Arrow Lake could serve as a turning point for Intel, following the failure to deliver Meteor Lake to desktop platforms. As with previous processor releases, the company will likely stagger its launch plans, leading with its most powerful chips. However, it seems that Team Blue won’t be launching Core Ultra 3 SKUs, according to a new leak. All isn’t quite lost for budget-minded builders, mind.
The Core Ultra 200 series will be the first processors to fly on the wings of the Arrow Lake architecture, and should easily usurp current Intel stock in the running for best CPU across price and performance spectrums. After all, these chips are allegedly 26% faster in single-core workloads and should show similar multi-core improvements. Frustratingly, though, these gains may diminish more than you might think moving down the stack.
Intel insider and sharer of secrets jaykihn0 has more details to share about the company’s upcoming processors. In no uncertain terms, the leaker claims “there is no ARL-S (desktop) Intel Core Ultra 3 SKU lineup this generation.” Clarifying their statement, they follow up by saying “it won’t be on the Arrow Lake architecture.”
If we’re reading the tea leaves correctly, the first batch of Core Ultra 3 200 series processors will use older CPU architectures. It’s unclear whether Intel would reuse Raptor Lake Refresh for a second time or if the company would finally bring Meteor Lake to desktop in some form. Whichever approach Team Blue takes, though, would muddy the waters of what someone can expect from its latest chips.
This isn’t the first point of confusion that Intel’s new desktop processors may face when they hit the market. Some Socket LGA 1851 motherboards may fix a longstanding problem, at the expense of cooler compatibility. Suffice to say, Team Blue may have a sizeable communication problem on its hands in the near future.
Perhaps the rumoured Arrow Lake Refresh could make this a temporary problem, but there’s no way to know for sure at this point in time. Suffice to say, we wait to review the Core Ultra 200 series with bated breath.
Until we get our hands on these new processors later this year, give our Core i9 14900K review a read. For now, it’s the best Intel has to offer, and remains the only point of comparison Team Blue has against AMD’s Ryzen 9000 processors, which will be with us imminently.