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Intel Raptor Lake Refresh CPU leak has good news (for the 14700K) and bad news (for the 14600K)

It's increasingly looking like the rumor mill is correct about the 14700K getting its core count beefed up, but the 14600K won't be, sadly.

Intel Raptor Lake Refresh CPU leak has good news (for the 14700K) and bad news (for the 14600K)
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A new leak on Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh desktop processors backs up previous theories about the Core i7-14700K getting more cores - but also knocks back another rumor about the same being true of the Core i5-14600K.

We figured that the most recent 14600K rumor (before this) might be too good to be true (Image Credit: Intel)

We figured that the most recent 14600K rumor (before this) might be too good to be true (Image Credit: Intel)

The leak comes from Benchlife, a Chinese tech site - so add the usual heap of seasoning - and it contends that the Core i7-14700K will have 8 performance cores alongside 12 efficiency cores.

That's a few sources now claiming this, so this particular rumor is starting to carry more weight - which is great news and likely to make this a popular chip among the Raptor Lake Refresh line-up.

On the downside, the 14600K is pegged as having 6 performance cores plus 8 efficiency cores, just like the 13600K. Whereas the rumor mill recently floated the idea that this CPU could be an 8+8 affair, which would be a big step up (with the extra two cores being of the performance variety).

To be fair, that speculation did seem like it was pushing the boundaries of believability, so we are more inclined to go with Benchlife's prediction - which is also shared elsewhere on the grapevine. Even if we were secretly hopeful Intel might pull something special here. Still, we won't know for sure what configuration this chip runs with until Intel actually reveals the 14th-gen desktop range.

A less speedy flagship?

Another nugget to file under the heading of a 'bit of a downer' is the contention that the Core i9-14900K flagship will only boost to a top speed of 6.0GHz. Previously, rumors have pointed to a 6.2GHz boost (and there was even talk of 6.4GHz with speculation further back in the past), so this is a relatively major climbdown.

If this leak is correct, of course, and in this case, we're siding with the other leakers who feel Intel will make more of a move upwards here. (After all, a 200MHz increase for the flagship, with nothing else to back that up in terms of IPC gains, will look rather weak sauce).

Mind you, Benchlife caveats the 6.0GHz speed as a 'maybe' and claims Intel 'probably' won't reach 6.2GHz, but that isn't ruling the latter out. Also, the tech site notes the 6.0GHz speed is based on sample (pre-release) silicon, so that could leave room for the finished version of the Raptor Lake Refresh flagship to be clocked a bit faster yet.

Again, as with all this chatter, we'll just have to see what pans out in the end.

There's no speculation on the performance levels of these 14th-gen processors here, but we've recently heard that Raptor Lake Refresh should offer around a 4% to 8% uplift over Raptor Lake for single-threaded performance, and 8% to 15% for multi-threaded.

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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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