The 14th Generation of Intel processors
The 14th Generation of Intel Processors were looking to be a bit of a disappointment, with initial leaks suggesting a big core count upgrade. While we still expect to see some improvements in the new Intel chips, the initial rumor that we’d see 14, 14, and 10-core Core i5s and i9s may have been a bit too good to be true. The leaks suggest that we’ll be getting a bit of a core count regression, returning to the 13th Gen specs for many of the chips.
The latest on Intel’s 14th Generation core count specs
The latest on Intel’s 14th Generation core count specs comes from a leak courtesy of PCGamesHardware. The site reports that the Core i5 14400 and Core i5 14100 will be 14 and 6 cores respectively, rather than the 14 and 10 cores suggested in previous leaks.
That’s not all, with the leaked core counts for the rest of the Raptor Lake Refresh suggesting that we could be getting a return to 13th Gen core configurations for many of the chips. The Core i9 14900 is reportedly still a 24-core, 32-thread processor, but the Core i9 14800 could be 18 and 12-cores, rather than 18 and 14.
Intel’s decision to apparently avoid an across the board core count increase is seen as a strategic move by Alex Lang, senior tech analyst at PC Game Spotlight. With AMD’s Ryzen processors gaining popularity thanks to their higher core counts at different price points, Intel’s move to avoid a core count war could be a way to avoid having to reduce core counts in future generations.
“Arguably, Ryzen’s success was largely down to its higher core counts,” Lang explains. “Getting higher core counts across the board would have put Intel in a position where it would either have to match or exceed those core counts in future generations, or risk looking like it’s running away from the fight.”
The Raptor Lake Refresh is seen as more of a minor update to the existing 13th Gen chips, with the upcoming Arrow Lake CPUs in 2024 set to bring the real changes. While disappointing for consumers, the false rumors are perhaps not that surprising.
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