Thought Intel Meteor Lake CPUs were just for laptops? Think again, they’re coming to desktop PCs
In what comes a bit out of the blue, Intel has just confirmed that there will be Meteor Lake processors for desktop PCs – and not just chips for the best laptops out there.
If VideoCardz spotted, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, VP and General Manager of Intel’s Client Computing Group, made the revelation in an interview with PC World on YouTube.
PC World asked Holthaus directly if there would be a desktop version of Meteor Lake, to which the VP replied without hesitation: “Desktop coming in 2024.”
The tech site asked again, just to confirm the Meteor Lake desktop, which Holthaus did, before noting, “I want one processor family from top to bottom for both segments (desktop and laptop), right?”
So there you have it. We knew Meteor Lake was coming to laptops in December, as Intel announced at its recent Innovation event, but there was no mention of the Meteor Lake desktop – not until now.
Analysis: Meteor hurtling towards desktop
This has been a controversial topic for some time. Long ago, the idea was floated in the rumor mill that Meteor Lake would be realized on the desktop in some form, and not just appear as laptop processors. Despite samples for that desktop silicon being spotted, the momentum behind those rumors seemed to dissipate, and in more recent times we’d understand that Intel had scrapped all Meteor Lake desktop plans.
This is clearly not the case, but as Holthaus tells us, the Meteor Lake desktop is still a long way off. While mobile chips will debut this year, desktop will follow next year, and we don’t know how far away this will be.
On desktop, Raptor Lake Refresh is the immediate prospect of the next generation, alongside Meteor Lake mobile. Then we could get the Meteor Lake desktop, but not until later in 2024. However, Arrow Lake will also come to the desktop next year.
That leaves open a potential prospect of more expensive Arrow Lake CPUs launching with cheaper Meteor Lake on the desktop – the rumors surrounding the Meteor Lake desktop have always insisted that it will have Core i5 (or perhaps even lower) processors (or some whatsoever) will be. naming scheme that Intel will work with).
The other possibility is that the Meteor Lake desktop shows up relatively early in 2024, filling the gap between Raptor Lake Refresh (which is imminent – likely arriving in October) and Arrow Lake in late 2024. That potential launch schedule may all feel quite busy, but – unless Intel is thinking about pushing back Arrow Lake? But this latter idea is strongly contradicted by recent claims from Team Blue that everything is on track with its future processor roadmap.
We’ll just have to see how things pan out, and whether Intel might drop some more hints about the Meteor Lake desktop, and when it will actually arrive – and in what form. However, it is quite certain that it will not be a more expensive silicon, that much we can tell you.