Intel is reportedly preparing a 2027 refresh of Raptor Lake that keeps the aging LGA1700 socket alive and, notably, keeps DDR4 memory support alongside DDR5. According to leaker Jaykihn, cited independently by KitGuru and OC3D, the new chips will carry Core Ultra branding despite reusing Raptor Lake's existing CPU cores, arriving as a cheaper alternative while DDR5 pricing stays elevated.
The core claim is specific: an 8 P-core, 8 E-core model would replace the Core i5-14600K, which currently ships with six P-cores and eight E-cores. Two extra P-cores on the same cores and process should give it a real multi-threaded edge over the 14600K, though Jaykihn's leak says nothing about clock speeds, so single-threaded performance is unknown.
OC3D reports the lineup stops there: no 8P+16E flagship, meaning no Ultra 9 model. Intel already sells 24-core parts well above this tier, and a cheap 16-core LGA1700 chip that could match a current Ultra 7 or Ultra 9 wouldn't do Intel's own lineup any favors.
DDR4 support is the actual news here. Raptor Lake CPUs have always supported DDR4 as an option, but a fresh Core Ultra-branded chip still selling into it in 2027 is a deliberate choice, not a legacy holdover. KitGuru frames it plainly: DDR5 isn't expected to get meaningfully cheaper any time soon, so a new CPU that still takes old, cheap RAM gives budget builders a way around the shortage instead of forcing them to eat DDR5 pricing to get a current chip. It's a narrower version of the same logic that kept LGA1700 boards on shelves years after Alder Lake launched: the platform is fully amortized, the tooling exists, and Intel doesn't have to design anything new to sell it.
Both reports describe this as a continuation of Raptor Lake's existing design rather than a new architecture, arriving alongside new LGA1700 motherboards in early 2027. Intel's current 13th and 14th Gen chips are expected to stay on sale once the refresh lands, so this isn't a replacement lineup, just a new SKU slotting in underneath. None of this is confirmed by Intel, and a single leaker's account of unreleased silicon should be read as exactly that until Intel says otherwise.