Intel may not be done with its Raptor Lake architecture just yet. According to Tom's Hardware, the company is reportedly preparing a new generation dubbed "Raptor Lake Next" that will carry the Core 200 branding — the same label already used on current Raptor Lake chips.
The lineup is said to top out at 20 cores, positioning it as a mid-range or budget-focused option. Perhaps the most unusual detail in the report: a special 10-core SKU that would pack 24MB of L3 cache — a relatively generous cache allocation for a chip of that core count, which could help it punch above its weight in real-world workloads.
According to Tom's Hardware, Raptor Lake Next is expected to sit alongside Intel's forthcoming Nova Lake architecture on store shelves, rather than replace it. That suggests Intel is planning a two-tier desktop strategy: Nova Lake for performance enthusiasts, and Raptor Lake Next as the accessible, value-oriented offering.
This would mark the third outing for the Raptor Lake design, following the original 13th-generation launch and its 14th-generation refresh. Refreshing an existing architecture multiple times is a known cost-saving tactic — it lets chipmakers extract more commercial life from a proven design without the expense of building something new from scratch.
For consumers, that cuts both ways. On the upside, a mature architecture tends to be stable, affordable, and well-supported by existing software and cooling solutions. On the downside, it means buyers looking for meaningful generational leaps in performance will need to wait for Nova Lake.
Why it matters: If Intel does ship Raptor Lake a third time, it signals that the company is prioritizing accessible pricing and supply flexibility in a competitive market — a strategy that could keep budget PC builders well-served while Nova Lake targets the high end.