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

Intel Z790 motherboards are coming soon for 13th Gen Raptor Lake desktop CPUs and will offer enhanced DDR5 and DDR4 memory support.

Intel Z790 motherboards will offer faster DDR5 and DDR4 memory support for 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs

In a data sheet filtered by Videocardz, presumably from MSI, we can see that Z790 chipset motherboards will offer faster DDR5 and DDR4 memory speeds compared to existing Z690 motherboards. A total of three motherboards have been listed, one supporting DDR5 and the other two supporting DDR4.

MSI Intel Z790 DDR5 Motherboard Data Sheet (Image Credits: Videocardz):

According to the data sheet, the DDR5 Z790 motherboard will feature four DIMM slots with support for 128GB capacities with speeds listed below:

• 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 ranks): up to DDR5-6400+
• 2 DIMMs per channel (2 ranks): up to DDR5-5600+

As for the Z790 DDR4 motherboards, it looks like the maximum supported memory speed here will be up to DDR4-5333+. The following are the speeds listed for the fastest Z790 DDR4 configuration:

• 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 ranks): up to DDR4-4400+
• 2 DIMMs per channel (2 ranks): up to DDR4-4000+

MSI Intel Z790 DDR4 Motherboard Data Sheet (Image Credits: Videocardz):

On Z690 motherboards, the fastest memory speeds 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+

For comparison, the AMD X670E motherboards listed so far have speeds from DDR5-6600 to DDR5-6000. We recently reported on two ASRock X670E and X670E Valkyrie motherboards from Biostar, whose specifications were recently listed in detail. You can read more about that here.

Biostar X670E Valkyrie motherboard:

• Support dual channel DDR5 6000+(OC)/ 5800(OC)/ 5600(OC)/ 5400(OC)/ 5200(OC)/ 5000(OC)/ 4800
• 4 DDR5 DIMM memory slots, max. Supports up to 128 GB of memory
• Each DIMM supports 8/16/32 GB non-ECC DDR5 modules

ASRock X670E Taichi Carrera Motherboard

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

Intel Z790 motherboards will launch in October alongside the 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPU lineup. Motherboards will have support for PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 memory, however, will not have a PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 slot directly attached to the Gen 5 CPU lanes unless the board vendors decided to split the x16 discrete GPU lanes.

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

• Up to 24 cores and 32 threads
• New Raptor Cove CPU Cores (Higher P Core IPC)
• Based on the 10nm ‘Intel 7’ ESF process node
• Clock speeds up to 6.0 GHz (expected)
• Double the E-Cores in certain variants
• Larger cache for P cores and e-cores
• Compatible with 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
• Enhanced overclocking features
• 125W PL1 TDP (Flagship SKU)
• AI PCIe M.2 Technology
• Q4 2022 release (possibly in October)

Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPU including the flagship Core i9-13900K is expected to launch in October on the Z790 platform. CPUs will clash AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPU lineup which also launches in the fall of 2022.

“Expected” Intel Raptor Lake vs AMD Raphael Desktop CPU Comparison