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Intel's next desktop CPUs - Raptor Lake Refresh - rumored to launch mid-October

Raptor Lake Refresh processors could debut on October 17 or during the following week, with Arrow Lake CPUs still due late in 2024.

Intel's next desktop CPUs - Raptor Lake Refresh - rumored to launch mid-October
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Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh processors will launch in the week of October 17, according to the latest rumor.

Raptor Lake Refresh processors are next in line on the desktop, to be followed by Arrow Lake next year (Image Credit: Intel)

Raptor Lake Refresh processors are next in line on the desktop, to be followed by Arrow Lake next year (Image Credit: Intel)

This one is from a well-established leaker, Enthusiastic Citizen (ECSM), who posted on Chinese site Bilibili to let us know that the 14th-gen desktop chips will debut between October 17 and October 23 (which is 'WW42'). Or, to put it another way, just after mid-October, as another leak previously indicated.

As we've also already heard, that will be the launch of the first batch of chips, the 'K' models (unlocked), with non-K (locked) Raptor Lake Refresh processors emerging in the first week of 2024, which surely means a CES launch.

Another interesting nugget here confirms more speculation heard elsewhere, namely that there will be a new core configuration of 8 performance and 12 efficiency cores, and it's highly likely this 8+12 CPU will be the Core i7-14700K.

Again, as speculated on the grapevine recently, the 14700K could be the most peppy upgrade for Raptor Lake Refresh as a result. Other chip core counts will remain the same, and with no IPC uplift, only somewhat higher clock speeds will push performance forward (and that might be a touch disappointing in the case of the 14900K). Whereas the 14700K will certainly offer some serious multi-core beefiness with those extra four efficiency cores improving performance compared to the 13700K. If these rumors are right, of course.

With some well-established sources now chiming in with the same details, it's starting to look more and more likely that these rumors are on the money.

ECSM further lets us know that they've heard nothing new on the release date for Arrow Lake, so that's still looking at a late 2024 launch, assuming nothing goes awry.

A footnote here is that ECSM tells us that "Zen 5 this year is fake news," referring to rumors of AMD's next-gen CPUs turning up later in 2023 being false. This isn't a leak we're aware of, although there was gossip earlier this year on that possibility, but it was debunked quite swiftly.

As far as we're aware, Zen 5 is definitely looking at a 2024 release, as per other churning from the rumor mill. So we're not sure what ECSM is talking about here, but whatever they've heard on the grapevine, evidently they are pretty convinced it's not true.

ECSM adds a cryptic bit at the end of their Bilibili post rounding up the latest CPU rumors to the effect that there were other 'materials' from AMD to share, but the leaker decided not to post them (or at least we assume this is what they're getting at).

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Darren has written for numerous magazines and websites in the technology world for almost 30 years, including TechRadar, PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Computeractive, and many more. He worked on his first magazine (PC Home) long before Google and most of the rest of the web existed. In his spare time, he can be found gaming, going to the gym, and writing books (his debut novel – ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ – was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

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