Intel appears to be testing a desktop variant of Meteor Lake

Recently, reports have emerged that Intel plans to launch the Meteor Lake-S and Emerald Rapids processors this year, with the former targeting desktop platforms as its next-generation client processor. Despite previous rumors suggesting Intel had canceled the Meteor Lake-S project, an increasing amount of information indicates that Intel is still moving forward with it.

According to TomsHardware, in Intel’s official “LGA1851-MTL-S Interposer for the Gen5 VR Test Tool” document, the “LGA1851-MTL-S Interposer (Q6UB1851MTLS)” was discovered, suggesting that Intel is likely still planning to release Meteor Lake-S processors for desktop platforms, adopting the new LGA 1851 socket.

The LGA 1851 socket has 1,851 contact points, representing an 8.9% increase compared to the currently used LGA 1700 socket. This increase in contact points is much smaller than the 41.7% leap from LGA 1200 to LGA 1700. Sources claim that Intel is preparing to launch Raptor Lake Refresh in the third quarter of this year; given the information obtained thus far, the interval between this and Meteor Lake-S could be exceptionally brief. If both Raptor Lake Refresh and Meteor Lake-S do indeed exist, the latter is more likely to be postponed to next year.

In fact, before the debut of the LGA 1700 socket, there were already traces of the LGA 1851 socket. The former is used for Intel’s 12th and 13th generation Core processors, namely Alder Lake and Raptor Lake, while the latter is rumored to be used for Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and even Panther Lake (also known as Nova Lake). Furthermore, the LGA 1851 socket is expected to maintain compatibility with LGA 1700 socket cooling solutions. As is well known, Intel does not adhere to a clear timeline for platform support, unlike AMD, which has committed to using the AM5 platform until at least 2025.