Wednesday, September 27th 2023
Intel Core "Meteor Lake" Confirmed NOT Coming to Desktops, Only AIOs and Mini PCs
Intel's next generation Core "Meteor Lake" processor was confirmed by ComputerBase.de to not release on the desktop platform. The processor will not make it to a socketed desktop package such as the upcoming LGA1851. It will see a mobile-only (notebook and tablets only) launch, with select processor models based on the mobile BGA package being made available to PC OEMs to build all-in-one desktops and mini PCs as non-socketed processors.
The desktop platform presence of "Meteor Lake" has been surrounded by some controversy, owing mainly to its maximum CPU core count of 6P+16E, which is bound to fall short of the current 8P+16E, and AMD's 16P. A slide released by Intel added to the confusion, which indicated that "Meteor Lake" has a thermal range of 5 W to 125 W, with the latter being typically associated with the processor base power values of desktop Core K-series processors.
Last week, in a statement to PC World, Intel Client Computing Group head Michelle Johnston Holthaus, implied that "Meteor Lake" will address all client form-factors, with desktop processor models arriving in 2024, a surprising disclosure, given that the company is preparing to launch its 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors within Q4-2023. "I want one processor family top to bottom for both segments, doesn't everybody?"
ComputerBase.de sought more explicit clarifications from Intel on whether by "desktop," Johnston Holthaus meant mainstream desktop (i.e. socketed processors). After some back and forth, Intel clarified that by "desktop," they meant prebuilt all-in-one desktops, which tend to be internally similar to notebooks and use low-TDP mobile processors; and mini PCs, such as from the NUC brand that ASUS recently acquired from Intel.
This wouldn't be the first time an Intel microarchitecture completely skipped mainstream desktop. The company's "Ice Lake" and "Tiger Lake" microarchitectures were limited to notebooks, convertibles, tablets; and a specific few SKUs made it to AIO desktops and mini PCs.
As for the mysterious 125 W reference in that slide, it could just refer to the maximum turbo power value of a certain higher-spec H- or HX-segment SKU. H- and HX-segment SKUs have been known to come with maximum turbo power values above the 100 W mark for some time now.
Source:
ComputerBase.de
The desktop platform presence of "Meteor Lake" has been surrounded by some controversy, owing mainly to its maximum CPU core count of 6P+16E, which is bound to fall short of the current 8P+16E, and AMD's 16P. A slide released by Intel added to the confusion, which indicated that "Meteor Lake" has a thermal range of 5 W to 125 W, with the latter being typically associated with the processor base power values of desktop Core K-series processors.
ComputerBase.de sought more explicit clarifications from Intel on whether by "desktop," Johnston Holthaus meant mainstream desktop (i.e. socketed processors). After some back and forth, Intel clarified that by "desktop," they meant prebuilt all-in-one desktops, which tend to be internally similar to notebooks and use low-TDP mobile processors; and mini PCs, such as from the NUC brand that ASUS recently acquired from Intel.
This wouldn't be the first time an Intel microarchitecture completely skipped mainstream desktop. The company's "Ice Lake" and "Tiger Lake" microarchitectures were limited to notebooks, convertibles, tablets; and a specific few SKUs made it to AIO desktops and mini PCs.
As for the mysterious 125 W reference in that slide, it could just refer to the maximum turbo power value of a certain higher-spec H- or HX-segment SKU. H- and HX-segment SKUs have been known to come with maximum turbo power values above the 100 W mark for some time now.
54 Comments on Intel Core "Meteor Lake" Confirmed NOT Coming to Desktops, Only AIOs and Mini PCs
Yes, Intel gets to make people pay for its products AND then you get to beta test those products too. The company truly is an amazing triumph of capitalism.
But I'm good, my 12600k is not slow by any means, I can keep it for a few more years without missing out on anything.
Big improvement over 12900k (almost choose this one..), just about as any upcoming 14900k and no real performance uplift from Intel in the near future.
Shame it underclock like cr*!& and do bad with my memory config, but you can`t have it all I guess...
This is about Intel's node shrink, but no less than it is about connecting several silicon parts, with large representation from TSMC too. This "test" CPU is going to be Intel's de-facto next gen mobile CPUs. This isn't some one off, but something they are going to iterate in years to come.
Regarding desktop performance, maybe its a good reminder to not have too high of expectations since showing any kind of significance in gaming performance over 12th gen is probably going to take a few healthy generations. From both sides.
As far as I recall, Ice Lake and Tiger Lake were meant to be mobile-only architectures right from the drawing board, but Meteor Lake must scale pretty badly if Intel turned its back to the desktop variant.
As an engineer, I can see how this is a delicate dance: you want a single architecture that can scale across the entire stack, but at the same time you have to make sure you don't put more effort into that than the effort required to build separate designs. Because you're building something that hasn't been built before, you'll get that wrong more than you'll get it right.
Iirc, Ice Lake was meant for the desktop initially, it wasn't until the second node slip-up or so that they had to revise that. But that's really just academic at this point.
the i3 and the i5the 3 Ultra and the 5 Ultra!And you can bet that if MTL fails horribly, Intel will quietly sweep it under the rug, pretend the failure never happened, and take a different direction - exactly what happened with CNL. Now if MTL was as bad as CNL the marketing hype for the former would never have been allowed to begin, but it doesn't change the fact that Intel has sold and continues to be willing to sell processors that it knows are not up to snuff, and ultimately consumers are the ones who get saddled with its "production quality" lemons.
As I said, from the viewpoint of end-stage capitalism, it's an amazing feat. But from the viewpoint of honesty and common decency, it's an absolutely vile practice, and the reason I will probably never buy Intel CPUs again in my lifetime.
My guess is Intel 4 has poor yields or is just very late, otherwise it would be released before December. In either case it'd be hard to bring it to market on desktop very long before Arrow Lake which will be a much bigger upgrade and is claimed by Intel to be on track. Moreover the first chips to come out of a new node tend to have low clock speeds. Arrow Lake might avoid these concerns by being available on a good schedule and by including a new microarchitecture which should be a bit faster even without a clock speed boost.
Lastly, there is good news probably for Meteor Lake: some ultraportable laptops may have removeable LPDDR memory: www.techpowerup.com/314093/samsung-electronics-industry-first-lpcamm-ushers-in-future-of-memory-modules
But there are those that want a new shiny every year. System builders strongly push for that. And since Intel is ultimately in the business of selling things, they have to cater to everyone.
Personally, I have no problem with frequent, incremental releases. I just ignore them till there's an actual significant performance gap between what I have and what I can buy.