Recent speculation about Intel’s upcoming CPU offerings has centered around the Raptor Lake Refresh expected to drop later this year. This refresh is considered enough of an improvement over existing processors to constitute a new CPU generation. However, it’s likely the most significant performance uplift will be found in the subsequent Intel Arrow Lake releases, likely to arrive in 2024. A new leak showing the performance of both Raptor Lake refresh and Arrow Lake CPUs suggests that’s absolutely going to be the case.
Igor’s Lab has unveiled what’s supposedly the internal performance benchmarks of a range of upcoming desktop CPUs. Not only that, but these tests have apparently been carried out by team blue itself, using the i9 13900K as a baseline for comparison. If true, these leaked benchmarks give us a great idea of what we can expect from both the Raptor Lake Refresh and Arrow Lake processors.
Image credit: Igor’s Lab
Apparently, Intel seems to be sticking with its tried-and-true combination of 24 cores and 32 threads enjoyed by the Intel Core i9 13900K for most of the new CPUs, but it’s possible some of the latter Arrow Lake processors could be boosted up to an impressive 40 cores, according to WCCFTech.
The Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs don’t see particular impressive figures in this benchmarking, with the flagship i9 14900K getting just a 1-4% boost compared to the i9 13900K. However, the Arrow Lake-S CPU detailed in this testing saw a substantial gain of up to 21%.
Image credit: Igor’s Lab
Given how far we are from the launch of these processors, the above benchmarks are likely in their early stages, and should be taken with a grain of salt. But if the 21% performance uplift is an accurate measure, the future’s looking bright for team blue. Perhaps our best gaming CPU list will be getting a few new Intel members on its lineup.