“Going forward, 10nm products like Raptor Lake; that is a core part of the portfolio that I want to offer to people for years to come,” said Hallock. “LGA 1700 is still a good socket. Lots of people [are] still interested in DDR4, so [we’ll] keep offering, and you'll see [pricing] smooth out over time. It'll come back to normal. That's the plan.”
Raptor Lake has become a key part of Intel’s roadmap as the RAM shortage strangles budget builders from upgrading to a DDR5 platform. In June, Tom’s Hardware first reported on motherboard manufacturers increasing production of DDR4-based boards with the LGA 1700 socket (the socket Raptor Lake CPUs use), and we’re seeing those products roll out now. Just days ago, in fact, Gigabyte introduced a new LGA 1700 board with DDR4 support.
Motherboards were one issue with Raptor Lake on DDR4 platforms; there were never a ton of LGA 1700 motherboards with DDR4 support to begin with. They were something of a stopgap with 12th-Gen Alder Lake CPUs as Intel transitioned to DDR5, largely falling out of favor (and inventory) as Raptor Lake rolled out and DDR5 prices started coming down. Obviously we’re living in a much different world now.
But as the DDR5 pricing crisis started hitting, Raptor Lake inventory started faltering, in part due to increased demand (at least according to Hallock), and likely also in part due to the gradual phasing out of older products. Today, the pricing situation with Raptor Lake is problematic. The Core i5-14600K, for example, sold for $200 or less for the better part of last year. It’s since jumped to around $250, if you can find it in stock at all. At the time of writing, it’s on backorder at Newegg and $262 at Amazon . Similarly, the Core i7-14700K should be selling for around $330, but it’s $380 at Newegg at the time of writing and sold out at Amazon . Again, for the majority of last year, the 14700K often sold for less than $350.
Intel reportedly preparing surprise return to DDR4 systems with 'Raptor Lake Next'
Intel's upcoming Raptor Lake Next will reportedly top out at 20 cores and retain Core 200 branding
Intel says 'something has to give' with memory prices
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/raptor-lake-is-a-core-part-of-the-portfolio-for-years-to-come-says-intel-theres-been-a-sudden-inrush-of-demand-for-lga-1700-chips-due-to-ddr5-prices#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.