Intel is relying on more cores to boost performance in its leaked 13th generation CPU lineup

Our understanding of Intel’s 13th generation CPUs, codenamed “Raptor Lake,” continues to take shape ahead of its planned launch this fall. The motherboards for the current Alder Lake chips were Adding initial support to themnow a default list of desktop CPU configuration (As mentioned by Tom’s Hardware) suggests that Intel will rely on small efficiency cores of CPUs (electronic cores) for much of its performance gains.

Based on Intel’s disclosures, we know that the Raptor Lake CPUs will use the same CPU, GPU architecture and Intel 7 manufacturing process as Alder Lake. However, the larger performance cores (P-cores) will be based on an architecture called “Raptor Cove” Technical documents do not distinguish between them He intended “Golden Bay” by Alder Lake. The electronic cores will be based on the same Atom-derived Gracemont architecture that Alder Lake uses. Large cores handle the heavy lifting and provide the best performance for games and other applications that benefit from good single-core performance, while electronic cores work on low-priority and background tasks as well as workloads such as CPU-based video encoding and rendering functions that can power all processor cores simultaneously. It’s hard to make accurate comparisons of performance, but AnandTech Standards for Electronic Cores in Isolation It states that it is faster than the 6th generation mid-range Skylake CPU most of the time.

Intel also has confirmed Some Raptor Lake chips will have up to 24 physical cores, spread across eight P cores and 16 electronic cores. Alder Lake CPUs have a maximum of eight cores, for a total of 16 physical cores.

This purported CPU list is based on that knowledge, indicating that high-end Raptor Lake Core i9 CPUs will all have 16 cores, up from the current eight, and that Raptor Lake Core i7s will all have eight cores where Alder Lake i7s include Either eight or four. Groups of four or eight cores will also come to the entire Core i5 level for the first time. The current i5-12600 (non-K), 12500 and 12400 CPUs have no cores at all, while the i5-13600 and 13500 will reportedly have eight cores, and the i5-13400 will come with four. The only Raptor Lake chip with number The e-cores appear to be the i3-13100, which remains a quad-core CPU with all the P-cores.

This “add more cores” approach aligns with Intel’s strategy to boost performance on 8th, 9th and 10th generation CPUs. These were all based on some versions of the company’s 2015-era Skylake architecture and 14nm manufacturing process, but the company has steadily added more cores to counteract AMD succeeds with its Ryzen CPU lineup. Although Intel uses the same manufacturing process as Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, it becomes easier to make larger, faster chips in larger quantities as chip throughput improves and the number of defects decreases.

Thirteenth generation chips are listed at the same TDP levels as their 12th generation counterparts, although core CPU frequencies are low for each chip except for the i3-13100. Turbo Boost frequencies will likely be slightly higher than 12th-generation CPUs, so Intel can still claim the single-chain performance boost. However, when all cores are loaded at once, you may not be able to run at Alder Lake speeds and stay within Intel’s default power envelope. As with Alder Lake, raising the power limits from Intel’s default settings should dramatically increase performance for most of these chips at the expense of (Sometimes disproportionately) High energy use and temperatures.

AMD’s forthcoming Zen 4 CPU architecture will still use a more traditional design, with different numbers of “P-core” (AMD doesn’t call it that, but for consistency, it’s helpful to think of it that way). Early and very serious rumors suggest that the Zen 5 could feature a hybrid design, with Zen 5 P-cores and E-cores based on a modified version of Zen 4, but AMD hasn’t confirmed this, and we’re not likely to get any official news on Zen. 5 until next year at the earliest.

These hybrid CPU architectures have intermittently caused issues with outdated or obscure software, including Some old games And the Test program This, for one reason or another, interprets the presence of a second CPU architecture as the presence of a second physical computer. But over time, these issues started Resolved via Windows patches and app updatesand at least some computers will allow you to beat it in the short term by shutting down the electronic cores.