Intel Z790 motherboards with DDR5-6800 and DDR4-5333 memory support

Intel’s Z790 motherboards will soon be available for 13th Generation Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs and will offer improved DDR5 and DDR4 memory support.

Intel Z790 Motherboards to Offer Faster DDR5 and DDR4 Memory Support for 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs

in a spreadsheet leaked by Video card, possibly from MSI, we can see that the Z790 chipset motherboards will offer faster DDR5 and DDR4 memory speeds than the existing Z690 motherboards. A total of three motherboards are listed, one supporting DDR5 and the other two supporting DDR4.

Intel Z790 DDR5 Motherboard Datasheet from MSI (Image Credits: Videocardz):

According to the datasheet, the DDR5 Z790 motherboard will have four DIMM slots supporting 128GB capacities with the following speeds:

• 1 DIMM per channel (1-Rank) – up to DDR5-6800+
• 1 DIMM per channel (1-Rank) – up to DDR5-6400+
• 2 DIMMs per channel (2-Rank) – up to DDR5-6400+
• 2 DIMMs per channel (2-Rank) – up to DDR5-5600+

As for the Z790 DDR4 motherboards, the maximum memory speed supported here will be up to DDR4-5333+. Listed speeds for the faster Z790 DDR4 configuration are:

• 1 DIMM per channel (1-Rank) – up to DDR4-5333+
• 1 DIMM per channel (1-Rank) – up to DDR4-4800+
• 2 DIMMs per channel (2-Rank) – up to DDR4-4400+
• 2 DIMMs per channel (2-Rank) – up to DDR4-4000+

Intel Z790 DDR4 Motherboard Datasheet from MSI (Image Credits: Videocardz):

The fastest memory speeds on Z690 motherboards are listed below for DDR5 and DDR4 motherboards in each respective segment.

• MEG (DDR5) – up to DDR5-6666+
• MPG (DDR5) – up to DDR5-6666+
• MAG (DDR5) – up to DDR5-6400+
• MPG (DDR4) – up to DDR5-5200+
• MAG (DDR4) – up to DDR4-5200+

By comparison, the AMD X670E motherboards listed so far range from DDR5-6600 to DDR5-6000 speeds. We recently reported on two ASRock X670E motherboards and recently Biostar X670E Valkyrie, which detailed its specifications. You can read more about it here.

Biostar X670E Valkyrie motherboard:

• Supports Dual Channel DDR5 6000+(OC)/ 5800(OC)/ 5600(OC)/ 5400(OC)/ 5200(OC)/ 5000(OC)/ 4800
• 4 x DDR5 DIMM Memory Slots, Max. Supports up to 128 GB Memory
• Each DIMM supports 8/16/32 GB DDR5 non-ECC modules

ASRock X670E Taichi Carrera Motherboard

• Dual Channel DDR5 Memory Technology
• 4 x DDR5 DIMM slots
• Supports DDR5 ECC / non-ECC, up to 6600+(OC) unbuffered memory
• Max. system memory capacity: 128 GB
• Supports Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) and Extended Profiles for Overclocking (EXPO) memory modules

Intel Z790 motherboards will be available in October along with the 13th Generation Raptor Lake CPU line. The motherboards will support PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 memory There will be no PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 slot connects directly to CPU Gen 5 lanes unless board vendors decide to split the discrete GPU x16 lanes.

Expected Features of Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs:

• Up to 24 Cores and 32 Threads
• New Raptor Cove CPU cores (Higher P-Core IPC)
• Based on the 10nm ESF ‘Intel 7’ process node
• Clock speeds up to 6.0 GHz (expected)
• Double E-Cores in certain variants
• Increased cache for both P-Cores and E-Cores
• Supported on existing LGA 1700 motherboards
• New Z790, H770 and B760 motherboards
• Up to 28 PCIe lanes (PCH Gen 4 + Gen 3)
• Up to 28 PCIe lanes (CPU Gen 5 x16 + Gen 4 x12)
• Dual Channel DDR5-5600 Memory Support
• 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes
• Improved Overclock Features
• 125W PL1 TDP (Flagship SKU)
• AI PCIe M.2 Technology
• Release Q4 2022 (October)

Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs including the flagship Core i9-13900K is expected It will be released on the Z790 platform in October. CPUs will counter AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPU lineup which will begin in the fall of 2022.

Intel Raptor Lake vs AMD Raphael Desktop CPU Comparison ‘Pending’