It won't be long before the best CPUs get some new competition. Intel's 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh processors will hit the retail market very soon as foreign retailers have already started to list them on their online stores.
There have been many leaks about the specifications of Intel's upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh processors. Nonetheless, it's always nice to get some kind of validation from a retailer, which, in this case, happens to be Telemart, a Ukrainian retailer that has already posted all of the upcoming K-series chips with partial specifications. The listings can be placeholders, so we recommend approaching them cautiously, even if the specifications align with previous leaks. The K-series will lead Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh army. That means the Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K, Core i5-14600K, and their iGPU-less KF variants will be the first Raptor Lake Refresh SKUs to hit the market.
The Core i9-14900K will replace the Core i9-13900K as the new flagship. The configuration remains intact, with 24 cores and 34 threads. The design employs eight P-cores and 16 E-cores. The Core i9-14900K seemingly sports a 200 MHz higher base and max turbo clock than the Core i9-13900K.
Intel 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh Specifications*
*Specifications are unconfirmed.
The Core i7-14700K is the only chip to receive a core upgrade. Unlike the Core i7-13700K, which has a 16-core, 24-thread configuration, Intel bumped the Core i7-14700K up to 20 cores and 28 threads. The upgrade is only in the E-core department, though. The Core i7-14700K has four more E-cores than the Core i7-13700K and a 3MB higher L3 cache. Clock speed-wise, the Core i7-14700K only offers a 200 MHz higher max turbo clock than the Core i7-13700K while retaining the same base clock.
Meanwhile, the Core i5-14600K, which supplants the Core i5-13600K, continues to provide consumers with a 14-core, 20-thread arrangement with six P-cores and eight E-cores. The chip keeps the 3.5 GHz base clock but will surpass the Core i5-13600K's max turbo clock by 200 MHz.
The Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K, and Core i5-14600K have a 125W PBP. However, the MTP remains unclear. Raptor Lake Refresh processors will drop into the existing LGA1700 socket, so Intel 700-series motherboards should have already received the new firmware for the chips. Being K-series SKUs, the processors will come without a stock cooler.
Raptor Lake Refresh is reportedly launching in October. However, Intel is hosting its Intel Innovation 2023 event between September 19 and 20, so we could see an official announcement very soon.
