Intel 14th Gen Meteor Lake CPU: Everything We Know So Far
The Intel 14th Gen Meteor Lake, the next version of Intel’s CPU, has been creating a lot of excitement among the tech community over the past few weeks. Intel is reportedly adopting a new method of CPU design to rival Apple and surpass AMD, making the release of Meteor Lake, a big one for the company. While complete information about the CPU is not yet available, numerous rumours and leaks exist. In this article, we will go through a rundown of everything we know so far.
Intel 14th Gen Meteor Lake: New Naming Scheme
Intel has confirmed that the upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs will be marketed under a new name, “Core Ultra.” This will replace the previous naming convention of using “Core i” for over a decade and a half. Let us know what you think of this change in the comments section.
Intel 14th Gen Meteor Lake Release Window
- Intel 14th Gen Meteor Lake might be released in Q4 2023.
We don’t have an official launch date for Intel’s Intel Core Ultra 14th Gen Meteor Lake. Earlier, it was revealed that Intel would increase the production of Meteor Lake chips by H2 2023. The company had also indicated earlier that the chips would be available in 2023. Nonetheless, rumours are circulating that the initial release schedule for Meteor Lake may have been disrupted.
According to YouTuber “Moore’s Law Is Dead,” the Meteor Lake chips will be released in October 2023. The first CPUs to be released will be laptop CPUs with up to 14 cores, which is not typical since Intel usually launches desktop CPUs first.
Several insiders have also suggested that there may be issues with the Intel Meteor Lake-S (desktop) lineup. OneRaichu, a reputable Twitter leaker, posted a tweet in late 2022 that hinted at the possibility of the range being cancelled. Moore’s Law Is Dead agrees with this possibility, but Intel has yet to confirm any specific release date beyond 2023.
According to a roadmap slide shared by Hardware Times, the rumours regarding the cancellation of Meteor Lake for desktops may be true. The updated roadmap indicates that Intel may only be planning to introduce Raptor Lake-S CPUs in 2023, and there are no references to Meteor Lake CPUs.
If this leaked roadmap is to be believed, Intel may release a newer version of Raptor Lake and delay Meteor Lake by another year, although this has yet to be confirmed by Intel. In the meantime, we can expect the launch to be in the last quarter of this year, Q4 2023.
Meteor Lake CPU Specifications
Since the chips are still months away from their release, there have been no leaked benchmarks yet. Although specifications for Meteor Lake CPUs have not been leaked, a leak has provided some rough specifications for the mobile CPUs.
1. Three Mobile Versions
Firstly, the leak reveals that there will be three versions of mobile Meteor Lake CPUs, namely U, P, and H variants, which is a traditional approach by Intel. Typically, U-series CPUs have a power consumption of 15 watts or less, P-series have 28 watts, and H-series have 45 watts, but it’s uncertain whether Intel will stick to these power ranges.
2. Core Count
Moreover, the leaked details suggest that the maximum number of cores for mobile Meteor Lake CPUs will be 14, consisting of six performance cores and eight efficient cores. This is interesting as the current Intel CPUs have a much larger core count.
As per the YouTuber “Moore’s Law Is Dead,” Intel is drifting away from the higher core count on its CPUs and working on providing better cores for a more balanced power draw. However, this is just anticipation and may or may not be true.
3. RAM and Storage Support
We also have confirmation that the Meteor Lake CPUs will be compatible with both DDR5 and LPDDR5X memory and support PCIe 5.0 storage. Specifically, the CPUs will support LPDDR5X-7467 and DDR5-5200 memory types, with up to 96 GB DDR5 and 64 GB LPDDR5X capacities.
4. Architecture
Moreover, Intel’s upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs are anticipated to be produced using the latest 4nm process technology (Intel 4 process), which is projected to offer superior performance and energy efficiency compared to the current 13th generation CPUs built on the Intel 7 process (7nm).
As hinted by Intel, the Intel 4 process (4nm) offers 21.5% higher frequencies than the previous node with the same power consumption or a 40% reduction in power usage at the same frequency.
For instance, the top-of-the-line Core i9-13900KS can reach a speed of 6GHz without overclocking, and we can expect a better deal with the Meteor Lake CPUs. Nevertheless, Intel has not yet released any benchmarks or performance data.
It is also safe to say that Intel will utilize the latest Redwood Cove cores for higher performance and the Crestmont cores for better efficiency. By combining these two types of cores, Intel aims to offer better performance without increasing power consumption.
The Crestmont cores are reportedly up to 15% better in terms of instructions per cycle (IPC) when compared to the previous generation’s Gracemont, and Redwood Cove cores may provide as much as a 25% IPC improvement compared to Raptor Cove.
5. GPU
Rumours suggest that Intel may use its Arc GPU architecture for the graphics tile. Still, it is uncertain whether they will use the current Arc Alchemist or the next Arc Battlemage.
Due to past issues with Arc, such as delays and driver bugs, Intel might not choose a new GPU architecture.
6. New Socket
As claimed by BenchLeaks, the upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs are rumoured to adopt a different socket, the LGA 1851, which could potentially require new motherboards and introduce new platform features. As for the CPU coolers, it remains unclear whether those compatible with Alder Lake CPUs (12th generation) will also be compatible with the Meteor Lake CPUs.
Price Prediction
Currently, there are no leaks or official information on the pricing of the Meteor Lake CPUs. It is also hard to predict the pricing for the Meteor Lake CPUs. The current range of Intel CPUs starts at approximately $100 for the base variant and goes up to more than $650 for the highest-end variant.
However, given the specifications, as discussed earlier, we do not expect any significant fluctuations in the prices of Meteor Lake CPUs. The final price will primarily depend on the competition between AMD and Intel. We can expect similar pricing to be close to what we have now, without any significant price hike.
What do you think of the upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs? Let us know in the comments section below. And yes, stay tuned for future updates on the Meteor Lake CPUs.
