ASRock Z790 And H770 Motherboards Will Support Both DDR4 And DDR5

Intel’s upcoming Raptor Lake architecture will support both DDR4 and DDR5 memory standards, according to a leaked list of in-development ASRock Z790 and H770 motherboards obtained by Videocardz. The list, which is not exhaustive, names 12 Z790 and H770 models, including four DDR4 variants, that are allegedly in active development. By supporting both DDR4 and DDR5, Intel one-ups AMD — whose new AM5 platform and Ryzen 7000 processors will only support DDR5.

Intel’s upcoming Raptor Lake will be an enhancement of Intel’s current 12th Gen Alder Lake architecture, featuring higher core frequencies and twice the number of E-cores on each model. We don’t know all the details about Raptor Lake at this time, but reports suggest we could be looking at 5.8 GHz boost clocks as the norm on the new lineup.

According to the leaked information, ASRock is working on 12 new 700 series boards. The list shows nine Z790 boards, including a Taichi model, as well as Pro RS, PG Lightning, PG Riptide, and C models. There are also three H770 boards listed, including two PG Lightning variants and a Steel Legend model.

What’s most exciting is that four of the 12 listed motherboards are DDR4-specific variants, including the Z790-C, Z790 PG Lightning, Z790M PG Lighting (micro-ATX), and the H770 PG Lighting. This will give Raptor Lake customers the option to choose DDR5 or DDR4 — the latter of which is still much cheaper.

Supporting DDR4 on Raptor Lake makes a lot of sense from Intel’s perspective. Both Raptor Lake and Alder Lake were originally confirmed to share the exact same socket and will be both forward- and backward-compatible with 600-series and 700-series chipsets. This alone almost necessitates DDR4 support on Raptor Lake, since Alder Lake also supports both memory standards.

But this will play out even better in the competition with AMD: AMD has confirmed that its new AM5 platform will only support DDR5. If DDR5 remains much pricier than DDR4, Raptor Lake might end up being a much cheaper platform to adopt for both upgrades and new system builds.

Only time will tell, however. DDR5 prices are falling and AMD believes they’ll only get better as DDR5 adoption rises with its Ryzen 7000 processors. We don’t have official launch dates for Raptor Lake yet, but Videocardz believes it could drop in Q3 or Q4, which, if true, would put Raptor Lake right in line with the Ryzen 7000’s fall launch window.