Intel set to reveal PC roadmap – will we hear about new CPUs?
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Intel will reveal its plans for the PC arena next week, and hopefully we’ll get some interesting information from the chip giant.
The presentation on all things PC comes via a webinar taking place on December 16 at 7.30am PT (10.30am ET, 3.30pm UK time), with Intel spilling the beans on its PC platform roadmap as Tom’s hardware (opens in new tab) marked.
That means we’ll be seeing future products that we don’t know about yet, or at least haven’t had any official information about yet, though the rumor mill may have already provided details here and there.
Intel has had a rough time recently in terms of falling profits and having to announce major streamlining plans and job cuts, due in part to the slump in the PC market this year.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the other major topic Intel wants to brief us on is the size of the PC market and the “growth drivers” within it, presumably with some optimism on the latter front, rather than the doom and gloom of declining PC sales to which we have become accustomed to in 2022.
Analysis: Putting together the CPU jigsaw, maybe…
Of course PC sales are a cyclical thing, and we’ve had major downturns in computer and laptop sales before – with the industry inevitably recovering. That said, the potential depth of the recession and economic chaos currently prevailing is concerning and could lead to a longer downturn in PC shipments – we certainly still feel this is a danger. It should certainly be interesting to hear what Intel has to say about factors driving growth.
As for what we might hear about Intel’s future hardware, we already know that Team Blue is on track with its goals of ushering in new CPUs at an “unprecedented pace” – because the chip giant just told us.
That means the next generation of Meteor Lake is still on track for 2023, but what we might get more information on is Arrow Lake, the generation after Meteor, and possibly what lies beyond that. And we may hear more about a focus on efficiency cores, as rumor has it that the big push with those “small” (low-power) cores in the current-generation Raptor Lake will continue in Meteor Lake.
Maybe we can even see something about the rumored Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs that could be out next year. If Meteor Lake increases the number of efficiency cores and reduces performance cores to 6 for better overall power efficiency, then those processors might represent new low-end and mid-range models – and Raptor Lake Refresh might fit in as the new top-end for 2023 (with the full 8 cores of course).
Or Intel could just leave the high-end Raptor Lake models (13700K, 13900K, and incoming 13900KS) as they are, though that will no doubt be met with disappointment if it turns out that way. (Arrow Lake should follow pretty soon with heavyweight Core i9/i7 offerings, if this is indeed the plan).
Whatever the case, hopefully next week Intel will reveal how the CPU puzzle fits together, and we’ll hear something about plans for future generations beyond Arrow Lake. (We’re told Lunar Lake will follow next, but we know very little about it – or what might come next, of course).
Perhaps we’ll find out a bit more about what’s in store for Arc GPUs, which have had a very shaky start this year, although at least the graphics driver is finally taking some decent shape, so there’s still hope for the future.