Intel Xeon W-3400 & W2400 HEDT ‘W790’ Platform Rumored For Q4 Launch, 13th Gen Raptor Lake & W790 Platform in October Followed By H770 & B660 In Q1 2023

A series of rumors regarding the Intel HEDT Sapphire Rapids & Mainstream Raptor Lake-S CPUs have been posted by reliable leaker, Enthusiast Citizen over at Bilibili. The rumors detail launch dates and the accompanying platforms for the next-gen CPU lineups.

We have known for some time now that Intel is working on its brand new desktop CPU lineup for 2022 which includes both HEDT & mainstream parts. The Intel HEDT family will comprise of brand new Sapphire Rapids chips which will be branded as the Xeon W-3400 & Xeon W-2400 series SKUs while the mainstream family will comprise of 13th Gen Raptor Lake-S CPUs. Now we have detailed both families here and here, respectively.

The Intel HEDT lineup will feature support on a W790 platform which is codenamed 'Fishhawk Falls' and will support a range of chips ranging from mainstream HEDT to premium HEDT parts. The 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs on the other hand will feature support on the new 700-series board platform while staying compatible with existing 600-series motherboards.

So starting with the HEDT lineup, the Intel Sapphire Rapids family will consist of up to 24 cores for the mainstream HEDT and up to 56 cores for the premium family. All of these chips will feature a singular Golden Cove core architecture and won't get the hybrid P-Core / E-Core treatment like the mainstream desktop SKUs. You can expect the mainstream family to feature fewer DDR5 memory channels, PCIe lanes, and IO compared to the premium family.

Intel 'Expert' Sapphire Rapids HEDT CPUs 'Expected Features':

Intel 'Mainstream' Sapphire Rapids HEDT CPUs 'Expected Features':

The rumor states that Intel has postponed the launch of its Sapphire Rapids HEDT family to Q4 with a high probability of an October launch. Both CPU segments will feature support on the new W790-powered platform.

The 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake-S Desktop CPUs will retain a hybrid design on the 'Intel 7' process node. The P-Cores will be upgraded to the new Raptor Cove architecture while the E-Cores will get slight improvements in cache while the overall cores will also see an increase. The maximum core count has been leaked as a 24 core and 32 thread part (8 P-Cores + 16 E-Cores). The TDPs will be around the same limit as the existing parts and clocks are expected to hit up to 5.8 GHz as per the rumor mill. Once again, the cache will see a major boost.

Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs Expected Features:

Now for the platform itself, Intel's Raptor Lake-S Desktop CPUs will come with both DDR5 & DDR4 memory support, giving them a major advantage over AMD's DDR5-only AM5 platform. Another advantage for Intel is that they will have compatibility enabled on both 600-series (Z690/H670/B650 & H610) motherboards along with the new 700-series chipsets (Z790/H770/B760). The Z790 & 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs are expected to launch in October, the same time as the HEDT CPU lineup along with the Z790 motherboards.

The mainstream H770 and B760 chipsets will launch by Q1 2023 but H710 will not be produced as H610 will be carried onwards for low-tier PC segments. The new 700-series motherboards are also rumored to feature DDR4 support and we can also see PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 slots on the new lineup which will compete with AMD's own AM5 platform that has Gen 5 for M.2 and dGPU.