Inside Meteor Lake: Intel's radical new Core chip is optimized for the future

Intel's new 14th-gen Core chip, Meteor Lake, is designed as much for Intel as it is for you. But a doubling of graphics performance and a new AI engine helps cater to consumers seeking new features. Let's be clear, though: Meteor Lake was not designed with CPU performance in mind. Intel executives describe Meteor Lake as offering the performance of the current 13th-gen chip, Raptor Lake, but at half the power -- aided by new low-voltage efficiency cores (E-cores) that are new to the platform. Even the way Intel assigns CPU tasks has been flipped on its head, pushing them first towards the lowest-power E-cores, then migrating them to the more power-hungry performance cores if need be. Intel unveiled its new Meteor Lake platform in an offsite press event in Penang, Malaysia, though the company will talk more about Meteor Lake at its Intel Innovation conference in San Jose this week. At Intel's Intel Innovation conference in San Jose, Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger added two more details: that Meteor Lake will launch on Dec. 14, and it will be branded as the Core Ultra. Acer appeared on stage to show off its own Meteor Lake laptop, and Intel used MSI-branded laptops in Malaysia.