Intel Has Allegedly Canceled Its Desktop Meteor Lake 6P+8E CPU

Intel
(Image credit: OneRaichu/Twitter)

Intel has canceled a promising configuration of its next-generation Meteor Lake processors for desktops, if a slide presumably from Intel's roadmap published by @OneRaichu is to be believed.

If the information is correct, the company no longer plans to offer 6P + 8E configuration of its Meteor Lake-S CPUs. Still, since it is a leak, it should be considered appropriately and things may change.

The alleged slide, which is heavily redacted, is said to represent Intel's plans for entry-level workstations, desktops, high-end gaming laptops, mainstream laptops, and inexpensive notebooks, through 2026 as of the 18th week of 2023 (early May). A bit that is not redacted purportedly says that Intel intends to 'remove productization' of MTL-S 6P + 8E configuration, which points to socketed desktop parts. 

In recent years, Intel offered CPUs with six high-performance cores and eight energy-efficient cores for high-end notebooks, but not desktops. So not offering this configuration for desktops in 2023 – 2024 is hardly something that's shocking. However, rumor has it that Intel indeed wanted to offer something with such a config, but for some reason decided not to with its Meteor Lake-S lineup.

Meanwhile, a 6P + 8E design, when coupled with appropriate power supply circuitry and cooling, could perhaps offer superior overclockability for high-performance cores, though this thesis cannot be proven given the fact that Intel allegedly canceled this 6P + 8E product for desktops. 

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.