What to expect from Intel in 2024: Core Ultra, Raptor Lake refresh and Battlemage
Intel is gearing up for a busy 2024, with Core Ultra having been introduced to the world but products sporting the new generation still to follow. We’re expecting a boost to gaming laptops too. Let’s dive in.
AMD may be available across many devices now but, if you’re a typical PC user who has wielding a device sometime over the last twenty years, you’ll be plenty familiar with Intel’s products. Intel’s products still span CPUs across desktops, productivity laptops and gaming/creator-focused laptops but, more recently, it got into the GPU game.
Given this wide range of sub-categories Intel is integrated into within the PC space, the company has plenty on the horizon that is set to come into view throughout 2024. Here are our thoughts on what to expect from Intel over the next year.
Intel Core Ultra laptops
Intel recently revealed its new Core Ultra branding along with a December 14 release date for its first wave of laptops sporting the new chips. The new branding will feature on CPUs that fit into the codename Meteor Lake range and beyond. On December 14, we finally saw the first laptops with Intel Core Ultra inside revealed, including the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED and Acer Swift Go 14 OLED.
We’re sticking this in our look forward to 2024 for Intel as plenty of these laptops won’t be in your hands until next year and we’re expecting more to be announced throughout the year. We’re extremely interested to see how these new Intel Core Ultra laptops stack up against key rivals in the AMD Ryzen 8040 series as well as Apple’s MacBook range.
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Unsurprisingly, given its prevalence in the tech world right now, artificial intelligence is set to be a key focus of the new Core Ultra laptops. Core Ultra features an NPU, a dedicated module for AI processing, which is set to enable experiences like Windows Studio Effects for video conferencing as well as enhancing other workloads behind the scenes.
Intel Core Ultra desktop CPUs
The 14th generation of Intel’s lightweight laptop chips may be part of the newfangled Core Ultra (codenamed Meteor Lake) range but that was not true of the most recently announced 14th generation desktop CPUs. These, instead, were dubbed Raptor Lake refresh, an iterative improvement on 13th Gen technology.
But, 15th Gen (codenamed Arrow Lake) in 2024 is set to be when we see the Core Ultra moniker come to desktop CPUs, which would fit with Intel’s previously revealed roadmap – with Lunar Lake and Panther Lake next on the agenda – and fits with what Intel executives have touted (via Windows Central). In the same interview where Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Client Computing Group, confirmed the timeline, she stated Meteor Lake is its “biggest architectural shift in 40 years,” via PC World.
Raptor Lake refresh comes to gaming laptops
Like Intel’s desktop CPUs in 2023, Meteor Lake isn’t coming to gaming laptops just yet, with 14th Gen HX-series chips expected to also be dubbed “Raptor Lake refresh”.
We don’t yet know exactly when these new chips will be dropping but leaks from Momomo_US and Golden Pig Upgrade (via WCCFTECH) indicate we’re set to see Intel Core i9-14900HX, Core i7-14700HX, Core i7-14650HX and Core i5-14500HX chips. The reports point towards a potential early 2024 launch.
As it hasn’t been officially announced, we don’t know what devices will sport these new chips but we’d expect all the usual suspects from Lenovo, MSI, Alienware, Asus ROG, Razer and more to offer up laptops featuring Raptor Lake refresh. Laptops from Lenovo and Asus ROG specifically appear likely, with VideoCardz reporting on early benchmarks and retailer leaks that point towards gaming laptops from those brands being on the way.
More Intel Arc GPUs
Intel’s newest foray into broadening its chip manufacturing has come in the form of GPUs and it shows no sign of slowing down in 2024.
Multiple reports (via HardwareLuxx, Moore’s Law is Dead, RedGamingTech) indicate that Intel’s next-generation graphics architecture, Battlemage, is set to debut in 2024. Beyond rumours surrounding the timeline, there’s little else in the ether surrounding what to expect from the Battlemage GPUs, except for speculation it will feature a PCIe 5.0 interface and that the VRAM specifications remain up in the air.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
