Intel's Raptor refresh

New world's fastest desktop processor. Possibly...

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BY THE TIME you read this, Intel will have released the first of its new 14th generation Raptor Lake refresh processors. This initial batch will consist of three versions, with two variations of each. We have, in order of power, the Core i9-14900K, i7-14700, and i5-14600, each in “K”, and “KF” configurations (all unlocked, but the Fs lack integrated graphics). As usual, Intel has opted to release the best first. That best has eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, plus a base P clock of 3.2GHz. Memory support runs to DDR5-5600— not the rumored 6400 that some had hoped for.

The rest of the range is expected in the new year, and will expand the range to 26 versions in all, including two that don’t even warrant i3 status, as they only contain two performance cores. These appear to be taking the role of Intel’s Pentium Gold and Celeron brands. The core counts are the same as the previous generation of Raptor Lake, except for the i7’s, which get an extra four efficiency cores, taking them to a 8+12 configuration. There are speed tweaks across the board, in the order of 100MHz for the most part. DDR5 memory speeds drop to 4800 at the i5 and below. All models retain DDR4-3200 support, so new memory isn’t required.