Rumor mill: We're around a week away from Intel's unveiling of its 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs, but the company has been quiet when it comes to any official release dates. According to a new report, the first processors will launch on October 17, with the ad embargo lifting on October 16.

News of the Raptor Lake Refresh launch date comes from VideoCardz. The publication cites unspecified sources, though Intel usually does wait around a month or so after revealing its CPUs before launching them; Raptor Lake was announced at the 2022 Innovation event and launched on October 20. This year's Innovation event is scheduled for September 19 and 20.

Six Raptor Lake Refresh chips are said to launch on October 17: the Core i9-14900K and Core i9-14900KF, Core i7-14700K and Core i7-14700KF, and Core i5-14600K and Core i5-14600KF, all of which are unlocked 125W TDP models. The locked non-K versions with TDPs of 65W and lower are expected to arrive sometime around CES 2024 next year.

Most of the leaks and reports relating to Raptor Lake Refresh have been underwhelming. A leak from MSI showed that the new processors averaged around 3% better performance compared to their predecessors, though there are exceptions such as the i7-14700K, which is on average about 17% faster. Elsewhere, the slight power boost received by the Core i9-14900K is enough to push it to the top of Geekbench with a record-breaking single-core performance.

Adding to the anxiety are the claims that the 14th-gen CPUs will come with a 15% price hike over the 13th-gen equivalent models.

Intel is set to lift the lid on several other items at its Innovation event. Expect product roadmaps, a slew of AI-related products and services, and data center chips. We'll also learn more about the first processors to drop the long-used "i" prefix and use the new Intel Core Ultra brand: Meteor Lake.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is certainly excited by Meteor Lake. He expects the next-gen mobile processors to be Intel's new "Centrino Moment." According to a recent leak, the (probable) flagship 185H processor will likely have a maximum boost clock of up to 5.1 GHz, while the 165H and 155H could have peak clock speeds of up to 5.0GHz and 4.8 GHz, respectively.