Intel Core i5 13600K + Core i9 13900K "Raptor Lake" Linux Preview

Only now with Linux 6.1 though is there Raptor Lake perf support on Linux for profiling purposes and Raptor Lake Thunderbolt in Linux 6.0 as some of the late PCI ID additions. Or if planning to make use of the integrated UHD Graphics 770 with Raptor Lake, those IDs were just added in Linux 5.19. But for core CPU functionality you should otherwise be in good shape with recent Linux distributions. With my testing on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 22.10 development snapshots, it went well with my time using Raptor Lake thus far.

While I have both the Core i5 13600K and Core i9 13900K in hand and these Raptor Lake CPUs are intended to be drop-in compatible with existing Z690 series motherboards with an updated BIOS, my luck at least hasn't been so great. Using the ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI motherboard with its latest BIOS offering Raptor Lake CPU support, unfortunately, with neither CPU was I able to get any XMP memory profiles working and thus were stuck to DDR5-4000 speeds. Trying four different sets of 2 x 16GB DDR5-6000 memory kits from Corsair and GSKILL and three different ASUS BIOS versions, in none of the combinations was I able to get the Raptor Lake CPUs working with the memory at DDR5-6000 speeds with the predefined XMP profiles. In any DDR5-6000 configuration attempted would be a BIOS post code 23 and only when running at DDR5-4000 speeds was the system booting -- thus my Raptor Lake Linux compatibility testing was there until coming up with a solution. Using the same motherboard and DIMMs with Alder Lake CPUs all worked fine for activating the XMP profiles and running at DDR5-6000.

Most recently -- just yesterday -- was a new BIOS release from ASUS for this motherboard, which unfortunately even being the third BIOS release with Raptor Lake support still didn't yield working DDR5-6000 memory.

Due to having already completed the Alder Lake CPU tests on this motherboard at DDR5-6000 successfully and also the Ryzen 7000 series testing in the DDR5-6000 configuration, it's obviously not fair to benchmark just the Raptor Lake CPUs at DDR5-4000... Thus holding off on publishing all of the benchmarks until able to come up with a solution to this problem -- we'll see if ASUS has out a corrected BIOS soon for this Z690 series motherboard or now that launch day is here with retail availability on a Z790 series motherboard. Unfortunately with most desktop motherboard vendors not particularly interested in Linux or officially supporting Linux, I don't currently have a Z790 series motherboard. In any event hopefully this memory issue is isolated to select Z690 motherboards but I should know more within a few days and be able to properly complete all of my Linux benchmarking of the i5-13600K and i9-3900K.

At least from tests I've run at DDR5-4000 speeds, the Raptor Lake results are looking very promising for Linux desktop users and gamers. Stay tuned. But at least for today can relay that the new 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors are indeed running on modern Linux distributions and with the above-noted version requirements for a few of the late device ID additions to the kernel.