Intel Alder Lake CPUs get prices slashed ahead of Raptor Lake Refresh launch

Intel would appear to be clearing out stock of Alder Lake processors, at least on Newegg given a bunch of fresh reductions - big ones - that the US retailer has just put into play.

VideoCardz flagged this up, spotting that Vectral on X (formerly Twitter) had posted about the discounts to a clutch of Alder Lake CPUs.

Should you want to grab yourself a Core i9-12900KF (the same as the 12900K, just with no integrated graphics), that will now run you to $325 on Newegg, with $75 chopped off the price tag via a discount code at checkout (all of these offers work via a code).

Or how about the 12700KF? That can now be had for $215, which makes it a pretty compelling buy. The 12600K and 12600KF are also reduced, with the latter now available for $155, perhaps even more of a tempter. All of these models are still in stock at those discounted prices at the time of writing.

Of course, there's a reason that these 12th-gen processors are being sold off, and that's because with the 14th-gen imminent - Raptor Lake Refresh, supposedly set to go on sale in two weeks - the old stock needs to be ushered off shelves with a bit more urgency.

With Alder Lake being two generations old when Raptor Lake Refresh debuts, these chips are obviously going to look a bit less attractive. Particularly in some cases where Intel might make some substantial improvements with 14th-gen chips compared to 13th-gen (let alone Alder Lake).

If the rumor mill is right, the Core i7-14700K will be the main CPU to watch with Raptor Lake Refresh, as it's the only one that purportedly ups the core count from Raptor Lake (adding four efficiency cores for what should be a good boost on the multi-core front, certainly if the leaks are right). That chip (and others) may also overclock very nicely, too.

Furthermore, the 14600K is on the list of CPUs to keep a close eye on, as this has had a bunch of leaks hinting that it could be a sterling mid-range processor - though with all of the line-up, a lot will of course depend on where Intel decides to price these products.

Early hints about pricing suggest that Intel may not be planning to hike all that much, though if there are more impressive SKUs for the 14th-gen, it's likely that these are the ones which might see price tags climb a bit more from Raptor Lake.

In theory, Intel is set to launch Raptor Lake Refresh in two weeks as mentioned, though the actual reveal is supposedly coming on October 16, the day before the on-sale date of October 17. We shall see...