Intel’s Arrow Lake CPUs May Offer Lower Clock Speeds Than Raptor Lake

Rumors suggest a potential shift in focus for Intel’s upcoming Arrow Lake desktop CPUs (“Core Ultra 200”) compared to the current Raptor Lake generation.

Lower Clock Speeds Expected

Leaks from Weibo user MebiuW suggest a significant decrease in maximum clock speeds for Arrow Lake CPUs. The flagship Core Ultra 9 285K is rumored to reach 5.5 GHz, a notable downgrade from the 6.2 GHz achieved by the Raptor Lake flagship Core i9-14900KS.

Table 1: Comparison of Maximum Clock Speeds

Performance Uplift and Power Consumption

While clock speeds may decrease, Intel might compensate with improved per-core performance. However, leaks suggest this improvement might be less than 12%, potentially placing Arrow Lake ahead of Alder Lake but not offering a substantial leap over 14th-Gen Raptor Lake chips.

Previously leaked internal benchmarks hint at a 10% average performance increase for Arrow Lake CPUs compared to 14th Gen at the same power level (253W). This power level is higher than Intel’s recommended baseline profile, which can negatively affect stability in current 13th and 14th Gen CPUs. By using a more demanding profile, the leaks might create a more favorable performance picture for Arrow Lake.

Other Details

• MSRPs for Arrow Lake CPUs might see a slight increase, potentially due to the “Core Ultra” branding and rising AI hardware costs.
• Arrow Lake CPUs are expected to integrate an NPU and Xe-LPG “Arc Alchemist” integrated graphics.
• The CPUs will utilize the LGA 1851 socket with the new “800-series” platform and support DDR5-6400 memory natively.
• We can expect a clearer picture of the desktop lineup during Computex 2024.

Table 2: Preliminary Intel Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPU Lineup