Intel made a major announcement mistake by stepping back from its previous statement regarding Thunderbolt 5 support in the newly released Raptor Lake Refresh desktop processor series. In Intel’s first statement, it was claimed that the 14th generation processors would be compatible with the Thunderbolt 5 wired connection, which will be released soon.
However, Intel later issued a fix clarifying that this claim was false
Intel has stated that some processors in the Intel Core 14th Generation processor family will indeed support Thunderbolt 5, but Intel Core 14th Generation desktop processors will not.
While this bug wasn’t the primary focus of the Raptor Lake Refresh launch, it reflects poorly on Intel’s announcement. The main emphasis has been on the improved performance, power consumption and pricing of the processors. However, getting a key detail wrong in the launch announcement is a notable misstep.
This statement also raises the question of which 14th generation processors will support Thunderbolt 5. Intel is likely referring to the other family of chips that will be released in December along with the Raptor Lake Refresh, known as Meteor Lake. Meteor Lake covers mobile processors used primarily in laptops, where Thunderbolt ports are more common than desktop computers.
It is very important to emphasize that Thunderbolt 5 was introduced recently and devices featuring this standard are not expected until 2024, probably in the second half of the year. Despite its impressive speed, Raptor Lake Refresh PC owners may have to forgo Thunderbolt 5 support for now.
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