News of the Intel Raptor Lake Refresh processor lineup continues to emerge, as a fresh leak details the team blue CPUs’ clock speeds and core counts. Earlier leaks brought us morsels of information about specific products, whereas this alleged reveal gives us a great idea of specs for a range of new Intel models. Sadly, most processors see only marginal performance gains compared to the 13th Gen, but there is one silver lining that could crack our best gaming CPU list.
Hardware leaker chi11eddog shared these Raptor Leak Refresh specs over on Twitter, with information detailing alleged core count and clock speeds of the upcoming CPUs. The first thing to mention is that nearly all models get a 200MHz uplift compared to their last gen counterparts. The only exception is the Intel Core i5 14400, which only sees a 100MHz improvement.
While this will undoubtedly lead to improved performance, 200MHz doesn’t really represent a generational leap. This suggests it’s more of a refresh of the existing generation, as anticipated. This is further corroborated by the fact that all models but one feature the same core count as their predecessors.
That includes the i3 CPU, which contains the same disappointing four cores as before. Since hexa-core CPUs now dominate Steam, with most users deploying them in their systems, it could be hard to tempt consumers to splash out on a four core processor in this day and age.
One silver lining is the Intel Core i7 14700, which will get a core count upgrade, going from 16 to 20 cores, 12 of those being Efficient cores. When paired with the 200MHz clock speed boost, this core count boost could translate to substantial performance gains. If we had to bet on any of these CPUs from the above info being a solid investment, we’d bet on that one.
Of course, this information is up in the air till we hear an official announcement from team blue, so keep your powder dry until then. Our AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D review gave out a very nifty score, so we’ll be interested to see if any of the Raptor Lake Refresh processors can challenge AMD’s powerhouse processor.