Intel has officially confirmed at an Asian conference (according to @wxnod on Twitter), that more 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs are coming. These include new 65W S-series desktop variants, and new high-performance mobile chips featuring the "HX" moniker. Intel's confirmation reveals what we already knew to some degree, that Raptor Lake Refresh won't be limited to just the three K SKUs we have today, but will extend to both regular mainstream consumer desktops and high-performance gaming notebooks shortly.
Intel's confirmation backs up the recent rumors and leaks stating that new mobile and desktop Raptor Lake Refresh chips were coming. Rumors started ramping up about new mainstream desktop chips and mobile variants a month ago when an assortment of leaked Raptor Lake refresh gaming laptops and leaked CPU motherboard support lists were uncovered.
Laptop leaks, so far have included newly updated versions of the ROG Scar 16 and Lenovo Legion 9, 7, and 5, featuring the i9-14900HX, i7-14700HX, and i7-14650HX CPUs.
pic.twitter.com/Fop2yvQbPxNovember 6, 2023
Intel neglected to share any specifications of the new chips, but based on previous rumors we shouldn't expect any massive performance improvements or core count upgrades with these new chips, much like Intel's current trio of Raptor Lake Refresh K SKUs. The main improvements we should expect are better core frequencies, and possibly some core count upgrades on some chips but nothing crazy.
In the announcement, Intel also confirmed that new Chinese-exclusive Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs are coming as well. These new chips will be successors to Intel's outgoing Core i7-13790F and i5-13490F, which are region-exclusive chips locked to the Chinese market.
Depending on how things roll out, Intel could launch even more CPUs at some point. The same 65W desktop Raptor Lake Refresh leaks mentioned earlier also included details surrounding 35W "T" series chips, meaning that Intel could launch even more power-efficient 35W 14th Gen chips in the future.
As for laptop chips, it seems very likely that the 14th Gen HX series will be the only mobile-focused lineup to utilize the Raptor Lake Refresh architecture. Intel's next-generation Meteor Lake architecture will make its debut on December 14th, taking on the mainstream market with a focus on efficiency.
