Intel Hopes 13th-Gen Is Lucky, Brings 'Raptor Lake' Updates to PCs

From CNET: Not every generation of processor breaks new ground. Intel's 12th generation introduced its hybrid core "Alder Lake" architecture, which like Apple's M series of processors splits the CPU cores into performance-optimized and efficiency-optimized types. For the 13th-gen "Raptor Lake"-architecture chips, Intel has refined the 12th-gen versions, albeit in a couple notable ways: The CPUs have twice the number of E cores than before, and the CPU maps input voltage to clock frequency more efficiently to facilitate a broader laptop-like range of power envelopes.

Boxed versions of the desktop processors go on sale Oct. 20, and they'll start appearing in systems like Alienware's Aurora R15 desktop later this year.

All told, Intel claims up to a 15% increase in single-threaded performance and 41% increase in multithreaded performance for its top-of-the-line Core i9-13900K, which also hits a peak boost-clock of 5.8GHz, a mere 100MHz better than AMD's top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 7950X. During the company's Innovation conference presentation Tuesday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said that the company expects to hit 6GHz in 2023, which isn't a big leap from where it is now.

Though the K series processors traditionally belong to Intel's gaming PC CPU line, the enhancements are more likely to improve speed the most for creative tasks like video and 3D rendering, as well as streaming games.

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