Intel Meteor Lake isnt expected to arrive until next year, although reports suggest we may have to wait even longer for the 14th gen best gaming CPU contender. The news follows rumors of mass production difficulties that apparently pushed the gaming PC chips back, accompanied by whispers of product design and process verification concerns.
Intel Meteor Lake CPU mass production was initially scheduled for the second half of 2022, but was postponed until early 2023 due to design and process verification concerns. Due to unknown reasons, the 14th gen processor is now subject to further delays, and the blue team has seemingly cancelled its TSMC N3 orders for 2023.
The Intel Meteor Lake rumors have already caught the company's attention, as AnandTech EIC Ryan Smith claims that PRs have sent out a letter stating that the chips will be available in 2023. These issues go beyond the CPUs, as they were still waiting for more than one Intel Arc graphics card to be released, and the GPUs have yet to arrive outside China.
If you're just a regular PC gamer, it's probably too early to worry about Meteor Lake, because Intel Raptor Lake is next on the company's CPU agenda. However, if you're an avid builder who wants to keep an eye on future high-end designs, the processors' manufacturing uncertainty may be a problem.
Intel Raptor Lake might be more costly than Alder Lake, but a 13th gen i9 CPU might be the fastest single-core processor in the world once it arrives, and it'll need to be quick on the mark to contend with AMD Zen 4, as a Ryzen 7000 roadmap already outlines future gaming PC goals.