Being basically a Refresh generation, no impressive improvements are expected in the upcoming 14th generation Intel Core CPUs. Intel has not improved gaming performance much over the 13th generation. Intel's new Application Optimization feature (with the acronym APO) could mean a notable performance improvement in the Raptor Lake Refresh generation.
If you want to find out more about what are Inel Core CPUs, we have a complete list.
Intel's new APO app runs in the background to improve gaming performance. This offers frame rate boosts in games that support it, such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and Metro Exodus, as commented in The Verge.
APO could be the application that gamers with Intel Core will use the most
Intel Application Optimization directs application resources in real time using a scheduling policy. This adjusts the performance of games and could also do so in other types of applications in the future. APO works in conjunction with Intel Thread Director, which debuted alongside Intel Core Alder Lake to improve the assignment of applications and games to performance or efficiency cores based on performance needs. This achieves an increase in performance in certain games. In one very extreme case, a Reddit user saw a 200fps boost in Rainbow Six Siege at 1080p, and we imagine he would have done it with a high-end rig.
Roger Chandler, vice president of Intel, commented that not all games would benefit from this APO. They will test and verify games, and They will get compatibility with the games that benefit the most. Rainbow Six Siege with the “Very High” graphics preset at 1080p on a system with an Intel Core i9-14900K and an RTX 4090 has gone from 615 fps to 688 fps. In Metro Exodus Enhanced it was increased from 177 fps to 207 fps using the high preset at 1080p.
APO only works on 14th generation CPUs and to install it it is necessary to have some special drivers installed beforehand. It is only available in the Microsoft Store, and will not be installed if you do not have Intel's Dynamic Tuning drivers, which are standard on motherboards from some manufacturers such as MSI and Asus. Once APO is up and running, it will start detecting games after you launch them. APO detects games installed from Microsoft Store, Steam, Epic Games Store and other launchers.
