Intel's Raptor Lake refresh desktop CPUs which were recently leaked are now rumored to launch in the third quarter of 2023.

Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Desktop CPUs Rumored To Hit Retail Shelves In August This Year

The Intel Raptor Lake Refresh is exactly what the name implies, a refresh of the existing 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs which launched last year. A recent roadmap leak highlighted that the chips were going to launch in the third quarter of 2023 and it looks like leaker, @wxnod, has narrowed down the launch date to August 2023 which will be slightly close to a year since the launch of Intel's 13th Gen K-series chips. The tweet was a reply to @harukaze5719's question regarding the launch of the Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs which has now been deleted but the follow-up response still exists in the tweet below:

2023/08

— Алексей (@wxnod) March 19, 2023

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.

Desktop family is expected to get at least some form of Meteor Lake-S (reports suggest entirely canned) along with Arrow Lake chips which are going to offer big improvements but that too remains to be seen. Intel does plan on hosting its upcoming Vision event on May 9th so we might just hear about the desktop plans during that.

Intel Desktop CPU Core Count Progression: