Introduction Word on the grapevine is that Intel's next-generation Alder Lake processors could represent a return to form for the stumbling chip giant. There's hope on the horizon, yet in the interim Intel needs to do whatever it can to stay competitive with AMD's fruitful Ryzen CPUs. That essentially sums up the latest 11th Gen Core range, codenamed Rocket Lake and introduced last month to a lukewarm reception. Scraping the 14nm barrel in theory for one last time, the new line-up doesn't set the heart racing, but given the building blocks that Intel has had to work with, a selection of refreshed mid-range parts do offer a decent alternative to the latest Ryzens.