Intel 13th Gen Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake CPU Comes With Up To 68 MB of Cache As Allegedly Spotted In CPU-z
Earlier this year, it was reported that Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs could feature as much as 55% more cache compared to the Alder Lake CPUs. While Intel’s Raptor Lake will make little changes on the architectural side, it does come with improvements in the cache and clock speeds department. As seen in the alleged CPU-z screenshot, it looks like that may indeed happen.
— Raichu (@OneRaichu) May 18, 2022 The leaker states that the Intel Raptor Lake CPUs would feature up to 68 MB of combined cache (without adding L1 numbers). Intel definitely isn’t going to make use of any vertically stacked cache solution as of now or with Meteor Lake CPUs as we have already seen test chips without vertical stacking technology but there sure is a future for that at Intel. For now, Intel is just going to offer more cache within the CPU dies though we don’t have the specifics or the exact number of L3/L2 cache that will be featured per chip. The Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs come with 1280 KB of L2 and 3072 KB of L3 cache per core while the Gracemont cores feature 2048 KB of L2 and 3072 KB of L3 cache per cluster (a cluster comprises four Gracemont cores). We know that Raptor Lake CPUs will come with a brand new Raptor Cove core design and will offer up to 24 cores and 32 threads. That’s 8 Raptor Cove and 16 Gracemont Enhanced cores for the top SKU for a total of 32 threads. If the existing cache counts are to be considered, then that’s 36 MB of L3 cache for all cores and 18 MB of L2 cache which gives us a total of 54 MB of Smart Cache for the top SKU. But as said before, Rapor Lake might give us an even higher per-core cache count. It is estimated that for 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs, Intel is going to feature 2 MB L2 / 3 MB L3 cache per Raptor Cove core while each Gracemont Cluster will feature 4 MB L2 and 3 MB L3 cache. That’s going to give us 36 MB L3 cache across all cores, 16 MB (2x8) for P-cores & 16 MB (4x4) for E-cores. Intel Raptor Lake & Alder Lake CPU Cache Configurations (Rumored):
Raptor Lake P-Core L3 - 3 MB (3 x 8 = 24MB) Alder Lake P-Core L3 - 3 MB (3 x 8 = 24 MB) Raptor Lake P-Core L2 - 2 MB (2 x 8 = 16 MB) Alder Lake P-Core L2 - 1.25 MB (1.25 x 8 = 10 MB) Raptor Lake E-Core L3 - 3 MB (3 x 4 = 12 MB) Alder Lake E-Core L3 - 2 MB (2 x 2 = 4 MB) Raptor Lake E-Core L2 - 4 MB (4 x 4 = 16 MB) Alder Lake E-Core L2 - 2 MB (2 x 2 = 4 MB) Raptor Lake Total Cache (L3+L2) = 68 MB Alder Lake Total Cache (L3 + L2) = 42 MB
If this ends up being true, we are looking at a 55% increase in the total cache count for Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs. Now AMD will still retain the edge with its standard Non-V-Cache parts that are equipped with 64 MB of L3 cache and 96 MB on the V-Cache SKUs but this would mean that the blue team can recoup its lead quite significantly with the added cache and core count along with a higher clock speed that is expected from a further improved 10ESF (Intel 7) process node. Latency figures were also provided which show that the Intel Raptor Lake CPUs could offer better latency in cache-dependent scenarios compared to Alder Lake. Now, this isn’t as big of a cache size as AMD’s 3D V-Cache parts which feature up to 96 MB of L3 cache and more when you combine the L2 with it but it should improve upon gaming and workload performance nicely. The leaker has also previously pointed to Raptor Lake CPUs clocking as high as 5.8 GHz which will make them the fastest clocked CPUs. So it looks like Intel will be competing against Raphael ‘Zen 4’ with increased cache, higher clocks, and more cores (in a hybrid fashion). Intel Raptor Lake-S Desktop CPU Lineup & Configurations According to the leaked data, the lineup will consist of three segments that were leaked out in the recent power recommendations. These include the ‘K’ series enthusiast SKUs rated at 125W, 65W mainstream SKUs, and 35W low-power SKUs. Coming to the top-end variants, we will be getting up to 24 cores followed by 16 core, 10 core, 4 core, and 2 core variants. The SKUs are detailed below:
Intel Core i9 K-Series (8 Golden + 16 Grace) = 24 Cores / 32 Threads / 68 MB? Intel Core i7 K-Series (8 Golden + 8 Grace) = 16 Cores / 24 Threads / 54 MB? Intel Core i5 K-Series (6 Golden + 8 Grace) = 14 Cores / 20 Threads / 44 MB? Intel Core i5 S-Series (6 Golden + 4 Grace) = 14 Cores / 16 Threads / 37 MB? Intel Core i3 S-Series (4 Golden + 0 Grace) = 4 Cores / 8 Threads / 20 MB? Intel Pentium S-Series (2 Golden + 0 Grace) = 4 Cores / 4 Threads / 10 MB?
The enthusiast 125W Intel Raptor Lake-S Desktop SKUs will feature Core i9 models featuring up to 8 Raptor Cove cores and 16 Gracemont cores for a total of 24 cores and 32 threads. Intel’s Core i7 lineup will consist of 16 cores (8+8), Core i5 models will consist of 14 cores (6+8) and 10 cores (6+4) & finally, we have the Core i3 models which will feature 4 cores but without any efficiency cores. The lineup will also include Pentium SKUs which will feature just 2 Raptor Cove cores. All Core variants will feature a 32 EU (256 core) enhanced Xe integrated GPU. Certain Core i5 and Pentium variants will also come configured with 24 EU and 16 EU iGPUs. The Intel Raptor Lake CPU lineup will launch around the same time as AMD’s Zen 4 Rapahel family which will comprise next-generation Ryzen Desktop CPUs. The new AM5 platform is confirmed to get DDR5 support while Raptor Lake might offer both DDR5 and DDR4 flavored motherboards.