Intel has accelerated its pre-release schedule for Arrow Lake processors, and the most recent rumor of a December 2024 launch is no longer true, according to new word-of-mouth information.
This is the latest word from leaker Jaykihn, who claims on X that the flagship Arrow Lake (Core Ultra 200) desktop CPU (ARL-S) has had its qualification sample (QS) and validation testing moved up six weeks, which is a big jump. (QS chips are essentially the finished version of the silicon in all but name — the CPUs in final testing.)
ARL-S 8+16 QS die changed to WW34 bahahahahaTerrible timing for the December rumor (which is 100% false). Late October. The 6+8 die (to be used on non-K SKUs along with the 8+16) is still pointing to WW49.July 12, 2024
Previously, Jaykihn had said that according to his sources, the QS validation would be in the first week of October, or week 40 this year, but now, as you can see in the post above, it has been moved to week 34.
Jaykihn then shared a subsequent screenshot of Intel's updated Arrow Lake roadmap, as VideoCardz reports, which shows the QS period as week 34 to 36, but in X the leaker expresses no doubt that it won't be the week before that.
Week 34 would mean the penultimate week of August and, in theory, would give Intel the chance to launch the Arrow Lake desktop processors in late October (or at least the first batch).
The leaker notes that this blows the lid off more recent theories (from last week) that Intel might not have Arrow Lake chips on sale until December. It should be noted that this was corroborated by Jaykihn’s earlier leak to some extent, as a week 40 date for QS validation would coincide with this very late launch in 2024.
Jaykihn’s final mention of the 6+8 chip in Week 49 refers to non-K processors for Arrow Lake, as opposed to unlocked (overclockable) “K” CPUs, which are coming out first in late October as stated. Non-K models should apparently hit QS in early December, that’s ahead of an early 2025 launch as previously rumored (in fact, this timeline would point to February 2025).
In case you were wondering, 6+8 refers to the CPU configuration of 6 performance cores plus 8 efficiency cores. (And 8+16 is the flagship, with 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, the same as with the current 14900K for Raptor Lake Refresh, which as you may have seen, is mired in quite a bit of controversy at the moment.)
Analysis: Some better news for Intel, but there's still a lot of work to be done
Clearly, this seemingly very recent development (the schedule change happened literally a couple of days ago, we're told) is positive news for those hoping to get their hands on an Arrow Lake CPU and for Intel in general.
As we've written many times, Intel really needs its next-gen desktop CPUs out as soon as possible (with Ryzen 9000 about to launch, in late July), and a delay until December for the Core Ultra 200 family would be a huge blow to Team Blue's chances of success in the next-gen processor wars.
Based on previous rumors and the likelihood of Arrow Lake being unveiled in September, a late October launch date is more likely (an initial announcement in September at the Intel Innovation event followed by a three-month delay before launch would seem rather odd).
Even with an October launch, Intel could still have its work cut out for it, as Arrow Lake could be overtaken by another AMD launch. These would be new 3D V-Cache processors, the Ryzen 9000 X3D models, which are rumored to launch in September, meaning they would still be pushing Arrow Lake to the back of the pack.
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