Intel 14th gen Raptor Lake reportedly uses the same socket as last-gen: Specs, expected prices, and more

More Intel 14th gen Raptor Lake Refresh leaks seem to substantiate at Computex 2023 as companies launch hardware specifically geared for the upcoming CPU lineup from Team Blue. While the processors will be based on the same architecture as the current 13th gen lineup, Intel may solely rely on voltage shoving to achieve slightly higher performance.

All major motherboard vendors like MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, and ASRock have launched high-end boards with better VRMs and the capacity to handle high-power "future" CPUs. This will not make sense if Intel is not planning to follow up its existing LGA 1700 platform with more processors.

If the company's past launch trends are anything to go by, this will deviate from regular practice. Team Blue hasn't supported a platform for beyond two years since the Skylake lineup.

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Intel 14th gen will merely be a process refinement of the current 13th gen Raptor Lake lineup

Intel's CPU launch roadmap (Image via Intel)

Intel 14th gen CPUs will likely feature the fastest boost clock speeds in the market. The current 13th gen flagship, the Core i9 13900KS, boosts to a massive 6.0 GHz out of the box. The new 14th gen lineup will likely make 6 GHz clock speeds mainstream.

Leaks suggest that all high-end Raptor Lake Refresh processors will boost 6.2 to 6.5 GHz. In addition, there won't be separate motherboard chipsets for the upcoming generation. The Z790 platform will be repurposed for these CPUs with new BIOS updates.

Since the upcoming generation will be more power-hungry and thermally inefficient, we saw multiple high-end releases at Computex. MSI showcased its latest Z790 MAX motherboards with WiFi 7 support. Similarly, ASRock is making its current lineup cheaper and renaming it "LITE" while introducing multiple higher-end products specifically for the upcoming chips.

	Intel 14th gen CPU lineup
Architecture	Raptor Lake (Raptor Cove P-cores and Gracemont E-cores)
Manufacturing process node	Intel 7
Operating clock speeds	>6.0 GHz
Memory support	DDR5-6000 (not confirmed yet)
Maximum TDP	up to 300W
Motherboard support	All LGA 1700 boards (H610, B660, Z690, B760, Z790)

In addition, ADATA also launched DDR5-6400 RAM marketed specifically for Intel 14th gen CPUs. As reported originally by Wccftech, these RAM sticks are part of the company's next-gen DDR5 memory lineup. Although it sounds too good to be true, the new Intel lineup might bundle support for ultra-fast DDR5 RAM.

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Expected pricing of Intel 14th gen Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs

Refresher hardware lineups, like Nvidia's Ti series, generally cost a lot for minor performance improvements. We believe the same will apply to Intel's new CPUs. The chips will generally be a filler until the company launches the Meteor Lake lineup of chips with vast improvements to efficiency and performance.

The current lineup of Raptor Lake CPUs is pricey, to begin with. Thus, we expect the refreshed lineup to be geared specifically toward those who want ultra-tier performance and don't care about costs. Since the new lineup will be based entirely on voltage shoving, we won't be surprised if the 14th gen has zero budget offerings.

However, all of this is mere speculation, and things might change as we approach the late Q3/early Q4 launch date.