Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Specs Leak
The Intel Raptor Lake Refresh specs have leaked, giving us our first real look at the performance estimates for the refreshed CPU lineup. The leak comes courtesy of PC component manufacturer MSI, which accidentally published a private video to its YouTube account that offers up specifications and performance estimates for a wide range of Intel chips.
The specs confirm a number of things, but the most important is that the Intel Raptor Lake Refresh lineup won’t see any architectural changes. Instead, the new chips will rely on the same Intel 7 process that the current 13th Gen Raptor Lake and Alder Lake chips use, meaning that we won’t see any generational IPC improvements.
According to the leaked video, the performance estimates suggest a minor 3% advantage over the 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs, which is in-line with what we’d expect given the process node improvements.
Most chips in the lineup won’t see any core count upgrades except for the Core i7-14700K, which will go from 8P cores and 8E cores to 8P cores and 12E cores. This change results in a 17% increase in multi-core performance on average for the 14700K, which is a nice boost for the higher-end chip.
The other notable change is that the entire lineup will see a slight boost in base clock, with most chips going from 2.9GHz to 3.1GHz. This change won’t likely translate to much in the way of performance increases, given that it doesn’t change the underlying architecture.
The leak confirms that Raptor Lake Refresh will be the successor to the 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors, which will be followed by the refresh. This means that we won’t be getting Meteor Lake as a follow-up to the refresh, instead getting a refresh of a refresh.
The good news is that the Raptor Lake Refresh parts will be compatible with current LGA 1700 socket motherboards, meaning you won’t need to replace your motherboard to get the new chips. There will likely be no new motherboard chipset generation, making the current 700 series chipset motherboards the primary platform for Raptor Lake Refresh.
The rumored release date for the new chips is October, which means reviewers won’t have to wait long to get their hands on them.
Check out everything we know about the upcoming Intel Raptor Lake Refresh release date. You can also learn about the current state of the desktop CPU market in our guide, which outlines all the major players, or our guide to the best gaming motherboard for suggestions on how to refresh your current setup.
