AS WE EXPECTED, Intel is to refresh its Raptor Lake chips before the switch to Meteor Lake. A round of BIOS updates for existing motherboards for a ‘next generation’ chip pretty much gave it away—Meteor Lake uses a new socket, so there’s no need for them otherwise. The refresh covers both desktop and mobile chips. The mobile parts cover the range, from low-power ‘U’, to performance ‘HX’ flavors. We’re unlikely to see anything drastic—mostly tweaked clock speeds and core counts. If Intel is true to form, there will be a new halo chip, a binned example pushed to the limit that can grab headlines.
