Very interesting day! Good to see some competition. I'm already skeptical of some reviewers like TPU who have a delicate history of bias against AMD products that's been well documented online going back several years, including some bizarre hardware choices in past reviews. Outside of Intel possibly sending golden samples to reviewers which is likely given that it's Intel, Raptor Lake is what I expected it to be. It's not a bad upgrade if you're on an older Intel platform and prefer Intel. If you use a 12th gen K part with a Z690 motherboard, overclocking will be your goal here.
The 13900K is an excellent choice for those who cannot afford the AM5 platform and don't do much outside gaming and very little to no production. It's an excellent value choice and will surely earn its cred through 2024 when Intel's 14th gen comes out given the very low cost of DDR4 and DDR5 hardware compared to the premium AMD stack. Going forward, I expect future Intel platforms, such as the Z890, unless they abandon that format, to be as expensive as AM5 unless AIBs are subsidized, and Intel isn't in any financial position to undertake such a move. This is due in part to the complexity of a modern motherboard's traces and signal strength that needs to be upheld as we push new technologies as AMD has which drives up costs passed to the end consumer. There is a slight added premium with AMD's AM5 motherboards due to their longevity over the two year lifespan of a socket for Intel. I'm genuinely curious if there will be a pricing war anytime soon. I suspect Intel have little in the way of wiggle room, and any wiggle room available will be on the AMD side as they eat more into Intel's cake in data-center.
As for AMD. They're obviously still the premium product stack here save for their two overpriced lower end processors, the 7600X and 7700X. I do expect the 3D stacked processors to come out within the next 3-4 months, but alas my main gripe will be the price. The main issue with AM5 I'm seeing right now is the boot up times which is being addressed according to my industry contacts at the main motherboard vendors, but it's not the only issue being fixed or improved.
Bottom Line: If you can't afford a high end build or mid-range build on AMD, then Intel is the perfect cheap budget solution. If you only game and do very little production work, then the cheap budget 13600K and 13900K are perfect for you. If you game and do production or production work alone, the higher end AMD SKUs are better for you. Their premium status does make their prices and associated hardware eye watering. I'd hold tight if you're in no rush to see if AMD discounts them between now and post-CES.
Cooling down Intel's new budget solutions is another issue, but I expect some improvement in the near future. The issue mainly affects people who run their hardware in a case, because all these testers will have used an open bench to do their testing.
Relaying back to AMD 3D processors. There's been a wild 5800X3D processor making some headlines recently hitting higher frequencies. I suspect that processor is using the first generation cache on die and that AMD figured out their boost and voltage issue that caused the minor downclock and lockout on the 5800X3D. Though there's always the chance it's a second generation cache design that allows the processor to keep stock boost and voltage, and go even higher.
In such, I do believe Raphael X3D processors to maintain their clocks and stock voltages if not have more headroom. This would dampen whatever minuscule lead Intel has gotten with their toasty new generation. I can only guess when AMD may release their next generation Granite Ridge processors. COVID slowed production down world wide and almost made me redundant. I would not be shocked if AMD released Granite Ridge in 1H24. Is there any confirmation Granite Ridge is the next mainstream desktop processors following Raphael? I don't know of an artist named Granite Ridge. By then I suspect AMD will have anywhere from 4-7 months of sales before Intel releases their 14th gen products. AMD AM5 X770 motherboards will be out and X670 will become a prime choice for the budget conscious offering everything they need. I can't see what X770 would improve on over X670. Perhaps a fellow old fogy would be inclined to enlighten me.
As far as the lapping is concerned: if you have reliable delidding tool, delidding may be safer, assuming you can still maintain mount pressure with your chosen cooler/water block. All those metal shavings are a nightmare to deal with.
Jason (J2C) did a video yesterday or the day before on lapping. He took off less than 1 mm using a tool that Hartung made that clipped the CPU inside of a vinyl resin case. Overall using normal everyday paste (MX-4) he got it to drop down to the 88-90 at peak during Cinebench. Using Hartung's Kryonaut solution it came down more. If you're seeking lower temperatures then delid, but I'm not sure if it's worth doing so chasing after 100 Mhz more boost at stock and chancing it with overclocking.
For now I'll stick with my 10th generation Intel platform which I've come to deeply love. It does everything I want of it. I don't expect to upgrade anytime in the next 5 to 7 years. These recent releases give me nightmares back to running Pentium 4s and I'd rather not touch either chipmakers products at this time. I don't want to deal with very hot Intel systems throttling down and don't want to touch AMD due to cost and whatever bugs may come from AM5. Just the expense of current new parts makes it a tough pill to swallow. Says the person who spent a fortune on their 10th gen due to COVID.