Intel doesn’t plan to make a Core i9 CPU for its reportedly forthcoming Raptor Lake Refresh lineup, according to regular Intel leaker Jaykihn. If true, this move would follow Intel’s strategy with Arrow Lake Refresh where, instead of launching a new Core Ultra 9 chip, the company focused on big-volume, cheaper Core Ultra 7 and 5 lineups.
Responding to a thread from our earlier story about the rumoured Raptor Lake Refresh, Jaykihn shared a few more details of what’s expected from the new lineup of CPUs. According to the leaker, the new CPUs will, unsurprisingly, be built on the 10nm Intel 7 process, rather than being outsourced to third parties with smaller nodes.
The other new nugget of information is that, according to Jaykihn, there “is no i9 SKU in the upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh.” This is intriguing. Is Intel about to repeat what it did with the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, and top out the range with a Core i7 CPU, perhaps called something like the 14750K Plus, but with the same eight P-cores and 16 E-cores of the 14900K and a lower clock speed? That would potentially be a killer product if so.
An improved CPU based on six P-cores to replace the Core i5-14600K could be on the cards as well. Intel could add another four E-Cores, as it did with the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, and make a cut-price 18-core chip that will work on old LGA1700 motherboards with DDR4 memory. That could be a popular product in today’s landscape, especially when the Core i5-14600K (one of our best DDR4 CPU recommendations) is so hard to find in stock at a reasonable price.
I’d also be interested to see if there are any other tweaks under the hood with these rumoured new chips, or whether Intel is just going to fiddle with core counts, clock speeds and prices. We’ll report back as soon as there’s any more information about these new CPUs.
In the meantime, check out our guide to buying the best CPU if you’re looking to upgrade now, where we take you through all our top picks from today’s chips.
