Intel 14th gen release date, features, & more
When will we see the 14th gen Intel CPUs hit shelves?
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The Intel 14th gen release date is now here! Rumors began circulating shortly after the release of the 13th Gen processors, so we’ve had plenty of time to try and understand the 14th gen release date. Now, with more than a year having passed since last gen, we’re finally able to get our hands on the 14th gen. If you want to see a more hands-on approach, then check out our i9-14900K review and/or i5-14600K review for much more information.
The release date of Intel’s 14th Gen has just been confirmed by Intel themselves, meaning the new 14th gen CPUs are available to order. If you want to know where to buy an Intel 14th-gen CPU, then you’re in the right place.
Various rumors have surfaced over the past year, including claims that Meteor Lake might be canceled or delayed, or that it will exclusively debut on laptops. The landscape has indeed been fraught with speculation. But amidst the conjecture, a key question emerges: How did these rumors impact the actual release date of the 14th generation, and what does Intel have in mind for Meteor Lake?
In 2021, Intel made a bold announcement, unveiling an ambitious plan to introduce five new process nodes within a tight three-year timeframe. The initial roadmap included the launch of Alder Lake in 2021 and Raptor Lake in 2022, both utilizing Intel’s 7 or 10nm process node. Notably, Alder Lake marked the debut of Intel’s innovative LITTLE.big split-core technology, while Raptor Lake further advanced this technological frontier. As we’ve now seen, the first set of CPUs to join the 14th gen will be the Raptor Lake Refresh desktop processors.
Intel 14th gen release date confirmed
Intel has just announced the 14th generation officially to the world via a Newsroom article this confirmed everyone’s suspicions that the CPUs would indeed be launching today, October 17th. This marks the start of the 14th generation, the era of Raptor Lake refresh. Now a new road begins, the road to the next generation.
The 14th gen promises to be a good bridge to the next generation, whilst nothing remarkably groundbreaking, the 14th gen shows that even the best can still be improved upon. As far as performance goes, we’ll have to wait for the benchmarks.
The release date rumors turned out to be true
Previously, we knew that Intel Meteor Lake was expected to launch in 2024. This followed Intel’s roadmap, following the recent announcement of the 14th gen release, it seems that Intel is well on track to meeting its roadmap goals. They may be in a rush to ship new and improved CPUs to combat AMD. Especially since the best CPU for gaming right now is the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. Before Arrow Lake though comes the Raptor Lake refresh, which will spawn the initial wave of 14th-generation CPUs.
Previously, HWINFO was updated to include the 14th-generation CPUs, this could indicate that a release, or at least markable leaks will be available soon. And that was proven completely correct. We’re very excited to see how the 14th generation of Intel CPU will perform. Further rumors from the likes of Wccftech and VideoCardz have linked the Raptor Lake refresh for an October 17 release date, which again was correct. This Reddit thread has also got plenty of people talking, with Central Computers supposedly leaking the release, with pre-orders a day prior.
Do we need a 14th Gen CPU right now?
Not really. The Intel 13th Gen is more than powerful at the current time, and it could have been a good move to perhaps give this a little more room to breathe. That being said, that won’t stop people wanting the newest CPUs – as is the case every year. It also means that the 13th Gen Intel CPUs and even the generations before that could get hefty price cuts just in time for Christmas.
Will Intel 14th gen be on desktop or laptop?
According to a report by YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead, there is speculation that Intel’s Meteor Lake chips will be released in October 2023, with a 14-core laptop CPU leading the way. This departure from Intel’s typical strategy of releasing desktop processors first would be a significant departure from previous generations. It’s unusual for a mobile chip to be the first to hit the market, making this a potentially significant change.
Due to this, some speculated that the Meteor Lake CPUs would be exclusive to laptops. More recent news however suggests that this won’t be the case. So it’s expected that Intel’s 14th gen will include both desktop chips and laptop processors. A Linux update reveals Meteor Lake-S (desktop CPU) support being added to the operating system early.
You can pre-order a 14th-generation Intel CPU now!
Pre-orders have gone live in various places for the Intel 14th-generation CPUs. It doesn’t seem like you can get them everywhere but some SKUs are appearing on Amazon, such as the 14700K. Apart from that, we have also spotted some of Intel’s latest and greatest appearances on SCAN, a UK retailer. If you want to check out where to buy and pre-order the 14th-generation CPUs, you need only follow the link!
Intel 14th gen features
With the new generation of hardware, we might expect some differences as to what that enables. Raptor Lake brought in support for higher DDR5 speeds alongside the Z790 chips improvements and faster I/O speeds. We might get similar features from the 14th Gen as well. As it is more of a refresh than a new generation it will be likely some small feature improvements rather than a whole new set of additions.
There has already been news of WiFi 7 support in some of the motherboards for LGA 1700 so there may even be more opportunities to include that with the platform. There is also the possibility of the inclusion of more Thunderbolt IO, although that’s more likely down to your motherboard than anything, but the CPU allows for that connection.
That is the case for the memory as well. As the 13th Gen brought full support for DDR5 5600MT/s, the 14th Gen addition may push that forward too. Of course, XMP lets you smash that much higher, but by standard, we can expect 14th Gen to support speeds even faster than that. You can expect not just memory frequencies to get higher, as leaked specs have already shown the overclock on CPUs getting even higher from the get-go. Even if it might come from running even hotter and with more power.
Is Arrow Lake replacing Meteor Lake?
There have been whiffs of information around the Internet that Meteor Lake may be canceled, if this is true, what happens next? The supposed Redwood Cove and Crestmont architecture on the Meteor Lake line-up has been something to look forward to for a while now.
As you can see by the roadmap, Intel intended to release Meteor Lake in 2024 (most likely Q3 – Q4). While there were some thoughts that it could be canceled, we now think this is highly unlikely, despite some rumblings that it could be the case.
Before the rumors started picking up of a 2023 release date, there was some rationale about why we thought it could have been delayed. We felt that a 2024 release date is more realistic since Arrow Lake is supposed to be a year behind the 14th generation. It’s unlikely that a sufficient level of development has been obtained to facilitate the release of Arrow Lake CPUs a whole year before schedule.
It doesn’t help that Arrow Lake and Meteor Lake are designed on different manufacturing processes. Meteor Lake lends itself to the Intel 4 process (7nm) and Arrow Lake is designed using the 20A process (2nm), and it’s one hell of a jump to go from 10nm to 2nm in one year.
Will Intel refresh 13th gen CPUs? Raptor Lake Refresh
There were some early reports suggesting that a refresh of some 13th-generation CPUs may be on the way, but again this now seems unlikely. Rumors suggested that Raptor Lake SKUs could be featured yet again, as reported by Wccftech. This leak revealed that refreshed Raptor Lake CPUs may be included alongside the 14th-generation lineup. It could even be the case that Raptor Lake-S refresh are still considered as part of the 13th Gen CPUs… although this is unlikely.
Arrow Lake vs Meteor Lake – what’s the difference?
Arrow Lake is the codename for the 14th Gen of Intel CPUs for desktops. In contrast, Meteor Lake, while still part of the 14th Gen, is made up of laptop processors. As we’ve alluded to, among confusion, they are going to be released at separate times. Meteor Lake laptop CPUs are expected to arrive first, while Arrow Lake desktop CPUs are going to be released later on. However, both of these will first be beaten to the 14th Gen by the Raptor Lake Refresh, which will offer desktop CPUs that refresh the 13th Gen lineup to take us into gen 14.
Desktop CPUs are overall more powerful – bigger and with higher power consumption. Laptop CPUs often include integrated graphics, though more high-end models can separate the CPU and GPU like we typically see in a desktop build.
Intel 14th gen release date FAQs
Is Intel 14th gen out?
Yes – the first bunch of Intel 14th gen CPUs have now hit the market, featuring the i9-14900K/KF, i7-14700K/KF, and i5-14600K/KF models.
What socket is Intel 14th gen?
It was expected that the Intel 14th Gen would use the LGA 1851 socket. However, with the release of new Gigabyte motherboards designed for the ‘next-gen’ CPUs, we can see that Intel are sticking to the LGA 1700 socket for 14th gen, leaving the LGA 1851 more likely for the future 15th generation.
Intel 14th gen release date: Final word
Well, there we have it for the Intel 14th gen release date latest. It seems like we’re incredibly close to the release date, with a number of outlets and leaks pointing towards the 17th of October as the definitive release date. No official word from Intel is here just yet though, so plans could change in the near future, but that date is our expectation for the time being. As a good start you want to see how the CPUs compare, in that case, you can read on the 14900K vs 13900K or 14600K vs 13600K.
