There seems to be some confusion building up around the generation of the Core family that will be used by the upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs with rumors suggesting the use of the 14th Gen branding.

Intel 14th Gen Desktop Core Family To Include Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs, To Launch This Year

The information is reported by leaker, Golden Pig Upgrade, who states that the info circulating the web that the Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs might still be part of the 13th Gen Desktop family is fake & will actually be part of the 14th Gen Desktop family. Based on a recent documentation leak, it has been revealed that the 14th Gen lineup will be made up of Meteor Lake CPUs though it isn't stated clearly if this is the desktop or the laptop lineup.

We know that Intel used both Alder Lake and Raptor Lake CPUs within its 13th Gen desktop and mobile lineup. The same might be true for the 14th Gen where it's a mix of Meteor Lake and the Raptor Lake refreshes. However, to make things more complicated, it looks like the laptop parts might be the only family to utilize the Meteor Lake SKUs while the desktop SKUs will be made up entirely of Raptor Lake refreshed parts. This aligns with previous rumors that Intel is not expected to launch Meteor Lake CPUs for desktops.

Intel Raptor Lake-S Refresh CPU Family - Hybrid Refresh For Q3 2023

The Intel Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs will still use the 'Intel 7' process node and will adopt little optimizations such as faster clocks and such while being compatible with the existing LGA 1700/1800 motherboards. There are some rumors that the lineup may offer another bump in terms of multi-threading performance and utilize even large cache pools. Rumors also suggest DLVR (Digital Voltage Regulator) be housed within the Raptor Lake Refresh chips which were expected for the non-refresh family but there's no official confirmation yet.

The lineup will be including all consumer and entry-workstation platforms with 35W, 65W, and 125W SKUs. Now we know that Intel's Raptor Lake refresh is just going to be an intermediate solution like Emerald Rapids-SP (Xeon platform) before the true next-gen parts arrive.

Intel does plan on hosting its upcoming Vision event on May 9th so we might just hear about the desktop plans during that. As I said, there's definitely some confusion around what generation is made up of what CPUs and I would definitely want Intel to clear that up. Putting the Raptor Lake refresh CPUs within the 14th Gen Core branding will definitely be a weird move unless Intel plans to make some big changes in cache/core counts.

Intel Desktop CPU Core Count Progression:

News Source: Momomo_US