Gigabyte has rolled out a new BIOS update for its Z690/Z790 motherboards, adding, among other things, support for Intel’s upcoming 14th Gen processors. While the primary objective of the patch is to address the recently reported backdoor, it also preps the boards for the upcoming Raptor Lake-S Refresh. It’s worth noting that firmware update adds bare-minimum functionality for the next-generation processors, and it’ll probably take a few more updates to get the chips to work properly.
We’ve been following the Raptor Lake-S Refresh rumors for quite some time now. The 14th Gen desktop family was initially supposed to feature the Meteor Lake-S chips. First, the high-end 8P+16E die was canceled, and then the 6P+8E variant as well. Now, Meteor Lake is set to be limited to the mobility segment.
The Raptor Lake-S Refresh forming the 14th Gen Core desktop family won’t be much faster than the existing 13th Gen offerings. We’re looking at higher core boost clocks, faster memory frequencies, and support for next-gen I/O and networking technologies. Enhanced voltage and overclocking capabilities are also on the cards.
It’s worth remembering that a Core i9-13900K running at 5.5GHz to 5.6GHz hits 100C even with the highest-end 360mm AIO coolers. A Core i9-14900K clocked at 6.2GHz or higher will need custom cooling for properly stretching its legs.
Intel is slated to launch the 14th Gen Meteor Lake-P and Raptor Lake-SR CPUs in the second half of the year. No new chipset is planned, and the latter will be supported on Z690 as well as Z790 motherboards.
Via: Reddit (Intel).
