Intel’s Raptor Lake Refresh series could have a standout CPU in the squad, and a bunch of very run-of-the-mill teammates, if a new leak were to emerge.
VideoCardz noted that MSI inadvertently shared an apparent product training video (on YouTube) for its Intel motherboards, which lists Team Blue’s 14th generation chips, including performance levels.
First off, that’s a big mistake to say the least. And second, it doesn’t make for comfortable viewing, at least not for anyone hoping that Raptor Lake Refresh will gain some solid advantages over the current generation of Intel processors.
We were told that Raptor Lake Refresh processors will be about 3% faster on average than Raptor Lake. In other words, most next-generation CPUs will only be slightly faster than what we have now.
The exception is the Core i7-14700K, which will be 17% faster in multi-threading, according to MSI’s leaked staff briefing. That’s in line with the rumored 15% gain for the 14700K, and MSI also notes that the reason for this is that Intel upgraded the 14700K with four more efficient cores than its predecessor – again something that’s currently highly rumored.
Analysis: Take a shot
This is quite disappointing in all honesty, although we shouldn’t rush too much as we can’t put too much weight on a single leak.
Is it real? It looks like this, although we can’t see the video right now to check (it’s been made private, as the clip should have been in the first place). Maybe MSI got some of this information wrong? Maybe. We don’t know, and we won’t know until we get some Raptor Lake Refresh processors in to test ourselves and compare against current Raptor Lake chips.
Of course, Raptor Lake Refresh has had somewhat restrained expectations from the start, as it was always billed as just a simple refresh. But some rumors have indicated that, in addition to a strong 14700K being a candidate for the best processors list, some other 14th generation chips could also offer impressive gains. For example, it has been suggested in the past that the 14600K is also a fast offering. Perhaps that leak is wrong, though.
We would certainly expect an average improvement of more than 3% for Intel’s next generation CPUs. So while MSI doesn’t really frame this as single-core or multi-core, it might be the former (the 17% increase for the 14700K clearly states multi-core). And from that perspective, 3% may not be horrible (Some CPUs still offer a little more than that, of course – and maybe a little more for multi-core, we hope).
All this is one more reason not to jump to conclusions just yet, but as it stands, this leak doesn’t get us excited about Intel’s Raptor Lake Refresh processors.