Intel has finally announced its Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs, and I didn't expect to be this excited

After months of rumored release dates, supposed spec leaks, and loads of speculation, Intel has finally announced the launch of its 14th Generation desktop processors. 

Dubbed "Raptor Lake Refresh" for a number of months now, this new wave of CPUs will use the same socket as 12th and 13th-generation chips and will be headed up by the Intel Core i9-14900K. The new flagship features 24 cores and 32 threads and is capable of reaching 6 GHz out of the box. 

These new Central Processing Units will be available from October 17 onward at retail outlets and partner sites. At the time of writing, I don't have access to pricing information for each new SKU, but when we learn this, I'll update you.

Besides the new i9, the 14th Generation is made up of six new unlocked processors at launch, and Intel has emphasized that they have been designed to be the best CPUs for gaming on the market. 

The Intel Core i7-14700K will feature 20 cores and 28 threads, which gives it a boost of four more E-Cores (efficiency cores) than the Intel Core i7-13700K, which GamesRadar+ reviewed fairly recently. 

Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility now includes a new AI-assist feature for certain Raptor Lake Refresh chips, which will let folks have access to AI-guided one-click overclocking if they have a compatible processor in their gaming PC.

It is important to note that the new processors won't feature the recently revealed Meteor Lake architecture, since that's currently reserved for a new wave of mobile CPUs. Instead, this generation will use the Hybrid Architecture that combines the use of Performance cores and the aforementioned E-Cores. As the "Refresh" in Raptor Lake Refresh might suggest, this is the architecture found in both 12th and 13th Generations.

According to Intel, 14th Gen processors can offer up to a 23% boost in gaming performance compared to "leading competitor processors" (I wonder who that could be referring to). Supposedly, this is mainly due to a new feature called "Intel Application Optimization" (APO) that improves the efficiency of thread dedication and scheduling.

The press release we received does state in its small print that this 23% boost figure was measured from FPS recorded in Starfield while using the brand new i9 compared to a Ryzen 7950X3D.

It's unclear how many of these extra features the new i5 CPUs will get, though. The Intel Core i5-13600K didn't have access to Intel's Turbo Max 3.0 Like the i7 or 9, for example.

In more practical terms, the 14th Generation Intel processors support Wi-Fi 6/6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and Thunderbolt 4 and 5.

Some of you may note that this news hasn't adopted Intel's new branding it announced a few months back. This new "Ultra" naming convention that drops the "i" lettering will be reserved for Meteor Lake, and presumably new generations that aren't a "refresh". 

Why I'm excited about Raptor Lake Refresh

In all honesty, I'm not even that excited for a new generation of CPUs. We've only just gotten around to reviewing the flagship 13th Gen processors, and frankly, they're absurdly powerful as it is. A 20-something percent boost is always going to be tantalizing for the enthusiasts who need to run the top specs, don't get me wrong, but the main reason I'm actually excited is because of the impact this will have on 12th and 13th Generation models.

I review the best RAM for gaming as well as CPUs, and as someone who has been waiting for DDR5 to become the dominant force for a good while now, I can't help but get a sense this is a big step toward making that happen. 

A big argument for people not upgrading to a DDR5 system is that it requires a new motherboard, a new CPU, and finally the new RAM. Since a combination of all three that are compatible with Gen 5 speeds have a tendency to add up to a small fortune, it's very exciting that we'll get a third generation of Intel CPU that can all make use of the same motherboard socket. 

With Black Friday CPU deals coming up, I'm actually getting fairly excited about what might be on offer. With the Prime Day PC deals that we saw just a week ago showing that 13th Gen prebuilt gaming PCs, and of course, the processors themselves are starting to get more affordable, I was already pretty hopeful about discounts this November. 

Now, with a brand new wave of flagships, the prices of Intel's Alder Lake and Raptor Lake SKUs can relax, and suddenly, more of you will be able to make the leap to newer PC specs without it costing you an arm and leg. 

Of course, a motherboard, a processor, and RAM might still be a fairly chonky investment, but even if you assemble these parts over time, they'll now set you back way less than they did six months ago. 

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