One of probably the most thrilling options within the 14th-generation “Raptor Lake Refresh” line is Application Performance Optimization, or APO. This thread-optimization tech permits for dramatic boosts in gaming efficiency, with some seeing as a lot as a 15 efficiency velocity enchancment with this characteristic enabled. Unfortunately, it seems prefer it’s not going to be coming to any older processors. A current assertion from Intel says that, regardless of prior-gen processors sporting an identical structure, APO gained’t come to Twelfth- or Thirteenth-gen CPUs.

The information comes from Hardware Unboxed, which did a deep dive on the APO characteristic in a current YouTube video. They reached out to Intel to see if there was a technical motive that this characteristic — which seems to be solely software-based — isn’t coming to older {hardware}. The response was sometimes terse, “Intel has no plans to support prior generation products with Application Optimization.”

APO’s secret sauce is extra effectively distributing processing load between cores, letting the efficiency or “P” cores deal with operating an lively sport whereas letting the effectivity or “E” cores deal with the whole lot within the background. Gains are spectacular up to now, with a median 15 % enhance in framerate, capturing as much as 20 % at occasions. But don’t get too excited. So far APO is barely supported on the top-of-the-line Core i9 14900K, and even then, solely on some high-end motherboards — it’d come to others with a firmware replace. And to this point, solely two main video games are suitable with the instrument, Metro Exodus and Rainbow Six Siege.

While it wouldn’t be commonplace working process for Intel so as to add new options to outdated {hardware}, even when they might (and we’re solely guessing that it’s doable), it could have been a pleasant gesture. Especially contemplating how a lot floor AMD is gaining within the high-end PC gaming world due to the generous performance boosts seen in its Ryzen X3D line.