Intel’s desktop Meteor Lake-S CPUs will be released in the next quarters, but there’s a catch. These CPUs are only for entry-level and mainstream systems, while performance-demanding PCs must use Raptor Lake Refresh or Arrow Lake-S.
Intel’s Meteor Lake-S CPUs will likely be 35W and 65W Core i3 and Core i5 variants for compact and regular entry-level and mid-range desktops. The famous hardware leaker @SquashBionic shared a snippet from an alleged Intel presentation slide.
Arrow Lake-S and Meteor Lake-S will use Intel’s 800-series chipset platform and Socket V1 for LGA1851 CPUs. For best performance, Arrow Lake-S motherboards for gamers and enthusiasts will have more powerful voltage regulating modules. Expect a fair pricing.
Intel’s first disaggregated multi-tile client processors are Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake. Meteor Lake’s compute tile will be created on Intel 4’s extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography node, whereas Arrow Lake’s will be made on Intel 20A’s 2nm-class manufacturing process. Both CPUs will have TSMC N3E-made graphics tiles.
Intel’s 20A node uses RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors with PowerVia backside power delivery. Given the fierce competition with AMD, Intel intends to adopt 20A sooner rather than later because RibbonFET and PowerVia will boost high-performance client and datacenter CPUs. Intel’s refusal to release an Intel 4-based part for high-end PCs is unexplained.
It’s unexpected that Intel’s first multi-tile client CPUs won’t target performance-hungry PCs, but it’s not unusual. Intel never sold mass desktop 5th Generation Core ‘Broadwell-C’ processors. The company only released two socketed LGA1150 CPUs, Core i5-5675C and Core i7-5775C. Skylake Core i7-6700K replaced those a few months later.
As again, these disclosures originate from an unauthorised source, not Intel. Intel’s plans may change by 2024, when Meteor Lake-S desktops debut.