Intel's 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh Is Now Official, What You Need To Know
by
Zak Killian
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Friday, June 23, 2023, 02:51 PM EDT
Intel China has just confirmed what everyone expected: Intel's 14th-generation Core processors are going to include some portion of refreshed Raptor Lake silicon. This confirmation comes as part of an explainer on Bilibili (kind of like the Chinese YouTube) that hopes to illuminate the specifics of Intel's new branding.
It's a lot messier than you might think. Some of the upcoming chips will apparently be labeled as "Intel Core 14th-generation Processors", while others will be called "Intel Core 1st Generation Processors." This applies even to chips using refreshed silicon, not just the new Meteor Lake processors, so it's not clear-cut at all.
Source: Intel China; Google-translated from Chinese by Videocardz
If you're lost, let us explain. According to many leaks and rumors, Intel's Meteor Lake processors are efficient and fast, but aren't competitive with its current-generation Raptor Lake silicon for high-power performance. As a result, the company isn't shipping Meteor Lake parts for the desktop. Instead, those disaggregated processors will be limited to certain laptop models.
The rest of the market—including desktop, -HX, -S, and -U processors—will be served by a refreshed lineup of Raptor Lake CPUs. This will apparently extend to a full range of models, from Core i3s on up to Core i9s. It looks like actual Meteor Lake processors may be limited exclusively to -H SKUs in the 35 to 45 watt range.
Those processors will also move to "Core Ultra" branding, it seems, which finally explains what "Ultra" means: actual new silicon. There are lots of new features in Meteor Lake beyond just their disaggregated nature that could justify the Ultra branding, but we expect that the powerful integrated graphics and AI accelerators are the main reasons for the rebranding.
