Will Z690 support Intel 13th Gen?

Will the new generation support the older hardware?

Table of Contents Table of Contents

Intel’s 13th gen Raptor Lake is now here – taking over from 2021’s 12th-generation Alder Lake chips. And the time has already flown by to soon introduce the 14th gen chips too.

*UPDATE* – Intel 13th gen CPUs are live and ready to purchase. You can find them all here: 13th-gen where to buy, be sure to check out our 14th-gen where to buy as well for the latest SKUs.

Arriving in 3 different CPUs, the i9, i7, and i5, Intel 13th gen claims to boast a 15% better single-core performance gain than the prior generation. Intel fans can also expect a 41% multi-thread performance increase. But does this generational jump in power mean that you can’t use your new CPU on older motherboards? Will you be sacrificing performance if you do so?

Now Read: Best 13th gen motherboard

Both the Z690 motherboards and 13th-generation Intel CPUs belong to socket LGA 1700 this should indicate compatibility, however, we know from AMD that unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. So, will Z690 chipset motherboards support Intel’s 13th-generation CPUs?

---

Will Z690 support Intel 13th Gen?

Yes – the good news is that Intel 13th Gen is compatible with the Z690 motherboard socket.

This means if you’re using a 12th Gen Intel processor and Z690 motherboard, you won’t need to replace the motherboard if you want to upgrade to the 13th Gen.

That being said, there will be a few drawbacks – mainly in the form of the lack of PCI Gen 5 slots on Z690 motherboards, which support the previous PCIe 4.0.

Roughly speaking, each generation of PCIe is around twice as quick as the generation prior.

PCIe 3.0 had a data transfer rate of 8 Giga transfers per second, while PCIe 4.0 transfers data at 16 GT/s. PCIe 5.0 clocks in at 32 GT/s. What this means in real-world terms isn’t as pronounced, but it does mean that the CPU will not the bottleneck for your system.

---

Is Intel 13th gen backward compatible?

To an extent, yes it is but only up to a certain point. The intel 13th generation CPUs will work on both 600 and 700 series motherboards.

The 13th generation CPUs are compatible with any Intel motherboard that is built around the socket LGA 1700. These are both the 600 and 700 series motherboards at the time of writing. This encompasses the Z690, H670, B660, H610, Z790, and H760 chipsets.

However, if you plan to use your 13th gen CPU on a 600 series motherboard you may have to perform a BIOS update to get the most out of your new CPU.

When it comes to memory, you will always have to have a motherboard built for the specific memory you want to use, as the slots that each standard uses are different. You cannot use DDR5 memory on a motherboard that is built for DDR4. The motherboard will clearly state which memory it is compatible with on the box and in the user manual.

Just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean you should, however, as there are a lot of features to be had out of a 700 series motherboard. These features include PCIe gen 5, faster DDR5-supported speeds, and much better connectivity.

---

Will PCIe Gen 5 work on Z690 motherboards?

no, unfortunately not, as PCIe Gen 5 is provided by the motherboard. The 13th generation Intel CPUs so support the platform that provides PCIe gen 5 but doesn’t enable it on lesser platforms, like 600 series motherboards which don’t support it by default.

NOW READ: Here’s everything you need to know about Intel 13th gen

As we saw with PCIe 4.0 compared to PCIe 3.0, SSDs, boasted higher maximum read/write speeds than PCIe 3.0 SSDs – but in reality, this may not translate to faster loading times.

Having a higher bandwidth should also theoretically benefit graphics cards, as this allows a faster transfer of data to VRAM. In the real world, this could lead to improvements in framerates, although the effects here will also be on the smaller side.

So, in short, yes the Z690 motherboards will support 13th Gen, but the newer Z790 variants could bring a few welcome advantages and future-proof your system.