Here’s why Intel’s Meteor Lake desktop CPUs could be a major disappointment

The big picture: Having launched its 13th-gen ‘Raptor Lake’ lineup last year, Intel is expected to release its Raptor Lake Refresh later in 2022 before rolling out the ‘Meteor Lake’ chips in 2024. However, a new leak about Intel’s next-gen CPU lineup is sure to disappoint at least some people.

According to a slide uploaded to Twitter by prolific tipster @SquashBionic, the Meteor Lake-S range could have only entry-level and mid-range CPUs rated for 35W and 65W. The slide, which is believed to be part of an official Intel presentation document, suggests that the Meteor Lake-S lineup will include Core i3 and Core i5 chips for mainstream desktops, while folks looking for high-end Core i7 and i9 chips with up to 125W TDPs will have to look at the Raptor Lake Refresh or Arrow Lake-S lineups.

The slide also shows that Meteor Lake-S and Arrow Lake-S will share Intel’s Socket V1 for LGA1851 CPUs and the 800-series chipset platform, while the Raptor Lake-S will have the Socket V0 for LGA 1700 processors and be compatible with Intel’s 600/700 series chipsets. However, there will be at least one major difference between Meteor Lake-S and Arrow Lake-S: the latter will seemingly allow for more advanced voltage-regulating modules for improved performance.

🙂 https://t.co/ZxoDgqxQTd pic.twitter.com/4ROreQTnwT

– Bionic_squash (@SquashBionic) April 25, 2023

There’s no more new information to report, but earlier leaks revealed several details about the Meteor Lake family. The top-end Meteor Lake desktop processor is expected to have up to 22 cores and 28 threads, which is fewer than the 24 cores and 32 threads in the Core i9-13900K (Raptor Lake). On the laptop side, the top-of-the-line Meteor Lake chip is rumored to have 14 cores, including 6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores.

Meanwhile, a recently-leaked internal Intel document seemingly confirmed long-standing rumors that Meteor Lake will be marketed as Intel’s 14th-gen Core processor lineup. Online speculations also suggest that the Raptor Lake Refresh will have the 13th-gen Core branding like the original Raptor Lake, while Arrow Lake will be earmarked as the 15th-gen Core family.

Most of the details about Intel’s upcoming processor lineups still remain a mystery for now, including their launch dates. However, we will likely know more about that in the coming weeks and months. Either way, the aforementioned leak comes from an unofficial source, so take it with a pinch of salt until it’s confirmed by Intel.