Only Core i7 models get extra cores, meh.
Somebody at MSI is on the naughty step today. Because the company accidentally published a public YouTube video detailing Intel’s upcoming 14th Gen Raptor Lake refresh CPUs.
The video even included “NDA, do not share” text emphasising that it was not intended for public consumption. Unsurprisingly, the video was taken down after a few hours.
After some conflicting rumours over the core counts of the new processors, the main take away from MSI’s accidental video is that only the Core i7 14700K and 14700KF are getting added cores. Where the 13th Gen 13700K had eight Performance cores and Eight efficient cores, the new 14th Gen processors get four more Efficient cores.
For the other chips in the 14th Gen range, the core counts are carried over. That means, according to the MSI video, that other members of the Raptor Lake refresh range are on average just three percent faster than existing 13th Gen chips. The extras cores in the Core i7 models make for a 17 percent multi-threaded uplift.
If you’re thinking that implies the clockspeeds haven’t taken a major leap, that seems to be correct, although the video does not appear to include clockspeed specifications.
MSI’s accidental video makes it clear that the Raptor Lake refresh will not be a game changer. (Image credit: MSI)
What we do know is that these 14th Gen chips aren’t really worthy of a new “Gen” classification. They’re the same Raptor Lake architecture as 13th Gen CPUs and built on the same 10nm process, now branded Intel 7.
Whatever, the K and KF variants with unlocked multipliers and both unlocked multipliers and disabled graphics, respectively, are expected to be out later this year, with the non-K and KF variants released early in 2024.
With this most convincing of leaks, it’s clear that Intel’s 14th Gen processors aren’t really going to move the needle and likely exist for marketing reasons and to give their partners something “new” to push on the desktop coming into the holiday season. We’ll have to wait until Intel’s Arrow Lake CPUs for a real advance on the desktop, and those probably won’t be released until the second half of 2024.
We’re still hopeful that Intel will have something more exciting later this year with its new Meteor Lake CPUs for laptops. They could be announced as soon as September and bring a range of innovations including a chiplet design and die shrink for the cores to Intel’s new Intel 4 process. Here’s hoping.
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