Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs will continue to support DDR4
Has AMD missed a trick by going with DDR5 only?
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Intel’s13th Gen Raptor LakeCPU family will continue to support DDR4. According to a leaked list of as yet unreleased Asrock Z790 and H770 motherboards, there will be many 700-series motherboards that retain support for DDR4 memory. Asrock will certainly not be the only manufacturer to offer it.
The list comes fromVideocardz(viaComputerbase.de). The listed Asrock boards include models with a D4 suffix attached. D4 indicates DDR4 support, as it does with current generation 600-series boards.
The key takeaway is that Asrock will make several Z790 boards with DDR4 support. I had suspected that a number of lower tier H770 and B760 motherboards would support DDR4, with Z790 exclusively supporting DDR5, but that’s not the case.
The following list of Asrock 700-series motherboards is not a complete list of Asrock’s boards. B760 is completely missing as well as some others that are likely to follow after the launch, including a Z790 Aqua or Z790 OC Formula.
Intel has earned itself an advantage over AMD. Itsupcoming Zen 4 processorsonly support DDR5, which is fine from a performance point of view. It’s been rumoured that Zen 4 CPUs offer excellent DDR5 overclocking capabilities, but it does mean that a Zen 4 upgrade will mean a new CPU, motherboard and memory for most users.
Best DDR5 RAM: the latest and greatestBest DDR4 RAM: affordable and fast
Intel’s continuing support for DDR4 means that the total platform cost will be significantly lower. DDR4 is still more affordable than DDR5, and for many, you won’t have to buy memory at all, simply by reusing your old kit. Intel will definitely win more than a few buyers based on DDR4 support alone.
It makes sense that Intel will retain DDR4 support on 700 series motherboards given that 600 series boards and 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs already offer DDR4 support. 13th Gen CPUs are an evolutionary upgrade over 12th Gen models and both will continue to use the LGA1700 socket.
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So, if you’re coming from an older DDR4 system, or you’re fortunate to be using alovely low latency DDR4 kit(which is still perfectly viable for a gaming system in 2022 and beyond), it’s looking like a sure bet that you’ll be able to get at least a couple of years out of it yet.
Chris' gaming experiences go back to the mid-nineties when he conned his parents into buying an ‘educational PC’ that was conveniently overpowered to play Doom and Tie Fighter. He developed a love of extreme overclocking that destroyed his savings despite the cheaper hardware on offer via his job at a PC store. To afford more LN2 he began moonlighting as a reviewer for VR-Zone before jumping the fence to work for MSI Australia. Since then, he’s gone back to journalism, enthusiastically reviewing the latest and greatest components for PC & Tech Authority, PC Powerplay and currently Australian Personal Computer magazine and PC Gamer. Chris still puts far too many hours into Borderlands 3, always striving to become a more efficient killer.
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