Intel points to longer Raptor Lake life
Intel says Raptor Lake will remain part of its desktop strategy even as newer Core Ultra products continue to roll out. In comments to Club386, Intel enthusiast channel VP and GM Robert Hallock said Raptor Lake is “ not going anywhere ” and described it as “a big part” of the company’s plan, adding that the platform will remain “abundantly available.”
This means that users who didn’t upgrade to DDR5 platform on time, can rest assured that Intel is not saying goodbye to DDR4 compatible platform, which was LGA-1700. Intel’s LGA1700 Raptor Lake desktop chips, officially support both DDR4-3200 and DDR5-5600, which keeps them relevant for upgraders who want to reuse existing memory instead of moving to a DDR5-only platform.
Raptor Lake will continue to be abundantly available. […]
You’ve seen some new motherboard announcements that support both DDR4 and 5 on Raptor Lake… That is reflective of our overall confidence and expectations— Robert Hallock, VP and GM Intel
More hybrid motherboards with DDR5/DDR4 incoming
Hybrid motherboards that accept either DDR4 or DDR5 on the same board. He referenced recent Raptor Lake board launches as a “bridge between worlds,” and that lines up with products already appearing on the market. We covered one such board recently, ASRock’s H610M Combo II.
Source: ASRock
ASRock’s current layout only includes a single DDR4 slot, which means it is not a full dual-channel DDR4 solution. That makes the board more of a migration option than an ideal long-term enthusiast design. I would say this is more for a commercial/business market than for gamers.
LGA-1700 looks quite dead already
Intel has done little to extend LGA1700 in any official way. The platform has not received a new mainstream consumer release for some time. Bartlett Lake-S i s the latest addition tied to this socket, but it is not positioned as a consumer product. Even so, its 12 P-core configuration makes it interesting from a desktop perspective.
Modders have already shown that these CPUs can run on some Z790 motherboards, but this remains an unofficial path and not something we would recommend for everyday use. The broader point is that AMD continues to refresh AM4 with new SKUs nearly a decade after launch, while Intel appears far less interested in doing the same for LGA1700, a platform that dates back to Alder Lake in 2021.
Source: Club386
