Intel’s Meteor Lake CPUs for Desktops Are Coming, But There’s a Problem

Intel is on monitor to launch codenamed Meteor Lake-S processors for desktop computer systems within the coming quarters, however there is a catch. Whereas the corporate will solely cater to entry-level and mainstream methods with these CPUs, it must use Raptor Lake Refresh or Arrow Lake-S processors in performance-demanding PCs.

It appears like Intel’s Meteor Lake-S processors will solely be present in Core i3 and Core i5 fashions rated at 35W and 65W, which is sweet sufficient for compact and commonplace entry-level and mid-range desktops. This info is predicated on a slide excerpt from an alleged Intel presentation printed by @SquashBionicA infamous {hardware} leaker with frequent entry to confidential info.

Meteor Lake-S will share Intel’s Socket V1 (for LGA1851 CPUs) and Intel’s 800 sequence chipset platform with Intel’s Arrow Lake-S processors. In the meantime, motherboards focusing on Arrow Lake-S, which might be accessible in Core i7 and Core i9 variants for avid gamers and lovers, will characteristic rather more superior voltage regulator modules to ship most efficiency. You’ll be able to anticipate it to be priced accordingly.

Intel’s Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake processors are set to be the corporate’s first processors for shopper purposes based mostly on decoupled multithreaded designs. The compute tile for Meteor Lake might be manufactured on the Intel 4 node, which makes in depth use of utmost ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, whereas the compute tile for Arrow Lake might be made utilizing the corporate’s 20nm grade manufacturing course of known as Intel 20A. Each CPUs may have a graphics tile manufactured by TSMC on the N3E manufacturing expertise.

Intel’s 20A node is exclusive in that it’ll incorporate the corporate’s RibbonFET gate-around transistors with PowerVia bottom energy supply. RibbonFET and PowerVia applied sciences promise to ship vital advantages for high-performance shopper and information heart CPUs; which explains why, given the extraordinary competitors in opposition to AMD, Intel needs to make use of the 20A sooner moderately than later. By the best way, it is unclear why Intel did not need to introduce an Intel 4-based half for high-end desktops.

Whereas it is a bit of shocking that Intel does not need to enchantment to performance-hungry PCs with its first shopper processors with a multi-tile design, this is not notably uncommon. Intel by no means launched its fifth Gen Core ‘Broadwell-C’ processors for the mass desktop market. The truth is, the corporate has launched solely two of such CPUs within the socket LGA1150 kind issue: Core i5-5675C and Core i7-5775C. They have been changed by the Skylake Core i7-6700K, which was launched just some months later.

As at all times with a majority of these leaks, needless to say the data comes from an unofficial supply and never instantly from Intel. Plans might also change, so what Intel plans to do now will not be the identical as what the corporate truly does in 2024, when Meteor Lake-S for desktops will hit the scene.