Motherboard makers are upgrading their existing motherboards to support the 13th generation Intel Core chips, known as “Raptor Lake,” which have not yet been released.
Last month, popular motherboard manufacturers such as Asus, ASRock, MSI and Gigabyte either released BIOS updates that support Raptor Lake on their current Gen Z690, H670, B660 and H610 series motherboards or announced that they will do so soon.
Those using PCs based on the 12th generation Alder Lake CPUs can switch to 13-gen CPUs, as Intel’s chipsets and motherboards each support two generations of CPUs before they are replaced.
The new update from motherboard makers also means that users can skip new 2790 motherboards and opt for cheaper 600 series motherboards if they are interested in building a new system when Raptor Lake CPUs come out.
Intel’s Raptor Lake architecture is expected to be a relatively minor refresh to Alder Lake. Once Raptor Lake chips are officially released, these initial BIOS updates are likely to be followed by others that will add more features, fix bugs, and improve performance.
The sources for this piece include an article in Arstechnica.