Chinese Loongson 3B6600 processor will compete with 13th generation Intel Core, manufacturer assures

Representatives of the Chinese processor manufacturer Loongson in a conversation with investors told about the new chip 3B6600, which is likely to replace 3A6000. This will be an eight-core processor for desktop systems, equipped with integrated graphics. According to the manufacturer, it will be able to compete with Intel Core i5 and i7 models of the Alder Lake and Raptor Lake families.

Image source: loongson.cn

Intel’s Core Alder Lake processor family launched in November 2021, and for Loongson to be able to compete with them is a breakthrough, as the current 3A6000 is compared to Intel’s 14nm models that were released from 2014 to 2021. The Loongson 3B6600 is expected to retain its predecessor’s 2.5GHz base clock, but will be able to boost it up to 3GHz under single-core loads. It will also support DDR5 memory, PCIe 4.0, and HDMI 2.1 video output.

The Chinese manufacturer has been working on the next-generation processors since April 2024, and their market launch is expected this year. For now, they are several years behind those produced by Intel and AMD with TSMC, which prevents them from being deployed on a large scale in Chinese government computers and server systems, as Beijing requires.

On the other hand, Loongson was able to start from scratch and achieve such results without the decades of experience that American and Taiwanese firms have, helped by Washington’s sanctions targeting China’s semiconductor industry.