Tech Press Falls Prey To Raptor Lake 350W Scam

Working at Intel must be a painful experience in the months following AMD’s AM5/Zen4 announcement, as anything the firm follows with seems like an “also ran”. AMD’s “really new” rhetoric is certain to beat Intel’s “newly refreshed” until we see the hardware, and leaks such as the following image appear to be the best coverage Intel can get (when it comes to leaks, we prefer exclusives):

Intel will likely need some technological trickery to maintain competitiveness if AMD’s announcements are to be believed, so the reported new power level seems more likely than not. The part that strains credulity is how everyone ‘appears to believe’ that these power levels will only be possible with the new 700-series motherboards: Those who actually test motherboards know that 350W is but a pittance of what most of the current Z690 motherboards can provide. Here’s a screenshot from Page 2 of one of our reviews:

Overclockers understand that the clock manipulation techniques employed by Intel for the past several generations are overclocking: Our overclocks have employed power limits far beyond 350W for as long as this type of power management has existed.

Given that Z690 voltage regulators support loads in the thousands of watts, the leak that “only Z790 will support the new power mode” appears designed to prepare critics to think uncritically when they see a Z790 motherboard working an upcoming 13th-gen Intel Core CPUs harder than when that same processor is mounted to the Z690. Critical thinkers must remember to hold manufacturers of Z690 motherboards responsible for any performance shortcomings, rather than credit Intel for magically “enabling” a feature on Z790 that Z690 already had the hardware to support.