It seems that Intel has brought its originally scrapped refresh of the Arrow Lake-S desktop CPUs back out of the woodwork. However, you shouldn’t expect too many innovations, as the “new” refresh is based on the same dies as the Arrow Lake-HX chips, which have also been revised.
Back from the rumor mill
The refresh was actually supposed to be released later this year, but was then canceled under mysterious circumstances. Now leakers such as Golden Pig Upgrade are reporting that Intel has revived the plans. The same dies that are used in the notebook segment for the Arrow Lake-HX Refresh series are being used. The original idea behind the refresh was quite ambitious. The new processors were to be called Core Ultra Series 3 and were to be equipped with an improved NPU (Neural Processing Unit), which would offer significantly higher AI TOPS than the current Core Ultra Series 2 models with their 13 TOPS. However, it remains to be seen whether the final product will actually deliver a noticeable improvement.
Intel remains true to its roadmap – with NPU upgrades
A look at Intel’s current NPU roadmap shows that the coming generations should bring significant progress:
NPU1: 0.5 TOPS
NPU2: 7.0 TOPS
NPU3: 11.5 TOPS
NPU4 (Lunar Lake): 48.0 TOPS
NPU5 (Panther Lake): 18-50 TOPS (depending on tile configuration)
NPU6 (Nova Lake): up to 75 TOPS (4-tile design)
According to this, the Arrow Lake-S refresh could at least rely on a slightly improved NPU4. However, bigger leaps are only expected with the following Panther Lake and Nova Lake CPUs, which will then be equipped with NPU5 and NPU6 respectively.
https://x.com/jaykihn0/status/1887610911298625540
Optimizations, but no revolution
In addition to the revised NPU, Intel could also make some optimizations for gaming performance, which would be necessary in view of the current Core Ultra 200S processors. These were still struggling with suboptimal gaming performance at launch. The new CPUs remain loyal to the LGA 1851 socket, so motherboard manufacturers will probably have a few refreshes up their sleeves. However, it is questionable whether the refresh is worthwhile for existing users – after all, real architectural leaps are not expected until Nova Lake in 2026. Until then, that is: Those who are planning an upgrade anyway can take a look at the refresh. Those waiting for real innovation are better off remaining patient.
Source: jaykihn0, Golden Pig Upgrade
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