[Hardware] Intel Confirms Several Next-Gen CPU & GPU Families: Raptor Lake, Meteor Lake, Xe-HPG DG2 Gaming Graphics Cards, Ponte Vecchio 600W Liquid Cooled & Emerald Rapids HEDT Chips

[_Happy boy]

Intel has listed down several next-generation CPU & GPU products on its official webpage which include the likes of Raptor Lake, Meteor Lake, Xe-HPG DG2 graphics cards, and several HPC class designs such as Emerald Lake & Ponte Vecchio. While we have all heard about these products at some point, the official listings also provide some additional details and all credit goes to Komachi and Momomo_US in finding these out.

Intel's Unreleased & Next-Generation CPU / GPU Families Confirmed - Raptor Lake, Meteor Lake, Xe-HPG DG2 For Consumers & Emerald Lake, Ponte Vecchio For HPC
There are several lineups to go through so we will divide the article into two segments, one for the CPUs and the other for the GPUs. The Intel CPU families that have been confirmed include the 13th Generation Raptor Lake & 14th Generation Meteor Lake. Well, Intel already confirmed Meteor Lake a few days back but we get a few more tidbits.

These two families are aimed at the consumer end & for servers, Intel has listed down its Emerald Lake and Diamond Lake families that will succeed the Sapphire Rapids and Granite Rapids Xeon CPUs. On the GPU front, Intel has listed down several of its Xe-HPG DG2 GPU-based graphics card configurations and also pointed out a specific variant of its flagship Ponte Vecchio GPU. So let's start off with the CPUs.

Intel 13th Generation Raptor Lake Desktop (Consumer) CPUs
The listing itself doesn't reveal any new specifications but does confirm that the Raptor Lake CPUs do exist and will now be part of the 13th Gen Intel Core CPU family. The Raptor Lake CPUs are also listed alongside Alder Lake CPUs (S-Series) which more or less confirms that they will be compatible with the LGA 1700 socket.

To start off with what we know so far, Intel Raptor Lake CPUs will be replacing Alder Lake but it won't be a huge change as we will get to see moving from Rocket Lake to Alder Lake. Alder Lake 12th Gen' CPUs will be the first Intel CPUs to utilize a hybrid core design approach while being based on the 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process. It will also get a brand new platform that will support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. Raptor Lake will essentially carry most of these features over while offering slight upgrades to the platform and core changes.

For the desktop Intel Raptor Lake parts, it is stated that the lineup will get new hybrid CPU core changes for improved core performance. We know that Alder Lake maxes out at 16 cores and 24 threads. These include 8 cores based on the Golden Cove architecture and 8 cores based on the Gracemont core architecture. It is expected that Raptor Lake would reuse these cores but we can expect some changes to the way cache and clocks are handled for both desktop and mobility CPU parts.

There's also a mention of CPU cache for gaming which could be Intel's answer to AMD's own game cache. We don't know yet if this will be some embedded DRAM cache featured on Raptor Lake or a beefed-up L2/L3 design but we can definitely see some big performance upgrades in games that will help Intel compete with the absolute massive caches that AMD's Ryzen CPUs have to offer. The Intel vPro technology will also be expanded upon in terms of feature set. While Raptor Lake CPUs for the desktop will utilize DDR5-4800 and feature up to 48 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, mobility variants will get support for new LPDDR5X memory and also get a new DLVR power delivery system.

Intel 14th Generation Meteor Lake Desktop (Consumer) CPUs
Intel also confirms Meteor Lake, its 14th Generation Desktop CPU family, on its official webpage. We already got some details from Intel such as the fact that Intel's Meteor Lake line of desktop and mobility CPUs are expected to be based on a new line of Cove core architecture. This is rumored to be known as the 'Redwood Cove' as was reported by MLID (Moore's Law is Dead) and will be based on a 7nm EUV process node. It is stated that the Redwood Cove is designed from the ground up to be an agnostic node which means that it can be fabricated at different fabs. There are references mentioned that point out to TSMC to be a backup or even a partial supplier for the Redwood Cove-based chips. This might tell us why Intel is stating multiple manufacturing processes for the CPU family.

The Meteor Lake CPUs may possibly be the first CPU generation from Intel to say farewell to the ring bus interconnect architecture. There are also rumors that Meteor Lake could be a fully 3D-Stacked design and could utilize an I/O die sourced from an external fab (TSMC sighted again). It is highlighted that Intel will be officially utilizing its Foveros Packaging Technology on the CPU to inter-connect the various dies on the chip (XPU).

The Meteor Lake Desktop CPU family is expected to retain support on the LGA 1700 socket which is the same socket used by Alder Lake & Raptor Lake processors. We can expect DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5.0 support. The platform will support both DDR5 & DDR4 memory with the mainstream and budget tier options going for DDR4 memory DIMMs while the premium & high-end offerings going for DDR5 DIMMs. The site also lists down both Meteor Lake P and Meteor Lake M CPUs that will be aimed at mobility platforms.Intel Granite Rapids, Emerald Rapids, Diamond Rapids Future Xeon / HEDT CPU Families
Aside from the consumer-oriented lineups, we also have confirmation on the existence of the Intel Emerald Rapids and Diamond Rapid processors. According to the listings, it looks like the Sapphire Rapids family of 4th Gen Xeon Scalable Processors will be replaced by Emerald Rapids on the same Eagle Stream platform.

Moving forward, Intel is expected to update its Xeon platform with Mountain Stream and Birch Stream. Now interestingly, both Granite and Diamond Rapids are listed for Mountain Stream but only Diamond Rapids is listed for the Birch Stream platform. The Diamond Stream platform will replace Granite Rapids as its successor but we don't know the exact details regarding the Mountain and Birch Stream platforms yet.

Previous reports have stated that Granite Rapids will arrive on the Birch Stream platform and will be compatible with the Birch Stream platform too. So it is likely that the Birch Stream platform will support both Granite Rapids-SP and Diamond Rapids-SP chips while Mountain Stream will support Granite Rapids-AP and Diamond Rapids-AP chips. Granite Rapids is currently pitted to launch in 2023 on the 7nm process node while Diamond Rapids will launch around 2024 and feature either an advanced version of the 7nm process node or a 5nm process from Intel.