Unreleased Intel 14th-Gen CPUs widely available at Chinese etailers before the official launch, and they're almost identical to 13th-Gen

Several qualification samples of Intel's remaining 14th-Gen Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs have been listed on the Chinese storefront Goofish (via ComputerBase). We've already seen the Core i3-14100, which was spotted just a couple of days ago, but now the Core i5-1440F, the Core i5-14500, and even the Core i5-14500T are also all on sale.

These Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs are not retail models but qualification samples sent to OEMs and other interested parties for validation. Essentially, they are equivalent to the final product that ends up on store shelves, barring some major issue that wasn't caught until the qualification stage.

The listings of 14th-Gen QS chips have double-confirmed a months-old leak for the specifications of the entire 14th-Gen product lineup. The person selling the Core i3-14100 claimed it had four cores and a (base) clock speed of 3.5GHz, matching the leak. A listing for the Core i5-14400F, complete with CPU-Z screenshots, reveals a 4.7GHz boost clock, which would make sense since the 13400 clocks in at 4.6GHz.

That QS CPUs are leaking and in such high quantities strongly indicates that the rest of the 14th Gen lineup is launching soon, perhaps at CES or a little later. However, if you can't wait that long, then you can just get a 13th-Gen chip. They're pretty much identical to their 14th Gen counterparts (save for the Core i7-14700K) except for a slightly lower clock speed, and they'll probably end up being much cheaper, too.