Intel Plans "Raptor Lake Refresh" Core Desktop Processors for Q3-2023, "Sapphire Rapids 64L" HEDT in Q1

[btarunr]

Intel is planning to refresh its desktop processor product stack with new "Raptor Lake Refresh" SKUs in Q3-2023, according to a leaked roadmap. At this point it's unclear if these are just new SKUs within the 13th Gen Core desktop product stack, or if they'll form the 14th Gen Core family, much in the same way as "Coffee Lake Refresh" formed the 9th Gen Core, replacing the 8th Gen Core "Coffee Lake." At this point we don't know what constitutes "Raptor Lake Refresh," but it provides Intel's product managers with the opportunity to increase CPU core-counts across the product stack without needing a new silicon (the Raptor Lake silicon has 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores), slightly higher clock-speeds, and other improvements. We don't know if this will herald a new CPU socket or platform at this point, either.

The most interesting item in this leaked roadmap slide has to be the reference to the "mainstream workstation" segment, with products in the 250 W TDP bracket. The so-called "Sapphire Rapids 64L" could be a cut-down version of the "Sapphire Rapids" enterprise processor on a new socket, backed by the Intel W790 chipset. The "64L" part of the codename could be a reference to its PCIe Gen 5 lane count of 64, which is less than the 112 available to the full "Sapphire Rapids" silicon in its W-3400 product-stack. It's unclear if these processors feature a Core X branding like their predecessors from the "Cascade Lake-X" family, or Xeon W. Besides fewer PCIe lanes, Intel could also segment these chips with fewer DDR5 memory channels, though both the PCIe and DDR5 connectivity will be much wider than those of the "Raptor Lake-S" mainstream desktop processors.



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[tabascosauz]

They really gotta stop delaying these launches lol......this reeks of Rocket Lake.

I'm guessing Meteor Lake was pushed back because of Intel 4 delays; I have a hard time believing that Foveros, EMIB or the TSMC tiles are responsible. The current roadmap is treating Meteor Lake the exact same way as Rocket Lake - launching in the same year as its successor, not a great future for 14th gen, unless they're betting against their own 15th gen product...

Though, cutting Meteor Lake down to 6 P-cores while keeping 15th gen at 8+16 just seems like another vote of no-confidence in 14th gen, from Intel themselves.

Besides, is there even any clock headroom left for refreshing 13th gen? 13700K and 13900K pushed pretty hard already.

 

[bug]

In a way, this makes me feel even better for getting ADL. It's going to serve me well for at least another couple of years.

 

[dgianstefani]

They really gotta stop delaying these launches lol......this reeks of Rocket Lake.

I'm guessing Meteor Lake was pushed back because of Intel 4 delays; I have a hard time believing that Foveros, EMIB or the TSMC tiles are responsible. The current roadmap is treating Meteor Lake the exact same way as Rocket Lake - launching in the same year as its successor, not a great future for 14th gen, unless they're betting against their own 15th gen product...

Though, cutting Meteor Lake down to 6 P-cores while keeping 15th gen at 8+16 just seems like another vote of no-confidence in 14th gen, from Intel themselves.

Besides, is there even any clock headroom left for refreshing 13th gen? 13700K and 13900K pushed pretty hard already.

13th gen can pretty much push 1-2 cores to 5.9/6 GHz as a rule with a little manual tuning and good cooling, from what I understand some samples can do another 1-200 MHz on top of that. I'm sure it's not too difficult to bin chips that can do 6 Ghz on one core.

 

[erocker]

Intel seems to be sitting pretty. Amazing what can happen in a couple years. I'm sure they're happy they got François Piednoël back.

​

 

[fancucker]

An additional frequency increase to consolidate their lead. 5.5-5.8 Ghz in the opposition doesn't seem so impressive anymore.

 

[bug]

Let's not forget there are few Raptor Lake SKUs released so far. This refresh may simply be Intel delaying the release of (some) i3 SKUs.
As usual, I have zero expectations from a refresh, but I will take any improvements (as minor as they may be) as a welcome bonus.

 

[Chaitanya]

So 350W+ CPUs coming for WS users coupled with 450W+ Multi GPUs they are going to need some serious cooling and power provisions.

 

[AsRock]

So 350W+ CPUs coming for WS users coupled with 450W+ Multi GPUs they are going to need some serious cooling and power provisions.

Aah just strap air con to it, you be alright.

by time 2030 is here intel be requiring one of these ones

 

[Daven]

13th gen can pretty much push 1-2 cores to 5.9/6 GHz as a rule with a little manual tuning and good cooling, from what I understand some samples can do another 1-200 MHz on top of that. I'm sure it's not too difficult to bin chips that can do 6 Ghz on one core.

So in other words, no clock headroom left.

 

[dgianstefani]

So in other words, no clock headroom left.

If by "no" you mean "200-400 MHz".

 

[bug]

If by "no" you mean "200-400 MHz".

At 6GHz, 300MHz more is just 5%. But that's ok, I prefer CPUs that can give me almost all the juice out of the box. And it's been like this for a while.

 

[P4-630]

Aah just strap air con to it, you be alright.

View attachment 274303


by time 2030 is here intel be requiring one of these ones


View attachment 274304

By then you can say the same for AMD though...

 

[Daven]

At 6GHz, 300MHz more is just 5%. But that's ok, I prefer CPUs that can give me almost all the juice out of the box. And it's been like this for a while.

And that’s only possible with tinkering and binning. We are at the top speeds for the current fab node. Higher speeds might be possible on future nodes but I’m unsure what RPL refresh can offer on the current node. Maybe it will be a shrink and partially resurrect the old tick tock strategy.

 

[aQi]

This is still unclear as to what Intel has planned for HEDT market referring to the extreme series processor chipset X.
If it was as near as 2023 then we would have seen some leaks of a new X series chipset but who knows may be another Asus Dominus Extreme may rise with server chipset and W series processor to dominate.

 

[RogueSix]

The most interesting part of the RPL refresh news is the indirect confirmation/concession that desktop Meteor Lake apparently has massive issues and is indefinitely delayed. A RPL refresh in Q3 means that Intel will not have another desktop launch for at least about a year so Meteor Lake desktop will arrive in Q3/2024 at the very earliest. And if the rumors are true that the top Meteor Lake SKU will only have six P-cores instead of eight... oh my... sounds like the transition to "Intel 4" is yet another delay and yield riddled nightmare at Intel foundry services.

 

[AsRock]

By then you can say the same for AMD though...

Goes for any tech being pushed to far.

 

[bonehead123]

Hey Foundry Masta, can I pleeze haz some cookies with tis milk ?

Moore delays, moore chances to put forth yet moore miniscule, nearly-insiginificant improvements to wring us out of even moar of our $$ A G A I N....

 

[Wirko]

Am I the only one who's bothered about this? Looks like the Sapphire Rapids CPUs for two-processor systems are already here (and have been since 1 December or so, I measured the length of the bars).

 

[Harry Wild]

I am waiting patiently for the Entry Workstation category 65W - Raptor Lake Refresh in Q3 of 2023 to be released and then jump on the earlier 65W Raptor Lake S CPU to purchase.

 

[Patriot]

Am I the only one who's bothered about this? Looks like the Sapphire Rapids CPUs for two-processor systems are already here (and have been since 1 December or so, I measured the length of the bars).

View attachment 274339

That is just the roadmap for investors, not what they actually can do. Sapphire rapids is a year+ late, official launch date is now Jan10th (CES) but ramp to volume Q2.
It will get to compete with Genoa X3D and Bergamo. AMD needs to treat the workstation users better and not dump threadripper so half hazardly.

 

[Minus Infinity]

Confirmation Meteor Lake is delayed until 2024. Imagine if this RL+ needs a new MB, can't see it happening though for such a short life cycle

The most interesting part of the RPL refresh news is the indirect confirmation/concession that desktop Meteor Lake apparently has massive issues and is indefinitely delayed. A RPL refresh in Q3 means that Intel will not have another desktop launch for at least about a year so Meteor Lake desktop will arrive in Q3/2024 at the very earliest. And if the rumors are true that the top Meteor Lake SKU will only have six P-cores instead of eight... oh my... sounds like the transition to "Intel 4" is yet another delay and yield riddled nightmare at Intel foundry services.

MLisD already confirmed delays for Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake, months ago. ML was never going to be a 2023 product release. Chiplets, fpga, new node, Intel will struggle big time to get this right. They over promise, under deliver time-after-time and the tech sites still promote their nonsense.

 

[hs4]

From the table, Raptor lake-Refresh seems to come out in July 2023, so expect Meteor lake-S to be announced in early 2024 Meteor lake-M will be sometime in 2023. Refresh will also include a stepping change to reduce costs; I don't know if it will be 13950K as the 13.5th generation or if it will be treated as the 14th generation.

 

[bug]

The most interesting part of the RPL refresh news is the indirect confirmation/concession that desktop Meteor Lake apparently has massive issues and is indefinitely delayed. A RPL refresh in Q3 means that Intel will not have another desktop launch for at least about a year so Meteor Lake desktop will arrive in Q3/2024 at the very earliest. And if the rumors are true that the top Meteor Lake SKU will only have six P-cores instead of eight... oh my... sounds like the transition to "Intel 4" is yet another delay and yield riddled nightmare at Intel foundry services.

You'll need to pick one or the other.

 

[hs4]

Oddly enough, Sapphire Rapids confirmed that they had a certain amount of sales in Q4 2022 despite the fact that they have not officially launched. The explanation for this was given in their Q2 2022 Earnings Call, and it seems that they are not taking official orders because yields are not at a profitable level, but they are selling dies that meet their quality standards as production inventory. They could launch new products to showcase their technological capabilities, but there is no need to do so now, and they are probably steering more toward profit.

As for Meteor lake, I would guess that it is in a state similar to 10nm SuperFin at the time of Tiger lake. Based on Intel's current management policy, it does not appear that they are close to Cannon Lake.