When the Core i3/5/7 branding was first rolled out, the i3s featured just two cores and four threads. The Core i5s were quad-core, while the Core i7s were higher-clocked quad-core parts with eight threads. Following the release of the Ryzen family and the consequent Skylake, Refresh, Refresh, Refresh, the Core i3s were upgraded to quad-core, and the i7s became octa-core. The Core i9s were introduced as the new flagship with up to 10 cores (now 24).
According to RedGamingTech, the 14th Gen Core i3s will further increase the core count to 6, equalling the Core i5s regarding the P-cores. With this update, all the Raptor Lake-S Refresh chips will be equal to or faster than most Ryzen 7000 parts in gaming (not the X3Ds).
The Core i3-14100/1400F will allegedly offer 6P cores, and so will the i3-14300, albeit at higher clocks. The Core i5-14400/F and the 14500 will feature 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores with varying boost clocks. Moving to the K-series parts, the Core i5-14600/K/F will pack 8P and 8E cores.
The 14th Gen i7-14700/K/F will also get a two-core bump, bringing its overall core count to 20 (8P + 12E). Lastly, the Core i9-14900 will be a 24-core part with 8P and 16E cores.
We have already discussed the clock upgrades expected from the Raptor Lake-S Refresh. The Core i9-14900K is expected to boost up to 6GHz, 200MHz higher than its predecessor, while the 14900KS is said to hit 6.2GHz mid-season.
