Despite not being included in any official keynote, Intel did confirm the existence of Raptor Lake Refresh at the Innovation event. On the Innovation floor before the show officially began, the camera crew toured different booths displaying Intel hardware, including some that showcased pre-release hardware scheduled for a release several months down the line. Unexpectedly, the rumored 14th Gen Core series made its debut on the second day of the event, even though Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger had not previously announced it during his keynote presentation.
Nevertheless, this revelation didn’t take place during the keynote on the second day; instead, it happened as a live demonstration on the exhibition floor. The presenter made it clear that this marked the inaugural public unveiling of the prelaunch hardware from the Raptor Lake Refresh series. The demonstration centered around a desktop system employed to generate a Meta Human, a virtual representation of a real person captured through cameras.
Regrettably, the details stop here, as neither the SKU names nor the CPU specifications were revealed. Interestingly, this was the sole reference to this ‘architecture’ during the entire Innovation event, despite the substantial emphasis placed on the 13th Gen Raptor Lake in the previous year’s event. Intel chose to emphasize Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake instead, with a particular focus on their AI acceleration capabilities.
The upcoming Intel 14th Gen Core Raptor Lake Refresh is poised to introduce an initial lineup comprising six models. This includes notable options like the 24-core 6 GHz Core i9-14900K(F), the 20-core 5.6 GHz Core i7-14700K(F), and the 14-core 5.3 GHz Core i5-14600K(F) models. Furthermore, expect more SKUs, primarily 65W non-K models, to be unveiled during CES 2024.
As of the current status, the launch date for the Intel 14th Gen Core desktop CPUs, specifically the 125W unlocked K-Series variants, is scheduled for October 17th. While Intel has yet to officially disclose pricing, it’s highly likely that specifications have been widely known for several weeks.