If you're running a Raptor Lake-chipped system, congratulations—it seems you're ahead of the curve. Speaking to Tom's Hardware, Intel's vice president and general manager of its enthusiast channel business, Robert Hallock, says that far from putting the 10 nm chips out to pasture, Intel is doubling-down:
"Going forward, 10 nm products like Raptor Lake; that is a core part of the portfolio that I want to offer to people for years to come," said the Intel chief.
"LGA 1700 is still a good socket. Lots of people [are] still interested in DDR4, so [we’ll] keep offering, and you'll see [pricing] smooth out over time. It'll come back to normal. That's the plan."
And it's not difficult to imagine why. While both DDR5 and DDR4 prices have shot to the moon over the past year, it's still possible to pick up a good 32 GB DDR4 kit for around $200. Not to mention those who want to upgrade their machine while hanging on to their old DDR4 sticks, or pick up a still-very-capable prebuilt PC for less.
If pricing and supply can be stabilised, Raptor Lake CPUs may end up being a compelling option once more. They have a tendency to run hot, but in terms of gaming and productivity performance, many would make for great CPUs in a high-performance rig in 2026. And you can still get hold of the odd DDR4-supporting mobo for semi-reasonable money, too.
Despite all this, the second life of these products seems to have caught Intel somewhat by surprise. "If people are going to go to more affordable hardware, they still want the fastest available for their money, and that happened to be Alder Lake and Raptor Lake," said Hallock.
"So there was a sudden inrush of demand into these parts—certainly not anticipated when you start your wafers, and your builds, long before that moment ever happens. So it's very hard to predict."
Still, if consumers want older hardware for more reasonable prices, it makes sense that Intel is capitalising on the demand. Rumbles around a "Raptor Lake Next" 2027 refresh continue apace, and there's also talk of increased chip supply going all the way back to 2020's Comet Lake. AMD, meanwhile, has brought back the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, an AM4 chip with DDR4 support.
It seems like we're experiencing a resurgence of older CPU and memory hardware, as buyers look towards cheaper silicon that can still deliver excellent performance in 2026. Which is definitely a sign of a healthy consumer market, and not that we're making the best of a very bad situation. What's next, new production runs of the RTX 3060?
Oh. Never mind. We really are going backwards before we move into the future, huh?
1. Best CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
2. Best motherboard: MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi
3. Best RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200
4. Best SSD: WD_Black SN7100
5. Best graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 9070
