Intel Arrow Lake appears to be on the horizon according to new insider information that claims a total of 21 CPUs will be available in the upcoming lineup.
As spotted by Wccftech, Intel Arrow Lake-S Core Ultra-200 processors are rumored to be announced at Computex next month with a full suite of processors hitting stores this year. According to Benchlife, this will include the Core Ultra 9 285K, Core Ultra 7 265K, and Core Ultra 5 245K.
Interestingly, it is believed that there will be no Core Ultra 3 or Core i3 equivalent included in the large number of Ultra 200 processors, so the main lineups are now considered Ultra 5 models. That's not entirely a surprise given that even the best Processors for gamers on a budget skip the underpowered i3.
It is believed that in addition to the three K models mentioned above with 12W5, there will be a total of five non-K SKUs with 65W and a total of 13 processors to be released later that will run at only 35W. That's a wide net and should provide options for the vast majority of users; While gamers will want a K model, budget versions could benefit from a cheaper, lower-power chip.
Hyperthreading appears to be a thing of the past with the top Intel Arrow Lake-S models. This is because the Core Ultra 9 is speculated to run 24 cores and 24 threads, while the Core Ultra 7 will have 20 cores and 20 threads, and the Core Ultra 5 with 10 cores and 10 threads; all of which use a mix of E cores and P cores.
All chipsets will run on the LGA 1851 socket with expected longevity until 2026 which, like AMD's AM5 socket, will only use DDR5. That means it might be time to upgrade to the best RAM along with a new motherboard so you don't fall behind.
It's still a little confusing
We previously reported that the Intel Arrow Lake-S naming conventions are confusing, and the arrival of so many Ultra 9, Ultra 7, and Ultra 5 models doesn't help. While enthusiasts will want to stick with the 285K, 265K, and 245K, there's a lot to unlearn after almost 16 years of being accustomed to the Intel Core brand.
It remains to be seen exactly how disaggregated architecture will work on desktops, especially with the transition to AI computing, and what that will mean for gamers. We hope Computex clears things up with an official announcement regarding the full flagship models and the other 65W variants.
