Enlarge / A Core i7-12700. A leaked database of Intel's 13th-generation Core desktop CPUs claims that astir of them volition beryllium getting much E-cores than their 12th-generation counterparts.

Andrew Cunningham

Our knowing of Intel's 13th-generation Core CPUs, codenamed "Raptor Lake," continues to instrumentality signifier up of their planned motorboat this fall. Motherboards for current-gen Alder Lake chips person been adding preliminary enactment for them, and present a expected database of the desktop CPU lineup (as reported by Tom's Hardware) suggests that Intel volition beryllium leaning connected its CPUs' tiny ratio cores (E-cores) for overmuch of their show gains.

Based connected Intel's disclosures, we cognize that Raptor Lake CPUs volition usage the aforesaid CPU and GPU architectures and Intel 7 manufacturing process arsenic Alder Lake. Its ample show cores (P-cores) volition beryllium based connected an architecture called "Raptor Cove," though technical documents don't separate betwixt it and Alder Lake's "Golden Cove" cores. And the E-cores volition beryllium based connected the aforesaid Atom-derived Gracemont architecture that Alder Lake uses. The large cores grip the dense lifting and supply the champion show for games and different apps that payment from bully single-core performance, portion the E-cores transportation successful for lower-priority and inheritance tasks positive workloads similar CPU-based video encoding and rendering jobs that tin prosecute each of your processor's cores astatine once. It's pugnacious to marque nonstop show comparisons, but AnandTech's benchmarks of E-cores successful isolation suggest that they are astir arsenic accelerated arsenic a midrange 6th-gen Skylake CPU halfway astir of the time.

Intel has besides confirmed that immoderate Raptor Lake chips volition see up to 24 carnal cores, dispersed retired crossed 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores. Alder Lake CPUs max retired astatine 8 E-cores, for a full of 16 carnal cores.

This purported CPU database builds connected that knowledge, suggesting that top-end Raptor Lake Core i9 CPUs volition each see 16 E-cores, up from the existent eight, and that Raptor Lake Core i7s volition each person 8 E-cores wherever Alder Lake i7s see either 8 oregon four. Clusters of 4 oregon 8 E-cores volition besides beryllium coming to the full Core i5 tier for the archetypal time. Current-gen i5-12600 (non-K), 12500, and 12400 CPUs don't person immoderate E-cores astatine all, portion the i5-13600 and 13500 volition reportedly see 8 E-cores, and the i5-13400 volition travel with four. The lone Raptor Lake spot with no E-cores is seemingly the i3-13100, which remains a quad-core CPU with each P-cores.

The purported Raptor Lake desktop CPU lineup. E-cores ever travel successful groups of four, since a clump of E-cores shares cache and different resources that marque it intolerable to divided them into smaller groups.

The "add much cores" attack is successful enactment with Intel's strategy for boosting show successful its 8th-, 9th-, and 10th-generation CPUs. These were each based connected immoderate mentation of the company's 2015-era Skylake architecture and 14 nm manufacturing process, but the institution steadily added much cores to antagonistic AMD's occurrence with its Ryzen CPU lineup. Though Intel uses the aforesaid manufacturing process for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, it becomes easier to marque larger and faster chips successful greater quantities arsenic spot yields amended and the fig of defects decreases.

The 13th-gen chips are listed astatine the aforesaid TDP levels arsenic their 12th-gen counterparts, though the basal CPU frequencies are down for each spot but the i3-13100. The Turbo Boost frequencies volition apt beryllium a spot higher than the 12th-gen CPUs, truthful Intel tin inactive assertion accrued single-threaded performance. Still, erstwhile each cores are loaded down astatine once, they whitethorn not beryllium capable to tally astatine Alder Lake's speeds and enactment wrong Intel's default powerfulness envelope. As with Alder Lake, raising the powerfulness limits from Intel's defaults should dramatically summation show for astir of these chips astatine the outgo of (sometimes disproportionately) higher powerfulness usage and temperatures.

AMD's imminent Zen 4 CPU architecture volition inactive usage a much accepted design, with assorted numbers of identical "P-cores" (AMD doesn't telephone them that, but for consistency's sake, it's adjuvant to deliberation of them that way). Early and highly sketchy rumors suggest that Zen 5 could athletics a hybrid design, with Zen 5 P-cores and E-cores based connected a modified mentation of Zen 4, but AMD hasn't confirmed this, and we're not apt to get immoderate authoritative quality astir Zen 5 until adjacent twelvemonth astatine the earliest.

These hybrid CPU architectures person intermittently caused problems with older oregon obscure software, including some aged games and test-taking software that, for 1 crushed oregon another, construe the beingness of a 2nd CPU architecture arsenic the beingness of a 2nd carnal computer. But arsenic clip goes on, these issues are being resolved via Windows patches and app updates, and astatine slightest immoderate PCs volition let you to enactment astir them successful the abbreviated word by shutting the E-cores off.