Intel’s forthcoming Core Ultra 200S Plus CPUs apparently go beyond mere bumps in clock speeds and core counts, according to a leak from regular PC tech blabbermouth momomo_us on X. A screengrab shared by the leaker appears to show an invite to a forthcoming session with Intel VP of Client Computing, Robert Hallock, about the gaming tech in Intel’s Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs.
Until now, we’d assumed that Arrow Lake Refresh simply added more cores to the Core Ultra 7 and 5 lines, and cranked up the megahertz a bit. However, this screengrab specifically says that “Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus (Arrow Lake Refresh) offers new technical features that boost performance in full 1080p gameplay.”
In addition, the leaked screengrab says the chips “deliver significant gains in multitasking.” However, this can easily be attributed to an increase in the number of cores, if that is indeed what’s happening. What really interests me is this purported new gaming tech.
After all, gaming is the main area where Arrow Lake has really struggled. In our Core Ultra 9 285K review, we found a chip that not only lagged well behind AMD’s chips with 3D V-cache but was somtimes slower than Intel’s previous-gen Raptor Lake chips. One particular bad case was Cyberpunk 2077, where the 285K averaged just 114fps, while the mid-range, last-gen Core i5-14600K averaged 125fps, and AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X3D racked up 135fps.
Patches and driver updates have improved Intel’s gaming performance in some areas, but they still notably lag behind AMD’s X3D chips. We’re assuming that this new special sauce goes beyond the small, officially sanctioned overclocks enabled by Intel 200S Boost. We’re not expecting to see a massive cache in Intel’s CPUs until Nova Lake either, when bLLC (big last-level cache) is rumoured to be making an appearance.
What are these “new technical features” that can boost gaming performance? More importantly, will they be enough for Arrow Lake Refresh to see off the threat from AMD? My money is on the answer to the latter question being “no”, at least not in terms of competing with X3D, but if Intel can close the gap a bit and get the pricing right, there’s a chance these chips could be more competitive than their predecessors.
With Intel’s Steam Survey share dropping dramatically over the last few years, and Intel CPUs rarely cracking the Amazon CPU best sellers, it certainly needs to do something, and it will be interesting to see how it’s seemingly turbo-charged Arrow Lake’s gaming pace.
I’ll be watching this space closely, and we look forward to sharing our own findings about Arrow Lake Refresh when we finally get our hands on the chips. In the meantime, check out our guide to buying the best CPU to find the right chip for your needs.
