To counter AMD’s V-Cache approach, Intel may introduce a dramatic cache overhaul in its next 13th Generation Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs. According to a tweet from OneRaichu, Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs are getting a substantial cache change.
The Intel Alder Lake CPUs currently have up to 44 MB of cache, with 30 MB of L3 cache and 14 MB of L2 cache. The cache is estimated to gain an increase of up to 55 percent with 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs.
According to the leaker, Intel Raptor Lake CPUs will have up to 68 MB of aggregate cache (without adding L1 numbers). Intel isn’t planning to deploy any vertically stacked cache solutions right now or with Meteor Lake CPUs because we’ve already seen test chips without vertical stacking technology, but it does have a future at Intel.
For the time being, Intel will simply provide more cache within the CPU dies, however, we don’t know the specifications or the exact number of L3/L2 cache per chip.
The Gracemont cores have 2048 KB of L2 and 3072 KB of L3 cache per cluster, whereas the Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs have 1280 KB of L2 and 3072 KB of L3 cache per core (a cluster comprises four Gracemont cores). Raptor Lake processors will have a new Raptor Cove core design, with up to 24 cores and 32 threads. For the top SKU, that’s 8 Raptor Cove and 16 Gracemont Enhanced cores for a total of 32 threads. If the existing cache counts are taken into account, the top SKU has 36 MB of L3 cache for all cores and 18 MB of L2 cache, for a total of 54 MB of Smart Cache. However, as previously said, Raptor Lake may provide us with an even greater per-core cache count.
Intel is expected to include 2 MB L2 / 3 MB L3 cache per Raptor Cove core in 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs, while each Gracemont Cluster will have 4 MB L2 and 3 MB L3 cache. This gives us a total of 36 MB L3 cache for all cores, with 16 MB (2×8) for P-cores and 16 MB (4×4) 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 – 3 MB (3 x 2 = 6 MB)
- Raptor Lake Total Cache (L3+L2) = 68 MB
- Alder Lake Total Cache (L3 + L2) = 44 MB
If this is correct, Intel’s 13th Generation Raptor Lake CPUs will have a 55 percent increase in the total cache count. Now, AMD will retain the advantage with its standard Non-V-Cache parts, which have 64 MB of L3 cache and 96 MB on the V-Cache SKUs, but with the added cache and core count, as well as the higher clock speed expected from a further improved 10ESF (Intel 7) process node, the blue team will be able to recoup its lead quite significantly.
Intel Raptor Lake-S Desktop CPU Lineup & Configurations
The lineup will be made up of three portions, according to the stolen data, which were leaked out in the latest power recommendations. These include 125W enthusiast SKUs, 65W mainstream SKUs, and 35W low-power SKUs from the ‘K’ series. The top-end variations will have up to 24 cores, with 16 core, 10 core, 4 core, and 2 core variants following. The following are the SKUs:
- 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?
Core i9 versions with up to 8 Raptor Cove cores and 16 Gracemont cores for a total of 24 cores and 32 threads will be available in the enthusiast 125W Intel Raptor Lake-S Desktop SKUs. Intel’s Core i7 processors will have 16 cores (8+8), Core i5 processors will have 14 cores (6+8) and 10 cores (6+4), and the Core i3 processors will have 4 cores but no efficiency cores. There will also be Pentium SKUs with only two Raptor Cove cores in the range. A 32 EU (256 core) improved Xe integrated GPU will be included in all Core versions. GPUs with 24 EU and 16 EU will be available on several Core i5 and Pentium models.
Intel Raptor Lake-S Desktop CPU Power Requirements
The Intel Raptor Lake-S 125W variant will have a PL1 rating of 125W (125W in performance mode), a PL2 rating of 188W (253W in performance mode), and a PL4 rating of 238W when it comes to power consumption (314W in performance mode). The PL4 rating has dropped due to the new reactive operation, while the PL2 rating has increased somewhat when compared to Intel Alder Lake (253W vs 241W).
The 65W Alder Lake chips, which have a PL1 rating of 65W (65W in perf mode), a PL2 rating of 133W (219W in perf mode), and a PL4 rating of 179W, are in the same boat (277W in perf mode). Finally, we have the Intel Alder Lake-S 35W variations, which have PL1 ratings of 35W (35W in perf mode), 80W (106W in perf mode), and 118W, respectively (152W in perf mode).
The Intel Raptor Lake CPU lineup will be available around the same time as AMD’s Zen 4 Rapahel family of next-generation Ryzen Desktop processors. DDR5 support has been verified for the new AM5 platform, and Raptor Lake may provide both DDR5 and DDR4 flavored motherboards.
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