Intel (INTC +4.49%) launched its latest lineup of desktop CPUs on Tuesday. There was nothing groundbreaking – the new chips are refreshed versions of the company's Raptor Lake CPUs that launched in late 2022. Raptor Lake, and now the refreshed Raptor Lake, are highly competitive in terms of performance. Intel's chips generally beat Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD +18.37%) standard Ryzen 7000 CPUs, although they lose in gaming to AMD's specialized 3D V-Cache CPUs. In terms of all-around performance, Intel is in a great position.
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Intel's biggest weakness
The refreshed Raptor Lake CPUs perform well, according to a review from Tom's Hardware. Intel's chips have the advantage in single-threaded workloads, and they hold their own in multi-threaded workloads as well. In gaming, Intel's latest chips beat AMD's standard Ryzen chips. AMD's 3D V-Cache variants still reign supreme, but they come with the serious downside of lackluster performance in nearly everything outside of gaming.
Intel's refreshed Raptor Lake chips come with one significant downside: They are wildly inefficient at the high end of the lineup. The top-tier i9-14900K uses 262 watts of power in one benchmark, according to Tom's Hardware, nearly 100 watts more than AMD's Ryzen 7950X and 50 watts more than the last-gen i9-13700K. The big problem here is the heat generated. Pair an i9-14900K with a powerful graphics card, and you'll need a serious cooling setup to get the most out of those components. The mid-range i5-14600K fares much better, using only a bit more power than AMD's Ryzen 7700X.
Raptor Lake, and now refreshed Raptor Lake, are built on the Intel 7 process, which is a renaming of the company's 10nm process. Intel originally planned to launch 10nm chips way back in 2015, but it didn't use the process for PC chips at volume until Alder Lake in 2021 after a series of crippling delays. The fact that Intel can squeeze so much performance out of its latest chips is impressive, but it comes at the cost of extreme power usage.
AMD's Ryzen 7000 series chips mix Taiwan Semiconductor's 5nm and 6nm processes, both more advanced than Intel's 10nm process. Intel has pushed the limits of its 10nm process to remain competitive in the PC CPU market, but AMD has a clear advantage in terms of efficiency.
A fix is coming in 2024
These refreshed Raptor Lake chips will hold desktop PC users over until Intel launches Arrow Lake sometime in 2024. For notebook users, Intel's Meteor Lake is coming in December. Meteor Lake moves to the Intel 4 process, a 7nm-class process, and features a tile-based architecture and dedicated AI hardware. The result will likely be significant improvements in efficiency.
With Arrow Lake, Intel is leapfrogging over two processes and using its upcoming Intel 20A process, a 2nm-class process. Arrow Lake includes other innovations, notably backside power delivery, a new transistor design, and advanced semiconductor packaging tech. If everything goes according to plan, Arrow Lake should bring enormous performance and efficiency improvements.
Arrow Lake should close the efficiency gap with AMD, and it may even propel Intel into the lead. AMD's upcoming Ryzen 8000 chips, expected sometime in 2024, will likely use a 3nm or 4nm process from Taiwan Semiconductor. At the very least, Intel won't be at an enormous manufacturing disadvantage by the time both companies' 2024 products have launched.
Intel has done what it could with its refreshed Raptor Lake chips. Arrow Lake next year has the potential to be a game changer.
