Intel Raptor Lake could launch in September to land first blow against AMD in next-gen CPU wars
Intel has announced that its Innovation event for this year will take place on September 27 and 28, swiftly fuelling the fires of speculation that this is where we could see the launch of next-gen Raptor Lake desktop processors.
Intel Innovation is a conference where developers and the ‘tech elite’ get together for a bunch of workshops, demos and so forth, mainly focused on AI, the cloud, computing, and future, well, innovations.
It is also our “chance to hear about the latest launches”, and as you may recall, at last year’s Intel Innovation, the chip giant launched fresh processors in the form of Alder Lake.
So, the obvious expectation is that we could well see Raptor Lake revealed at Innovation 2022, given that these next-gen CPUs are inbound and expected to release around about that timeframe.
Analysis: Off to the races with Raptor Lake at the start of October, then?
If you recall, the Alder Lake unveiling at last year’s Intel Innovation was quite a big thing, and involved showing off the flagship CPU, the 12900K, being overclocked (by ‘Splave’) and setting some new records in the process (hitting 6.8GHz). That happened at the event which ran from October 27 and 28, with Alder Lake desktop chips actually going on sale come November 4, 2021 (officially, anyway, though some retailers jumped the gun a little).
We can then theorize that Raptor Lake processors could be revealed on September 27 and then go on sale in the first week of October. What makes this seem more likely is that we’ve seen quite a number of rumors popping up in recent times about Raptor Lake, which points to the launch coming closer, and some of that speculation has already suggested that Intel is aiming for an October release date for the 13th-gen chips; so this all ties neatly up. That doesn’t mean it’ll happen, of course, but there seems to be a convincing enough argument here in our books.
If Raptor Lake chips do hit shelves right at the beginning of October, that could beat AMD to the punch in terms of next-gen launch timing. Team Red does, of course, have its Ryzen 7000 CPUs inbound for later this year, and the current expectation is that these processors could also be launched in September, but that too is likely to be an initial reveal. And with chatter about AMD needing to clear ‘excess’ Ryzen 5000 stock before the Zen 4 launch, if Intel is moving to go on sale right at the start of October, there’s a possibility that Team Blue could land that all-important first blow in the battle of the next-gen CPUs.
With plenty of rumors circulating in recent times around the impressive performance boost that could be ushered in by Raptor Lake, at this point, perhaps the main question that remains on the lips of many is: how will Intel pitch the price tags of 13th-gen silicon?
The buzz on the grapevine, worryingly, is that Team Blue may be looking to increase asking prices for its chips, and this might include Raptor Lake – although quite how well raised prices will go down with consumers getting squeezed by inflation and the rising cost of living, we shall have to see. If it happens at all, of course, and we should be very cautious around assuming anything on that front.
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