'Raptor Lake Refresh' Unveiled: Intel Details 14th Gen Core Desktop CPUs

pcmag.com:

Intel’s 14th Generation Core desktop chips go on sale tomorrow, but don’t expect a major architectural change. 

The new chips technically use the same “Raptor Lake” architecture from last year’s 13th Generation Core chips. This time, Intel says it’s refreshed the technology to squeeze out more performance, resulting in higher clock speeds and some additional cores.

So, you won’t find Intel’s “Meteor Lake” architecture or new 7-nanometer process node here. For now, the company is reserving those new technologies for laptops later in 2023. Instead, desktop customers will need to settle for a more incremental update, although Intel says the new product family still packs leading performance. 

Intel's 14th generation will begin with three chips, the most powerful of which is the Intel Core i9-14900K, or what Intel dubs “the world’s fastest desktop processor.” The chip, which will retail for $589, is capable of reaching up to 6GHz clock speeds for short bursts. 

“Our new Core i9 offers better single-threaded and multi-threaded performance through faster cores and refinements to our hybrid architecture,” added Intel VP Roger Chandler during a press briefing. 

Still, Intel already sold another 6GHz chip back in January with the Intel Core i9-13900KS, which could only hit the max clock speed with one core at a time. So, we’re curious how the Core i9-14900K will perform in comparison. 

The second chip is the Core i7-14700K, which will sell for $409. Compared with last year’s Intel Core i7-13700K, the new chip adds four more Efficient cores, bringing the total core count from 16 to 20 for better multi-threaded performance. Meanwhile, the max clock speed has been raised from 5.4GHz to 5.6GHz. 

The final chip in this first 14th Gen