Intel has formally launched Core Ultra 200S (aka Arrow Lake), its first processors meant to bring AI to gaming and enthusiast desktop PCs.
The new CPUs come with up to eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores. While the conventional speed isn’t drastically improved at 6% for single-threaded tasks and 14% for multi-threaded apps, Intel claims up to 50% faster performance in AI-optimized creative apps versus AMD’s Ryzen 9 thanks to the new neural processing unit (NPU). That, in turn, can free up the CPU and GPU for gaming or enable AI-savvy tasks like hand gesture recognition.
Power efficiency may be the appeal for some, particularly for gamers whose overall output might push their power supplies to the limit. Intel claims up to 58% reduced package power for the Core Ultra 200S in typical apps, and as much as 165W less system power in the middle of games.
The 200S also adds finer overclocking controls and a new 800 Series mainboard chipset that offers up to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes, eight SATA 3.0 ports, and as many as 10 USB 3.2 ports. You’ll also get 20 PCIe 5.0 and four 4.0 lanes on the CPU as well as two integrated Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. An updated memory controller enables new CUDIMM and XMP memory cards that allow up to 192GB of total RAM.
Both standalone Core Ultra 200S processors and preconfigured systems will be available starting October 24th.
The new design isn’t likely to prompt early upgrades. It mainly helps Intel compete against AMD’s current-generation Ryzen 9 parts, which themselves have been criticized as modest improvements.
The laptop-oriented Core Ultra Series 2 (aka Lunar Lake) is more likely to have a tangible impact on Intel’s earnings given a market dominated by portables. Intel also isn’t expect to engineer a significant turnaround until it moves to more advanced chip manufacturing techniques, such as the 18A process due in 2025. However, Core Ultra 200S might be crucial to keeping Intel competitive until that point.