All the latest leaks, rumors, and confirmed info on the Intel 14th gen laptop series aka Meteor Lake aka the Intel Ultra Core laptop range.
Updated: Nov 3, 2023 11:45 am
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Intel 14th gen laptop CPUs are on the horizon – the launch of the new mobile processors (named either Meteor Lake or Core Ultra) and a look at their corresponding laptops should be coming in the next few weeks and we expect the actual release date of these devices to be not too long after.
Intel have officially announced that their new 14th gen laptop processors will be launched at their upcoming AI Everywhere event (which you can watch live at the Intel Newsroom). The event will begin at 10AM (EST) on December 14th, which is where we’ll get the first chance to get an in-depth look at these devices. Read below for this, plus all other rumors, leaks, and confirmed info on the potential Meteor Lake laptop specs, and predicted performance. As soon as the first models start to hit the shelves, we’ll be converting this page into a guide to the best Intel 14th gen laptops available, from gaming and creative use to every day models suitable for the office.
Meteor Lake or Intel Core Ultra?
Meteor Lake and Core Ultra are (as far as we’re aware) the same thing. Over the last couple of months, Intel’s marketing department appears to have shifted to using Intel Core Ultra as the designation for the new range, and we aren’t seeing Meteor Lake referenced, even though it was being used only as far back as September at the Intel Innovation event. Most tech commenters are now using both names to refer to the range. Regardless of the name of the line, the new range are definitely Intel 14th gen laptop processors.
When will Intel 14th gen laptops come out? Our predicted Intel 14th gen laptop release date
December 14th is the confirmed launch date of the new mobile processors, but it doesn’t mean it’s the actual release date, in fact the likelihood is that we’ll have to wait until January before we see them hit the shelves within laptop units. This is based on the Intel 13th gen laptop release pattern (plus the generations before it), which saw laptops unveiled at the CES tech show in early-mid January, and then the first of these released in the weeks after. We can expect the same to happen this year at CES 2024, which runs from January 9th – 12th.
Although we still think this is the most likely release period, some potentially contrary information pointing to an earlier release comes courtesy of Tom’s Hardware at Computex 2023 (back in June). There they spotted an MSI Prestige Studio / Evo laptop that they deduced must be a Meteor Lake laptop (it was only labelled as having the ‘Latest Intel Core i7 processor’) based on its core count, and the fact that it has a Movidius VPU. MSI confirmed that the laptop is scheduled to ‘arrive’ in Q4 2023 (i.e. October-December) – which could mean an actual release date or just when it will first be shown off. So we could maybe see a December release after all.
You can read more about our likely Intel Core Ultra release date / Meteor Lake laptop release date prediction by clicking the link to our dedicated page on the subject.
Rumored Intel 14th gen laptop specs & features – Meteor Lake SKUs
Below is everything we currently know about the upcoming Intel 14th gen chips, much of it confirmed by the Blue Team themselves, but with a few supporting rumors and leaks from other parties.
The new Intel 14th gen naming convention
In terms of the naming convention for the different SKUs, Intel has confirmed that the range will be having a slight name change: the ‘i’ will be dropped from the front of the Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7 monikers, instead to read something more like Intel Core Ultra 9 185H.
Meteor Lake architecture / Intel Ultra Core architecture
Intel have confirmed that the Meteor Lake architecture will be a more advanced version of the P-core and E-core (i.e. Performance and Efficiency) setup introduced in previous architectures, based on a 7nm process. According to WCCFTech the two core types will be known as Redwood Cove P-Cores and Crestmont E-Cores, with the majority of upgrades coming to the E-cores.
The structure of the new architecture will be based around a more tiled structure for improved power efficiency, similar to AMD’s chiplet design, that will separate the process nodes between an IOE Tile, SOC Tile, Graphics Tile, and the Compute Tile. The latter two of these tiles are exactly what they sound like – covering integrated graphics and processing. The SOC tile serves a dual purpose: it handles low-intensity tasks with utmost energy efficiency and accommodates the NPU (Neural Processing Unit) responsible for advanced machine learning capabilities that will be a highlight of the new line-up. The IOE tile is in charge of a range of connectivity functions, including PCI Express, WiFi & Bluetooth, USB4, Thunderbolt, and more.
Rumored Meteor Lake vs Raptor Lake laptop specs (based on leaks & speculation)
Finally, we’ve got what we think is a first look at the specification breakdown of an Intel 14th gen laptop CPU from WCCFTech (who are usually right about these things), sourced heavily from a UserBenchmark leak of a supposed Meteor Lake laptop CPU.
| 14th gen Meteor Lake | 13th gen Raptor Lake | |
| CPU Tile process node | 7nm EUV (Intel 4) | 10nm EUV (Intel 7) |
| GPU Tile process node | 5nm (TSMC) | 10nm ESF (Intel 7) |
| CPU Architecture | Hybrid (Triple-core) | Hybrid (Dual-core) |
| P-Core architecture | Redwood Cove | Raptor Cove |
| E-Core architecture | Crestmont | Gracemont |
| Max Cores / Threads | 14/20 | 14/20 |
| GPU Architecture | Arc Alchemist Xe-LPG (Xe-MTL) | Intel Iris Xe (Gen 12) |
| GPU Execution Units | 128 EUs (1024 Cores) | 96 EUs (768 Cores) |
| Top Configuration | 6+8 (H-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 8+16 (HX-Series) |
| Ranges / Lines | H/P/U Series | H/P/U Series |
| Memory Support | DDR5-5600 LPDDR5-7400 LPDDR5X-7400+ |
DDR5-5200 LPDDR5-5200 LPDDR5X-6400 |
| Memory Capacity (Max) | 96GB | 64GB |
| Thunderbolt 4 Ports | 4 | 4 |
| Wi-Fi | WiFi 6E | WiFi 6E |
| TDP | 15-45W | 15-55W |
What Intel 14th gen laptop performance improvements could we expect?
Intel have conveyed a decent amount about the performance improvements we should expect from the Intel 14th gen laptop range, though obviously it will take until independent third parties have tested these claims before we can say how accurate they are.
CPU power
When it comes to CPU processing performance alone, it does not appear as if Meteor Lake will see much uplift in raw power terms. As PCWorld noted after a preview of the new CPUs at Intel’s Penang factory, ‘Intel is targeting the performance of its 13th-gen mobile Raptor Lake chips’ in terms of FPS output. The focus of the company in this update is instead on power efficiency and integrated graphics performance, with the aim of surpassing AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series laptops in these aspects (who currently are market leaders in these areas).
Integrated graphics
Intel is making significant improvements in terms of integrated graphics with its Meteor Lake CPUs, including a transition from the previous Intel Xe/XeLP technology to a new XeLPG integrated graphics core. These new integrated graphics units (iGPUs) will incorporate technology found in the Intel Arc dedicated graphics cards, known as XeHPG graphics tech. This upgrade allows the new iGPUs to support Ray-Tracing, although the exact level of Ray-Tracing capabilities remains uncertain.
Even more thrilling is the fact that these Intel iGPUs will be compatible with Intel’s Frame generation technology, called XeSS, which is Intel’s counterpart to DLSS. This means that these iGPUs can use XeSS to boost FPS performance in games that support it, surpassing what their raw specifications would typically achieve.
Intel claims that integrated graphics performance will double compared to their previous 13th Gen lineup. This performance boost could even exclude the additional performance benefits brought by, frame generation technology, if this is the case it would be an exciting development for Intel’s integrated graphics capabilities.
Battery life
While single-core and multi-core performance is expected to be similar to Intel’s 13th-gen laptop CPUs, the Meteor Lake processors will achieve this with approximately half the power consumption, hopefully resulting in significantly improved laptop battery life.
This would tally with what MSI claimed (according to Tomshardware) about their aforementioned new MSI Prestige 16 laptop, which is thought to come with a Meteor Lake laptop CPU: they contended that it would have a battery life of nearly 24 hours, which is an unbelievably high duration if true (we assume it wouldn’t get this in real world testing, but even 20 hours would be hugely impressive).
