Thrilling Zen 4 vs Raptor Lake face-off on the cards as AMD Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" purportedly prepares for mass production

There is a possibility that Zen 4 and Raptor Lake will have release dates close enough to each other to cause quite the commotion in the CPU sector. It has been expected for some time that Intel would launch its 13th Gen Raptor Lake chips in the second half of 2022, with earlier estimates suggesting September and more-conservative predictions landing in November. The release date for AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series, “Raphael”, had seemed murkier but a noted leaker has now offered a tidbit of information that could help pinpoint a potential release date for Zen 4.

The source, @greymon55, was deliberately cryptic with a recent post by stating “Rap…l is about to enter the mass production stage”. So not only was an unspecific timeframe initially offered, but there were also some followers who immediately presumed “Rap…l” was pointing to “Raptor Lake” rather than “Raphael”. Fortunately, the leaker continued the thread with a little more specific information. They made it clear it was AMD’s Raphael (“he is an artist”) and not Intel’s Raptor Lake (“not a dinosaur”) that was going into production, and they also offered a mass production date of either April or early May.

With AMD's "Vermeer" and V-Cache chips reportedly taking 4-5 months to get from mass production to market, then Zen 4 could rock up as early as August, although September would be a more likely release time. Greymon55 also adds that “it’s a complicated situation”, so an earlier Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” release date like August would seem tenuous at best. If AMD can get its Zen 4 SKUs out to market before Intel launches Raptor Lake it could steal a march on Team Blue as obviously a lot of the media hype would focus on Raphael, which is already shaping up to be an intriguing release for those who favor efficiency over core count.

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