Intel’s next-gen Meteor Lake CPUs could be amazing for laptops
>
Meteor Lake CPUs, Intel’s next-gen chips to follow Raptor Lake, will provide a huge boost in efficiency if a new rumor proves correct.
If WCftech (opens in new tab) reports, this is another one of those source of speculation that is Twitter, and one of the better known hardware leakers on that platform, namely Raichu.
Meteor’s goal is to achieve 1.5x+ efficiency compared to the Raptor when it has the same performance. (same core processor, P+E)🧐February 6, 2023
Raichu believes that Intel is aiming for a 50% power efficiency gain – at least – with its 14th generation Meteor Lake processors, compared to the current Raptor Lake silicon. In other words, when running at the same performance level as a 13th generation chip, a next-gen model will consume a third less power.
Raichu does mention the performance briefly in that Twitter thread, but only to confirm that Meteor Lake will improve it – as was fully expected. However, the leaker gives us no idea of the kind of uptick we can expect from these next-gen processors on that front.
We’re also told that integrated graphics for Meteor Lake will nearly double the performance levels compared to Raptor Lake, which would also be seriously impressive.
Analysis: More evidence of Intel’s new focus on efficiency
All of this is great news for laptops, if it pans out, of course – we should always be careful how much stock we put into rumours. That said, there’s been quite a bit of buzz about how Meteor Lake will focus on efficiency and move forward with ever-increasing amounts of efficiency cores that could benefit from a new architecture. (Indeed, past rumors have suggested that the 14th gen might not even have Core i9 models for the desktop, that could be the focus on mobile).
A 50% increase in efficiency, or perhaps more, means laptops can contain more powerful chips that are thermally OK within the confines of a small case. And with the integrated graphics almost twice the performance of Raptor Lake – and Intel is already making great strides in that area – we can expect thin and light notebooks that offer impressive performance not only for apps, but also for light gaming tasks.
Word from the vine is that Lunar Lake, theoretically the 16th generation for Intel, will also run so efficiently that it’s built with laptops in mind. All of this could leave desktop users worried that Intel might neglect performance, as only Arrow Lake, which will be the 15th gen, is likely to pack a Core i9 heavy duty desktop CPU to take over from the current 13900K.
Mind you, that’s really treading deeper into the realm of speculation, so desktop PC enthusiasts shouldn’t get too much sleep – at least not yet. But it’s starting to look more and more like Intel will focus heavily on efficiency over the next few generations, which marks a marked change from recent iterations of the Core family, which have been pushing really hard to get powerful levels of performance, making it power consumption pedal to the proverbial metal (at least on the desktop at the high-end).