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Intel Raptor Lake CPU with 24 cores and 32 threads appears in leaked benchmark

Alder Lake's time in the sun might soon be eclipsed by Intel's Raptor Lake gaming CPUs, but an early benchmark paints one chip with a bark worse than its bite

A 3D render of the rear of an Intel processor

Following the launch of Intel’s Alder Lake processors at the beginning of last month, hardware enthusiasts and leakers alike are already clawing for news about the company’s Raptor Lake chips, which are due to arrive in 2022. Now, leaker Komachi_Ensaka has discovered what looks like an early benchmark of a Raptor Lake CPU, giving us an idea of what the upcoming processors are capable of.

The unknown Intel processor briefly appeared on the BAPCo (Business Applications Performance Corporation) Crossmark benchmark database, boasting specs of 24 cores and 32 threads, identifying it as part of team blue’s new heterogeneous CPU design.

While the entry was quickly pulled after being shared, Tom’s Hardware immortalised the benchmark results with a screenshot. Unfortunately, when compared against the Core i9-12900K and AMD Ryzen 9 5950X in comparable setups, this Raptor Lake chip falls short in every category. It must be stressed, though, that this is likely an early engineering sample, so there are likely plenty of adjustments on the way to improve the microarchitecture’s performance across all applications.

We image that Intel’s 13th generation Core processors will offer at least some performance improvements over the current 12th gen lineup, as it should hopefully offer an upgrade path to those who have already bought Z690 boards, as the LGA 1700 socket will be backwards compatible with Raptor Lake chips.

Nonetheless, if Intel hopes to stay in the race for the best gaming CPU against AMD, then it needs to produce chips that will not only compete with team red’s Zen 3 lineup, but also combat Zen 3+ and Zen 4 which are both due to launch sometime in 2022.