Intel Corp. today announced a new lineup of processors for desktops, laptops and mobile devices at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but they’re not based on the eagerly anticipated seven-nanometer Meteor Lake architecture that was launched in December.

Surprisingly, the chipmaker has opted to launch one final batch of chips based on its older Raptor Lake architecture. The 14th generation of Raptor Lake includes the new, high-end HX-series chips for laptops and a selection of 65-watt and 35-watt desktop processors designed to cater to an array of computing needs.

In addition, Intel said it’s expanding its portfolio of Intel Core Series 1 mobile processors, with that lineup headed by the Intel Core 7 processor 150U, aimed at thin and light laptop models set to launch later this year.

The most powerful new chip announced today is the Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, which is now being touted as the world’s fastest mobile chip, even though little has changed from the i9 13th-Gen chip that launched last year, also based on the Raptor Lake architecture.

As with the older chips, the Core i9-14900HX still packs 24 central processing unit cores, made up of eight performance and 16 efficiency cores. On the other hand, the chip’s clock speed has been boosted to 5.8 gigahertz for the performance cores, and 4.1 gigahertz for the efficiency cores. That represents a slight increase on the 5.6GHz and 4GHz speeds found in the 13th generation chip.

It remains to be seen what noticeable difference the increased clock speeds will deliver, if anything. Intel didn’t provide any public benchmarks of the chip’s performance compared to last year’s silicon. However, it did supply the results of a test that showed how it beats Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s rival chips, such as the Ryzen 9 7945HX and 7945HX3D CPUs, thanks to its 17% increase in gaming performance.

Also new is the Core i7-14700HX chip, which packs a total of 20 cores, including eight P-cores and 12 E-cores, up from 16 in the previous generation. That should ensure a genuine leap in multitasking performance, Intel promised.

All told, Intel is launching five 14th-Generation HX chips, and they’re expected to appear in more than 60 new laptop models this year from brands including Dell Technologies Inc.’s Alienware, ASUSTeK Computer Inc., Micro-Star International Co. Ltd. and GIGA-BYTE Technology Co. Ltd.

The new chips can all support the new Wi-Fi 7 standard, but it remains to be seen if PC makers will actually adopt that technology themselves.

Besides the PC chips, Intel launched an entirely new family of chips known as the Core Mobile Processors Series 1. It was thought by some analysts that these chips might be the first to be built on Intel’s new Meteor Lake architecture, but surprisingly they are in fact based on the older Raptor Lake technology.

It’s the first time Intel has used that architecture specifically for low-powered chips, which are able to run at just 15 watts. The family includes three separate chips, with the most powerful being the Intel Core 7 processor 150U, with two P-cores and 8 E-cores and a maximum boost clock speed of 5.4 gigahertz.

Intel declined to release any benchmarks showing how the Core Mobile Processors Series 1 stacks up against rival chips or its own, older mobile processors. However, the company insisted they will provide the “efficient, balanced performance mainstream mobile PC users desire in thin-and-light devices,” the company said. The first laptops powered by those chips should go on sale during the first quarter.

Finally, Intel refreshed Raptor Lake one more time for desktop PCs. The company kicked off with three 14th Generation Core Desktop processors with a base power of 124 watts in October, and is now adding more to the series. The newer chips run at 65 watts and 35 watts, and are designed to power mainstream desktops for businesses and niche industries.

Images: Intel