Intel still has to flesh out its Raptor Lake Refresh range of processors, with only a trio of unlocked ‘K’ model CPUs (that can be overclocked to go faster) on shelves so far, and more affordable choices are supposedly set to debut on January 8.
We should see a raft of processors from the top to bottom of the 14th-gen range, with a new Core i9-14900 CPU at the top to partner the 14900K. The difference being the new non-K chip won’t be open to overclocking, and it’s boost will be slightly lower (by 200MHz) with a lesser power usage too – and it’ll be a bit cheaper.
We’ll get similar non-K equivalents for the 14700K and 14600K, and then a whole lot of new silicon down from there in the more affordable department, including a Core i5-14500, Core i5-14400, and Core i3-14100 (plus variants therein).
ECSM, a regular hardware leaker on X (formerly Twitter), furnished us with the rumored release date for these new Raptor Lake Refresh models, which is January 8 as mentioned.
非 K 系列将会在1/8 下午 3 点（太平洋时间）1/9 早上 7 点（北京时间）解禁发布先来点开胃小菜14100 pic.twitter.com/sNql7vPpJBDecember 13, 2023
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They also provided some leaked spec details and benchmarks for the Core i5-14400 and Core i3-14100 models, showing that they maintain the same core configuration as their 13th-gen predecessors (as rumored in the past).
Analysis: Benchmark bonuses
We’ve also been treated to some leaked benchmarks for the Core i5-14400 and Core i3-14100 – add seasoning as ever (with all of this, including that launch date) – and in Cinebench multi-core, the 14400 hits a score of 16,074. According to the comparisons provided by Wccftech (who spotted the above tweet), that’s about 5% faster than AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X (and a touch faster than Intel’s 12600K from two generations back).
Pricing will of course be a key issue for these new processors, but they should be pitched in line with where Intel has gone with Raptor Lake Refresh prices tags already. Which is to say they’re expected to roughly maintain pricing with their 13th-gen counterparts.
Currently, you can buy the Core i5-13400 for around $230 in the US at the time of writing (although the MSRP is $240), and the Core i3-13100 is just under $150, so expect price tags to fall around those marks – and in line with current pricing in other regions.
The 14700K stormed to the top of our rankings of the best processors when it was released, so it’ll be interesting to see how these more wallet-friendly chips perform. Mind you, in the case of the 14700K, it’s the only Raptor Lake Refresh chip to increase its core count (if the rumors about the rest of the range are correct).