Intel is tough at work on its 14th technology of Core processors, that are presently anticipated to reach sooner or later in 2023. The subsequent-gen CPUs, codenamed ‘Meteor Lake’, will supposedly convey a slew of modifications, from new chip structure to AI-focused options.
Intel has been comparatively tight-lipped with regard to its upcoming processors, however there have been loads of leaks and rumors circulating that give us a clearer image of what to anticipate. The identical leaks have additionally all however confirmed the event of a future Fifteenth-gen collection of CPUs, named ‘Arrow Lake’.
One of many largest anticipated modifications is that Intel apparently plans to drop the enduring ‘i’ branding from its processors going ahead, an surprising and admittedly considerably complicated transfer. As a substitute, the brand new branding will likely be merely ‘Intel Core’ and ‘Intel Core Extremely’.
Intel’s trials and tribulations
Whereas we nonetheless anticipate to see Meteor Lake chips for laptops flip up within the not-too-distant future, many leaks have steered the desktop lineup may be in dire straits.
A earlier leak from well-known YouTuber Moore’s Regulation Is Lifeless steered that the primary Meteor Lake chip to land can be a 14-core laptop computer CPU – one thing that runs counter to Intel’s ordinary sample of launching desktop processors first.
A number of different leakers have corroborated the concept the desktop 14th-gen chips may certainly be in bother, with some suggesting we would as an alternative solely see a refresh of the Thirteenth-gen Raptor Lake desktop CPUs this 12 months. This aligns with a previously-released official roadmap for Raptor Lake chips, but it surely doesn’t suggest we can’t be getting each.
If Meteor Lake’s desktop CPUs do not launch this 12 months, it is unclear at this level whether or not the refresh may very well be a stop-gap measure to help a Meteor Lake delay, or if the desktop processors – collectively referred to as Meteor Lake-S – may be canceled totally as Intel shifts focus to Arrow Lake.
Intel Meteor Lake: Launch Date
Intel has but to present us a concrete launch date for any Meteor Lake chips, however the latest credible leaks have pointed towards October-November 2023 for the primary wave of recent CPUs.
This is able to be roughly according to Intel’s present launch cadence, since Raptor Lake launched in October 2022 and the previous Twelfth-gen Alder Lake chips delivery in November 2021.
Intel Meteor Lake: Worth
Whereas there isn’t any actual info relating to pricing out there but, we are able to moderately assume that Intel will in all probability stick near the earlier technology’s pricing for every tier of CPUs. Retail pricing on Thirteenth-gen chips runs from $109 for the finances i3-13100F to $589 for the flagship i9-13900K.
That being stated, Intel has had a tough 12 months thus far (together with the vast majority of massive tech corporations), so it isn’t unrealistic to think about that we would see some barely steeper costs on this subsequent wave of CPUs.
After all, we’re solely discussing the potential desktop chips right here, since Intel will not be promoting its laptop computer processors to shoppers. We can probably anticipate related generational pricing for the cell chips too, so it is unlikely Intel laptops will see big value will increase as soon as Meteor Lake arrives.
Intel Meteor Lake: Specs and Efficiency
Very similar to the pricing state of affairs, Intel hasn’t given us a lot to work with when it comes to anticipated efficiency for the upcoming Meteor Lake processors.
A roadmap picture proven to traders by Intel again in 2022 has confirmed that each Meteor and Arrow Lake can be constructed on the brand new ‘Intel 4’ CPU structure, which makes use of a 7nm lithography course of, versus the earlier ‘Intel 7’ 10nm course of (sure, these names are complicated).
This implies we are able to in all probability anticipate a bigger generational efficiency leap for the 14th-gen Meteor Lake chips than we noticed between Intel’s Twelfth and Thirteenth CPU generations. It is price noting that this shift won’t be as dramatic because the one seen following the change from the previous 14nm microarchitecture seen within the Eleventh-gen chips, since that shift additionally noticed Intel adopting the split-core ‘efficiency/effectivity’ design seen within the Twelfth-gen Core processors and onwards.
What we do know – or at the very least, what we are able to moderately assume to be true based mostly on the veracity of leak sources – is that Intel is shifting to a ’tile-based’ design for Meteor Lake. Higher generally known as chiplets, these tiles basically ‘disaggregate’ completely different CPU processes into particular person items on the CPU die; for instance, separating I/O features (together with PCIe 5.0 and Thunderbolt 4 help) into their very own chiplet for higher efficiency.
To help this new fashion of structure, Intel apparently plans to implement L4 cache reminiscence on Meteor Lake chips. So far, shopper processors have solely integrated L1 by means of to L3 cache reminiscence on the die; a earlier leak reported by HotHardware indicated the existence of an unnamed Meteor Lake chip that featured a whopping 128MB of L4 cache.
Which means if we do get desktop chips, they may very well be severely spectacular – even when we’ve got to attend till Arrow Lake, we are able to nonetheless anticipate to see an enormous step up when it comes to efficiency, which is thrilling. We might nearly be inclined to recommend holding off on shopping for a brand new desktop CPU proper now, in truth – one thing massive may very well be on the horizon.
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