The Santa Clara giant used the unique environment of CES 2024 to introduce the new Intel Core Gen 14 non-K series, an important announcement that accompanied the launch Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Mobile. We are also facing a small revision of the previous generation, which means that the improvement at the performance level is modest and that there have been no major advances at the platform level.

Intel Raptor Lake Refresh mobile processors are heading for users looking for the maximum possible performance at the CPU leveland are perfectly complemented by Intel Core Ultra processors that offer more balanced performance at the level of CPU and integrated GPU and also have NPU specializes in AI. These are identified as Meteor Lake and represent an important advance on a silicon and architectural level due to their disaggregated design and its division into four blocks.

I wanted to make this distinction so that there is no doubt about the reality behind both processor lines and that you are clear the user profile to which each is directed.

The Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Mobile series uses the Raptor Cove architecture on high-performance cores and Gracemont on high-efficiency cores. The chip giant tuned the frequencies to the maximum ceiling 5.8 GHz in turbo mode on the top model, and as it cannot be otherwise, we have the most modern platform available both in terms of connectivity and standards (PCIe Gen5, DDR5, Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt 5).

Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Mobile performance

This entire new line of high-performance notebook processors is built on the Intel 7 node and comes with a slight increase in working frequencies which is generally what allowed us to improve performance compared to the previous generation.

As we can see in the attached graphs, the Intel Core i9-14900HX It is up to 37% faster than the Ryzen 9 7945HXdepending on the game used, although it also loses in three games: Horizon Zero Dawn, Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2. It also manages to compete quite well in games with the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, a chip that has an extra L3 cache.

The most interesting news that Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Mobile brings is without a doubt Support for Intel Application Optimization technology, which I already told you about in the Intel Core i9-14900K analysis. This allows you to improve performance in supported games, although it is only compatible with Intel Core i9 and Intel Core i7 Gen14 HX series.

Available models and configurations

Intel launched a total of five Raptor Lake Refresh Mobile processors. He Intel Core i9-14900HX is the most powerful, it is configured with 8 P cores and 16 E cores running at a maximum of 5.8 GHz and 4.1 GHz in turbo mode. It’s under him Intel Core i7-14700HXwhich has 8 P cores and 12 E cores running at a maximum of 5.5 GHz and 3.9 GHz.

He Intel Core i7-14650HX It is configured with 8 P cores and 8 E cores that can reach 5.2 GHz and 3.7 GHz in turbo mode. In the middle range we have Intel Core i5-14500HX and 14450HX, which have different configurations. The former has 6 P cores and 8 E cores running at 4.9 GHz and 3.5 GHz in turbo mode, and the latter has 6 P cores and 4 E cores at a maximum of 4.8 GHz and 3.5 GHz.

All have base TDP 55 watts, it can go up 157 watts when turbo mode is activated.

New Intel Core U Series 1

This was a real surprise from the chip giant. Intel Core U Series 1 positioned as ultra-low power processors and fall into the Raptor Lake Refresh generation, which means they use the Raptor Cove and Gracemont architectures in their P cores and E cores.

At the level of the platform, it will be placed on a lower level, because as we can see in the picture They include only 12 PCIe Gen3 lanes and remain in the Thunderbolt 4 standardalthough in general it is an interesting and quite comprehensive option that will be able to easily cover the needs of almost any type of average user who wants to prioritize mobility.

In total, Intel announced three models, as we can see in the table located just below these lines. Intel Core 7 150U and Core 5 120U have 2 P cores and 8 E cores and Intel Core 3 100U has only 2 P cores and 4 E cores. All have Base TDP 15 watts and maximum TDP 55 watts.