Coming only a couple of days after news that RAM prices were due to take a jump, PC builders are faced with further woes as a new leak suggests some of the most popular consumer Intel CPUs will also see increased prices.
The leak comes from Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, which reports that Intel plans on raising the prices of its older 13th and 14th generation CPUs. These chips are part of the Raptor Lake series, and despite being originally released in 2022 they are still very popular for gaming and productivity PC builds.
The report says that Intel is planning a 10 percent increase on Raptor Lake processors. Industry analysts suspect this move is related to the poor performance and lacklustre sales figures for Intel’s new line-up of ‘AI’ CPUs and PCs. Despite the Core Ultra Arrow Lake CPUs now being available, consumers have largely remained indifferent to the new Intel CPU offerings.
Reviews and benchmark tests have shown that despite significant efficiency gains, the Intel Core Ultra Arrow Lake CPUs have not delivered performance upgrades, and in many scenarios the older Raptor Lake processors outperformed the newer CPUs. As demonstrated by the comparison test shown above, where the Intel Core i9-14900K consistently outperformed the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K in the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail benchmark.
The price hikes will add to problems faced by tech retailers, who will need to decide if they should absorb the cost or pass it along to the consumer. Sales figures indicated that Intel was struggling to move units of the Core Ultra line, with Raptor Lake comfortably outselling the newer CPU offerings. With their preferred processor being more expensive, consumers will have further reason to turn to AMD for their choice of chip. Especially considering that Intel has very little of interest in the pipeline currently, save for a refresh of Arrow Lake CPUs.
