Intel's Next-generation Meteor Lake CPUs Could Be Fantastic For Laptops

Meteor Lake CPUs, Intel’s next-generation chips to replace Raptor Lake, are expected to provide significant efficiency improvements if a new rumour is correct.

As Wccftech reports, this is another from Twitter’s fountain of rumour, and one of the platform’s more well-known hardware leakers, Raichu.

Meteor’s goal is to achieve 1.5x+ efficiency when compared to Raptor when both have the same performance (same core processor, P+E).

6 February 2023

Raichu believes Intel is aiming for at least a 50% increase in power efficiency with its 14th-generation Meteor Lake processors over current Raptor Lake silicon. In other words, a next-generation chip will use one-third less power when performing at the same level as a 13th-generation chip.

Raichu mentions performance briefly in that Twitter thread, but only to confirm that Meteor Lake will boost it, as expected. However, the leaker does not indicate the magnitude of the increase to be expected from these next-generation processors.

We’re also told that Meteor Lake’s integrated graphics will nearly double performance levels compared to Raptor Lake, which would be quite impressive.

Analysis: More evidence of Intel’s renewed emphasis on efficiency

All of this is great news for laptops, assuming it comes true – we must always be cautious about putting too much stock in rumours. Having said that, there has already been a lot of talk about how Meteor Lake will prioritise efficiency, with ever-increasing amounts of efficiency cores that could benefit from a new architecture. (Indeed, past rumours have suggested that the 14th-gen may not even have Core i9 models for the desktop, such might be the focus on mobile).

A 50% increase in efficiency, or possibly more, will allow laptops to pack more powerful chips that will be thermally stable within the confines of a small chassis. And if integrated graphics are nearly twice as fast as Raptor Lake – and Intel is already making significant progress in this area – we can expect thin-and-light notebooks with impressive performance not just for apps, but also for light gaming.

According to rumours, Lunar Lake, Intel’s 16th-generation processor, will be extremely efficient, to the point of being designed specifically for laptops. All of this may cause desktop users to be concerned that Intel will overlook performance, with only the 15th-generation Arrow Lake likely to include a Core i9 heavyweight desktop CPU to replace the current 13900K.

But that’s getting into the realm of speculation, so desktop PC enthusiasts shouldn’t get too excited – at least not yet. However, it appears that Intel will place a strong emphasis on efficiency over the next few generations, a departure from recent Core family iterations that have pushed hard for beefy performance levels, putting the power usage pedal to the metal (at least on the desktop at the high-end, anyway).