Boo, Intel's faux 14th Gen isn't going to deliver the peak cheap gaming CPU we were teased with

pcgamer.com:

Aww, it was looking so good for a second there; for the briefest moment it looked like Intel was going to make its Raptor Lake Refresh range of processors really count. Sadly, it seems like, aside from a barely relevant 200MHz clock speed bump on the upcoming 14th Gen chips, we're not going to see the major re-spec of the new CPU lineup earlier rumours had promised.

We reported a few weeks ago on the supposedly leaked core counts of the new range of Intel processors which had been presented by a RedGamingTech video. It claimed the Raptor Lake Refresh was going to deliver higher core counts, almost across the entire CPU stack. 

And those promised extra cores weren't supposed to be just the lower-rent Efficient cores either, with a selection of 14th Gen chips actually getting higher Performance core counts, too.

The most exciting of which, as has been recent Intel passim, was down at the lower end of the stack. The proposed Core i5 14400 was set for a bump up to 14 cores and 20 threads, and the Core i5 14100 listed as being a pure six-core, 12-thread chip. Both those low-end Core i5 processors would make for potentially outstanding gaming CPUs, and you'd have to be doing some serious productivity work to really need anything more high-spec.

Unfortunately, it's now looking as though those initial rumours could be incorrect as another leaker has presented claimed 14th Gen core counts and clock speeds (via Videocardz) suggesting that it's more or less going to be back to the 13th Gen status quo when it comes to how many cores you can expect as you go down through the range.

Up top, as was always suggested, is the 24-core, 32-thread Core i9 14900, which ostensibly remains the same. These latest specs corroborate the notion of