Next year, the desktop CPU battle will continue between Raptor Lake, with Intel planning a refreshed group of current 13th-gen chips, and AMD's Zen 4, according to the latest rumors from a well-known Chinese leaker.
However, we'll see at least one new silicon soon enough in 2023, when we can expect to receive a new Raptor Lake flagship, the 13900KS, a processor that Intel has previously talked about reaching 6GHz supercharged speeds out of the box. - quite an eye-opening feat.
AMD's response to this, according to ECSM (on Bilibili - opens in a new tab), via VideoCardz - opens in a new tab), will be new 3D V-Cache versions of the Ryzen 7000 processors, but not they are. it won't go beyond 8-core models, apparently. ECSM sees the 3- and 6-core X8D twists on the Zen 4 chips as coming, but nothing else is planned, and no more powerful processor with 3D V-Cache has been spotted (or at least not yet).
Supposedly we'll see the 13900KS, and what will likely be the Ryzen 5 7600X3D and Ryzen 7 7700X3D, mid to later in the first half of 2023. So we're likely looking at April through June or so, for the new chips will go on sale (a reveal could happen much sooner, presumably).
Apparently later, in Q2023 100 (September or so), Intel is planning a Raptor Lake refresh, removing core processors from the current lineup and increasing clock speeds from 200MHz to XNUMXMHz.
So it will only be a matter of small incremental increases, and the core specs, core counts and so on, of these new processors will remain the same as the current 13th Gen models.
Apparently Intel's next-gen processors Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake won't debut next year and will instead launch in 2024. We still expected Meteor Lake to show up in 2023, but not according to ECSM; but elsewhere in the rumor mill, it's still considered a possibility. Add copious amounts of seasoning with this, naturally, and the other information the leaker shares here.
Analysis: Nothing to do for 2023, then?
Essentially, Intel won't do much next year, assuming ECSM is on the money with these new rumors of course, and AMD won't either. We will have what looks like a very small Raptor Lake silicon upgrade, but Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake are still a long way off. As is the case with Zen 5, by the way, but we knew it was: it's Intel's apparently tweaked plans that are the biggest surprise here.
That said, a lot of people expected to see a powerful X3D variant from AMD, so it's a surprise to learn that we might not get it. At least not to start with anyway, but to be fair, an 3-core 8D V-Cache model (probably 7700X3D) is what will be interesting from a mainstream gaming perspective anyway. It's the Ryzen chip that many people expect to be the big processor that will give Intel trouble in 2023.
Supposedly Intel's Meteor Lake will be configured with a high-end chip that has 6 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, so in other words no high-end desktop CPU version (with other speculations indicating that the lineup may be more focused on mobile fries). The 8 performance cores for the top desktop models (Core i7, i9) are expected to be introduced with Arrow Lake, which is why both will now land in 2024, covering different ends of the performance spectrum. Meteor and Arrow Lake will require a new grip and platform, and are expected to take on Zen 5 in 2024.
In the meantime though, it's looking a lot like a quiet year on the CPU front for 2023...
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