Intel Confirms Meteor Lake Comes to Desktops Next Year

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Intel's multi-chipset Meteor Lake CPUs are coming to desktops after all.

Raptor Lake CPU
(Image credit: Intel)

Intel's 14th Generation Core series set to be released this year includes codenamed Meteor Lake processors for laptops and codenamed Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs for desktops. The exact reason why Intel decided to release its codenamed Meteor Lake processors only for notebooks this year is unknown. Still, this product is coming to desktops, the company said.

"[Meteor Lake] desktop will come in 2024," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Client Computing Group at Intel, in an interview with PCWorld's Mark Hachman. "I want one processor family top to bottom for both segments, doesn't everybody?

But what do we know about Intel's Meteor Lake-S so far? Not much.

We may speculate that Intel's Meteor Lake-S CPUs will share up to six high-performance cores up to N energy-efficient cores, but this is about it. Such a configuration is good enough for compact desktops, but it will hardly cater to the demands of gaming enthusiasts.

Meanwhile, Meteor Lake-S and Arrow Lake-S processors are expected to share the alleged Socket V1 (for LGA1851 CPUs) and 800-series chipset platform. Mainboards developed for Arrow Lake-S, which will exist in Core i7 and Core i9 variants for gamers and enthusiasts, are poised to offer sophisticated voltage regulating modules to provide maximum performance and will cost accordingly. The question is whether advanced 800-series motherboards will ever be needed for Meteor Lake-S CPUs in the alleged configuration.

Intel's Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake processors are set to mark the company's foray into multi-tile architectures for clients. While Meteor Lake will be based on the Intel 4 node with a focus on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, Arrow Lake will utilize a 2nm-class Intel 20A process. Both will likely feature graphics tiles made on TSMC's N3E technology. The standout feature of the Intel 20A process is its integration of RibbonFET transistors and PowerVia power delivery aimed at enhancing performance, which enthusiast-grade CPUs will particularly welcome.

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Anton Shilov
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.

67 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Greg7579
    I'm confused. I was going to build next month with 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh because for months we have been saying that Meteor Lake was laptop only, and that the big generational change for desktops would be Arrow Lake probably about a year from now. So we get Raptor Lake Refresh now, them Meteor Lake a few months from now and then Arrow Lake almost immediately after that?
    Three major high-end chip generations for the high-end desktop inside of a year?
    Maybe I should not build now with Raptor Lake Refresh. Man oh Man! Why spend 5 grand building a top end PC now when two major upgrades are coming in the next few months - Meteor Lake (which we thought was laptop only) and Arrow Lake as generational-level improvements to Raptor Lake.
    Raptor Lake is on the tail end of old tech and Meteor Lake will have a new socket and chipset with completely new generational change level motherboards. Then Arrow Lake almost immediately after that which is a generational change. Why build now with top-end Raptor Lake stuff? It made sense since Arrow Lake was a year away. But now we have Meteor Lake for the Desktop staring us in the face.
    Reply
  • Roland Of Gilead
    Greg7579 said:
    I'm confused. I was going to build next month with 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh because for months we have been saying that Meteor Lake was laptop only, and that the big generational change for desktops would be Arrow Lake probably about a year from now. So we get Raptor Lake Refresh now, them Meteor Lake a few months from now and then Arrow Lake almost immediately after that?
    Three major high-end chip generations for the high-end desktop inside of a year?
    Maybe I should not build now with Raptor Lake Refresh. Man oh Man! Why spend 5 grand building a top end PC now when two major upgrades are coming in the next few months - Meteor Lake (which we thought was laptop only) and Arrow Lake as generational-level improvements to Raptor Lake.
    Raptor Lake is on the tail end of old tech and Meteor Lake will have a new socket and chipset with completely new generational change level motherboards. Then Arrow Lake almost immediately after that which is a generational change. Why build now with top-end Raptor Lake stuff? It made sense since Arrow Lake was a year away. But now we have Meteor Lake for the Desktop staring us in the face.
    Sing it loud!

    Confusing, yes!
    Reply
  • Li Ken-un
    Greg7579 said:
    Three major high-end chip generations
    That count really hinges on the definition of “major.” Did Intel really make significant changes—say… to Raptor Lake Refresh?

    Time will tell with the eventual release of reviews and benchmarks.
    Reply
  • peachpuff
    Greg7579 said:
    Three major high-end chip generations for the high-end desktop inside of a year?
    Pffft no, we get raptor lake+ with 200mhz bump, arrow lake and arrow lake+ with 200mhz bump.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    I'am waiting the 14700 these new shine tech... don't look good for me. Will have a cpu for all kind of work.
    Reply
  • baboma
    >Three major high-end chip generations for the high-end desktop inside of a year?
    Maybe I should not build now with Raptor Lake Refresh. Man oh Man! Why spend 5 grand building a top end PC now when two major upgrades are coming in the next few months

    Your timeline is too optimistic. All the above will be spaced out into annual releases, so Raptor Lake Refresh in Dec '23, Meteor Lake desktop in '24, and Arrow Lake (which we know nothing about) in '25. That's if the releases hold to the timeline. Rule of thumb is that they will probably slip, just like Meteor Lake did.

    As for building now or later, that depends on the purpose of your build. From what was said from the Intel blurb, the main MTL (Core Ultra) draw will be a built-in NPU, and improved iGPU. Perf improvement wasn't mentioned, so I imagine there'll be some, but perf bump will be incremental, not substantial. Again, emphasis will be on NPU (for AI), and iGPU. Read: If your build is for high-end gaming specifically, MTL won't matter for you.

    NPU will have an increasing role, as Windows 12 coming next year will lean on AI for Microsoft's CoPilot (basically Bing Chat for all of Windows features). All signs are that MS will increasingly deploy AI into all of MS' services going forward, as that will be the main draw. The announced Surface device will reportedly have a discrete NPU chip, because MTL wasn't ready.

    Amazon has announced generative AI will be key for improvement of Alexa, and we can expect the same for both MS' and Google's voice assistants for upcoming iterations. If you're expecting raw perf improvements for CPU or GPU, for the future, I think you'll be disappointed. Everything coming out of the recent MS/Amazon/Google announcements are that AI will be the main area of improvement.
    Reply
  • Evildead_666
    what im understanding with all this is that if i want to build a purely gaming pc, i should basically make a steam deck desktop....
    Microsoft ai copilot etc isnt something i want at all...

    Intel seems confused too, maybe they should drop to 2 year intervals for hardware releases ?
    I really dont see the point of yearly refreshes of everything.
    Reply
  • Greg7579
    peachpuff said:
    Pffft no, we get raptor lake+ with 200mhz bump, arrow lake and arrow lake+ with 200mhz bump.
    I should not have said 3 "generational" changes. Raptor Lake is just a refresh on its final legs. I was going to build with that vs the 13900K, even though the refresh is likely just a small bump up. But the big news is that Meteor Lake was not supposed to be for the desktop. Now it is and coming soon. Arrow Lake was the anticipated generational change for the desktop. Now for high-end desktops there is Raptor Lake Refresh, Meteor Lake and Arrow lake all in the next year ir so. Crazy.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Greg7579 said:
    I'm confused. I was going to build next month with 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh because for months we have been saying that Meteor Lake was laptop only, and that the big generational change for desktops would be Arrow Lake probably about a year from now. So we get Raptor Lake Refresh now, them Meteor Lake a few months from now and then Arrow Lake almost immediately after that?
    The only way this makes sense to me is if Meteor Lake is going to makeup the low-end of the desktop Gen 14 model line. Then, Arrow Lake will replace Raptor Lake, as the upper-end desktop die.

    Otherwise, doing three desktop CPU launches in just over a year's time makes almost zero sense. Therefore, if you're planning on building a high-end machine within the next 6 months, I'd take a gamble and use Raptor Refresh.

    That's just my take, though. Make your own decision and don't cry to me if I'm wrong!
    : O
    Reply
  • bit_user
    baboma said:
    Your timeline is too optimistic. All the above will be spaced out into annual releases, so Raptor Lake Refresh in Dec '23, Meteor Lake desktop in '24, and Arrow Lake (which we know nothing about) in '25. That's if the releases hold to the timeline. Rule of thumb is that they will probably slip, just like Meteor Lake did.
    Not if we're going by what Intel says. They tell us Arrow Lake will be 2024 and Panther Lake will be 2025.

    You can bet on whether one of them slips and they substitute it with a refresh, but right now we should just try to make sense of what they're telling us. This is the same thing they're telling investors, and they can't knowingly lie to investors without opening themselves up to litigation.
    Reply