Leaked slides reveal low-down on Intel 13th gen CPU specs and Z690 chipset

The hype is quickly building up for all the next-gen gaming parts that are about to hit the market later this year. Both Nvidia and AMD keep teasing reveals for next gen graphics cards, AMD has officially shown its hand for the Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs, and now we have confidence of what to expect from Intel. Aside from weeks of corroborating rumors, there are now leaked slides for Intel’s 13th gen CPU specs out in the wild.

The leak comes from igor’s lab, long known for accurate industry sources. The 20 slides appear to be legitimate Intel documents, likely distributed early to partners as part of the product briefing. Some of it is clearly just general marketing material, rehashing technologies that were originally introduced with the Alder Lake platform last year.

The prize info reveals what’s new with 13th gen “Raptor Lake” CPUs, and there’s even info on the new Z790 chipset that will power enthusiast grade motherboards. In short, it’s about what we expected and what was discussed in the leak from last week. Intel’s next round of CPUs will bring higher clock speeds, much more L2 cache, and more E-cores to the lineup.

(Image source: igor’s lab).

More to like over Alder Lake

Gamers love to see high clock speeds, and the i9-13900K should do that well enough. The slide lists the Thermal Velocity Boost maximum of 5.8 GHz, which exceeds the 12900K by 600 MHz. That’s a noteworthy improvement that will reflect better framerates in games, provided there’s no thermal throttling. We can also see the maximum power draw will reach 253W, up from 240 over the prior gen. It’s likely the 13900K will require a 360mm liquid cooler to stay cool and truly thrive at those frequencies under load.

Additionally, the slide lists DDR5 support up to 5600, and shows that DDR4 3200 support will continue into the next gen. Those who value the ability to reuse older components will certainly appreciate this. Unfortunately, we’re also noting that the PCIe 5.0 support will remain the same configuration. That will be 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes, plus four PCIe 4.0 lanes directly from the CPU to the primary graphics card slot and m.2 slot. AMD offers up to 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes on the Ryzen 7000 Series.

(Image source: igor’s lab).

Lastly, there appears to be a Z790 chipset coming. It will provide more supplementary PCIe 4.0 lanes aside from what the CPU directly offers. The rest is relatively minute for most gamers. Perhaps Intel will at least produce the Z790 chipset on 10nm versus the 14nm Z690. That could improved performance and power efficiency and enable cheaper cooling solutions on the motherboards.

Keep in mind this info on 13th gen CPU specs is still unofficial until Intel officially presents the slides. There was some missing info in these slides as well, and pricing remains a mystery.