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The battle of AMD Ryzen 7000 vs Intel Raptor Lake has reached an apex. This is because both the latest processor generations are now officially available.
The good news for AMD fans is that there are a ton of Black Friday AMD deals for you to get your hands on – which you can view here. For the Intel fans among you, we’ve got a selection of Intel Black Friday deals here.
We’ve also cherry-picked a number of CPU deals below, which include great savings on Intel’s 12th gen chipset, so you can jump straight in and start saving:
Both processor generations are fully geared up for PCIe 5.0 compatibility and DDR5 support, but with very different approaches. We’re contrasting both upcoming chipset families against each other to arm you with all you need to know.
NOW READ: Best Black Friday AMD Deals in 2022
Intel Raptor Lake, the 13th Gen, is an evolution of the existing microarchitecture built upon LGA 1700. This is the same socket that housed Alder Lake last year, as the Hybrid system is once again in use.
A mixture of P-cores and E-cores are in use for more consistent performance for gaming and general navigation. The former is used for processor-intensive tasks with the latter handling the lighter loads.
AMD Ryzen 7000 series, however, is an all-out reimagining forged for the AM5 (LGA 1718) socket. The new Zen 4 architecture is taking full advantage of a 5nm node chipset.
This is in direct contrast to Intel’s latest line which is still built on 10mn, codenamed Intel 7. AMD has continued to get smaller, which results in the latest line having far higher TDPs, higher clock speeds, and stronger single-threaded performance.
NOW READ: Here are the best Intel Black Friday deals we’ve found so far
AMD Ryzen 7000 vs Intel Raptor Lake: at a glance
- PCIe 5.0 support
- DDR5 RAM
- Gen 5 SSD support
- 5.0+ GHz clock speeds
- Higher TDPs
Both the latest processor generations made by AMD and Intel are purpose-built for PCIe 5.0, the new bandwidth standard. This means support for NVMe Gen 5.0 SSDs, with around a 60% increase in speeds over the previous generation. More crucially, though, is the future-proofing which comes with far more overhead needed for data transfer.
The largest advantage of PCIe 5.0 is access to DDR5 RAM, which both processors will support. Alder Lake was first with this adoption, with Intel’s chipset family once again supporting older DDR4 memory, too.
You won’t have to replace your existing Z690, H670, or B660 motherboard for either memory type. This is in direct contrast to AMD, however, as the Ryzen 7000 line will only support DDR5 as standard.
AMD Ryzen 7000 vs Intel Raptor Lake: motherboards
Those Ryzen faithful looking to try and save a few bucks with the cheaper and more accessible DDR4 gaming RAM are out of luck. The good news on this front, though, is that prices for DDR5 memory modules have come down considerably, so that should ease the sting, somewhat.
There’s a wide range of AM5 motherboards coming at, or around, the launch window of Ryzen 7000. This includes the higher-end X670 and X670E variants, and the budget-orientated B650 and B650E, too.
There’s a serious power draw of the upcoming TDP wattage with AMD’s chipsets as performance doesn’t come without a lot of juice. It’s been confirmed that the highest-end 7950X will have a default TDP of 170W. By contrast, the power draw of Raptor Lake is 125W.
This creates the question of what the thermal loads could look like, as one credible leaker, Enthusiast Citizen posted an alleged early thermal report. Should this information be correct, AMD’s flagship CPU will run at a scorching 95 degrees when pushed to 230W.
Effective CPU cooling is needed, and we’ve thought about it, too. Our best CPU cooler for Intel Core i9-13900K has you covered if you’re in the market for a Raptor Lake machine.
AMD Ryzen 7000 vs Raptor Lake: performance
Now that both processor generations are out, we know just how the two stack up against each other. We won’t deep dive into it here, as we have extensive features on the topic on a more specific basis such as:
- Intel Core i5-13400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 7600
- Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
- Intel Core i7-13700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
- Intel Core i9-13900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X.
In short, the mainstream entries from both companies are incredibly competitive, but the i5-13600K pulls ahead slightly of the 7600X in synthetic single-core and multi-core performance.
Real-world testing, though, and things are very negligible. They are both solid options, so the choice comes down to the preference of motherboard and overclocking potential.
The differences between the two flagship models are where the strengths of Raptor Lake and Zen 4 shine the brightest. At the top end of the spectrum, i9-13900K and 13900KS manage to outrun the 7900X and 7950X in the same circumstances.
That speaks to the extra cores (more specifically the hyperthreaded E-cores), and extra threads available. Either choice is still excellent for gaming in 2022.
We are still expecting a boost from AMD with its new 3D-V Cache-enabled SKUs to release in Q1 2023. But whether that substantially changes the picture remains to be seen. Read more about those here:
AMD Ryzen 7000 vs Raptor Lake: Which is cheaper?
The AMD Ryzen 7000 series launched on September 27 2022 with four X-series models available. These are now joined by the non-X series as follows:
- Ryzen 5 7600 ($229 MSRP) – Amazon
- Ryzen 5 7600X ($299 MSRP) – Amazon
- Ryzen 7 7700 ($329 MSRP) – Amazon
- Ryzen 7 7700X ($399 MSRP) – Amazon
- Ryzen 9 7900 ($429 MSRP) – Amazon
- Ryzen 9 7900X ($549 MSRP) – Amazon
- Ryzen 9 7950X ($699 MSRP) – Amazon
What’s most competitive about the Ryzen 7000 line is how the prices have stayed consistent since the previous generation, as the 5600X also launched at the same $299 price point, too. The new mainstream chip, therefore, remained at the same rate. It’s the same story when evaluating the Ryzen 7 chipset, in which the new 7800X will launch at the same price that the 5800X did.
The most consumer-friendly move made on AMD’s part, though, is the choice to drop the rate of its flagship processor by $100. This means that the Ryzen 9 7950X, which while still pricey, is considerably cheaper than its 5000 series equivalent was two years ago.
As well, we now have slimmed-down ‘non-X’ Ryzen 7000 CPUs too. These CPUs offer improved efficiency, decreased power requirements, and save users some cash too!
Raptor Lake was released on October 20 2022 with a total of six different models. Intel has filled out the family since then, but here are the key members – not including the KF (overclockable but not integrated graphics, variants), or Core i3 CPUs:
- Intel Core i5-13400F ($196) – Amazon
- Intel Core i5-13400 ($221) – Amazon
- Intel Core i5-13500 ($232)- Amazon
- Intel Core i5-13600 ($255)
- Intel Core i5-13600K ($339) – Amazon
- Intel Core i7-13700F ($359) – Amazon
- Intel Core i7-13700 ($384) – Amazon
- Intel Core i7-13700K ($489) – Amazon
- Intel Core i9-13900F ($524) – Amazon
- Intel Core i9-13900 ($549)- Amazon
- Intel Core i9-13900K ($589) – Amazon
- Intel Core i9-13900KS ($599) – Amazon
AMD Ryzen 7000 vs Raptor Lake: which is faster?
We’ve touched upon the performance above, but overall, Raptor Lake is ever so slightly faster than Ryzen 7000 from mainstream to enthusiast-level. This is due to more cores and threads available and slightly higher boost clock speeds.
Which is cheaper AMD Ryzen 7000 or Intel 13th Gen?
Roughly speaking, AMD’s chipset is cheaper than Intel’s across the board. What’s most competitive about the Ryzen 7000 line is how the prices have stayed consistent since the previous generation, as the 5600X also launched at the same $299 price point, too. The new mainstream chip, therefore, remains at the same rate. It’s the same story when evaluating the Ryzen 7 chipset, in which the new 7800X will launch at the same price that the 5800X did.
