Intel is reportedly restarting the supply of processors from its last four generations as motherboard vendors ramp up production of DDR4 platforms.
About a month ago, reports said some vendors were restarting production of DDR4-compatible motherboards.
The goal is to get enough DDR4 boards into the market, as expensive DDR5 memory has made budget DDR5 systems a bit of a joke.
More reports are now surfacing which support the same claim, and Chipzilla appears to have prepared for it. According to ITHome, an article titled Recommended sales and layout strategies for DIY channels in Q3 2026 has been doing the circuit, which discusses Chipzilla’s plans for older Core chips.
It says Chipzilla will restart production of 13th- and 14th-generation Core processors and increase supply in mainland China.
Channel Gate reported that Chipzilla will “restart” supply of several older processor generations to meet market demand. This includes 13th- and 14th-generation Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh chips.
It apparently includes 10th-generation Comet Lake and 12th-generation Alder Lake CPUs too.
For now, this appears to be limited to mainland China, rather than a global cupboard-clearing exercise. Chipzilla has already been preparing increased production of 13th- and 14th-generation processors to meet global demand.
The 10th- and 12th-generation processors are apparently new additions to the stack.
Both families work with DDR4-compatible motherboards, making it easier for Chipzilla and motherboard vendors to pump out cheaper platforms. Now, building a DDR5 system on a tight budget has become nearly impossible.
DDR5 memory kits are selling at four to five times their original prices. The price rises show no sign of stopping and are expected to continue through this year and into the next.
Alongside pushing older processors back into the mainstream market, Chipzilla is preparing to deploy its Raptor Lake Next processors soon. Several credible reports say Chipzilla wants Raptor Lake Next and Nova Lake to coexist in the market.
Raptor Lake Next will reportedly ditch the Core 5 series in the HX family. It will instead bring Core 7 and Core 9 SKUs with the same core count found in the 14th generation.
On the desktop, the line-up is expected to include Core 7, Core 5 and Core 3 SKUs with up to 20 cores.
