compete with the following products. I have asked about UK-specific pricing and will edit this post accordingly.