A leaked roadmap indicates that Intel intends to update its desktop CPU product stack in Q3 2023 with new “Raptor Lake Refresh” SKUs. In the same way as “Coffee Lake Refresh” created the 9th Gen Core, replacing the 8th Gen Core “Coffee Lake,” it is currently unknown whether these are merely additional SKUs inside the 13th Gen Core desktop product stack or if they will create the 14th Gen Core family. Raptor Lake Refresh gives Intel’s product managers the chance to increase CPU core counts across the product stack without the need for new silicon (the Raptor Lake silicon has 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores), slightly higher clock speeds, and other improvements. At this time, we are unsure of what exactly constitutes “Raptor Lake Refresh.” At this time, we are also unsure if this will usher in a new CPU socket or platform.

The mention of the “mainstream workstation” group, which includes items in the 250 W TDP range, must be the most intriguing part of this leaked roadmap presentation. A scaled-down version of the “Sapphire Rapids” enterprise CPU on a new socket, supported by the Intel W790 chipset, may be the alleged “Sapphire Rapids 64L.” The PCIe Gen 5 lane count of 64, which is less than the 112 available to the whole “Sapphire Rapids” silicon in its W-3400 product-stack, could be indicated by the “64L” portion of the codename. It is unknown if these CPUs bear the Core X or Xeon W branding, as did their forerunners from the “Cascade Lake-X” family. Although both the PCIe and DDR5 connectivity will be substantially wider than that of the “Raptor Lake-S” standard desktop processors, Intel may also segment these chips with fewer DDR5 memory channels.