Latest news with #CoreUltra200S
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Intel's next batch of CPUs might still be called Core Ultra 200S, possibly because the Arrow Lake refresh won't be much of a boost
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Over the years of producing CPUs, Intel has a long history of refreshing its current architecture, rather than wholesale replacing it. The updates typically offer higher clock speeds and occasionally a new feature or two, but they've always involved a new name for the processors. However, for the Arrow Lake refresh, it's being claimed that the tweaked chips will still be called Core Ultra 200S. Admittedly, it's just the one person making the claim, X-user Jaykin (via Videocardz), but they have a good track record when it comes to tech leaks and rumours. Jaykin also suggests that the Arrow Lake refresh will involve an updated NPU (neural processing unit), courtesy of a larger SoC tile. Both desktop and mobile variants of Arrow Lake (ARL-S and ARL-HX, respectively) will still have the same package size and, in the case of the former, will still use the LGA1851 socket. While that doesn't automatically mean your current Z890 or B850 motherboard will support the refreshed chips, there's a good chance it will. In previous years, when Intel launched a refreshed CPU line-up, it has always renamed the chips. So why would Team Blue stick with Core Ultra 200S? I suspect that it's because there will be no changes that affect their fundamental performance, such as higher clock speeds, more cores, or a faster memory system. If the only thing that's being improved is the NPU (possibly to ensure that Intel's chips now meet Microsoft's requirements for its Copilot AI PC ecosystem), then the new processors would perform no better than the current ones do in games, content creation, and general use. Then again, the recently launched Core 200S Boost feature showed there is some scope for improving the performance of Arrow Lake without having to change various internal components. In other words, Intel could tweak all of the internal clocks and timings, plus add a larger NPU, and have a big enough difference in performance to warrant calling them Core Ultra 300S. After all, it was happy to refresh its Raptor Lake-powered Core 13th Gen series, call it Core 14th Gen, and barely change anything other than the boost clocks and power consumption. I suspect that Intel wants to keep Core Ultra 300S for its next generation of CPU architectures, namely Panther Lake for mobile platforms and Nova Lake for desktops, both targeted for release in 2026. Your next upgrade Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and gaming motherboard: The right graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest. These are expected to be significantly better in performance than the current Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake processors, and given the lacklustre reception the latter received, it makes sense to keep the new name for something that's (hopefully) a lot better. One concern that I have is whether the Arrow Lake refresh is going to be the last processor that supports Intel's LGA1851 socket. If it is and the refreshed chips aren't any better in gaming, for example, then it would be really disappointing to see. AMD was still releasing CPUs for its AM4 socket last year, a good eight years after it first appeared, and while Intel is well-known for changing its sockets every couple of processor generations, you'd think it would take a leaf from Team Red's book of design and make something that lasts. Of course, changing the socket forces OEMs and system builders to push out entirely new platforms, which in turn helps Intel shift a whole heap of processors. Hopefully, the Arrow Lake refresh does offer more than just a larger NPU because, as things currently stand, I wouldn't recommend that any PC gamer buy a Core Ultra 200S chip. It's not bad, but regardless of what your budget is or what your use scenario for the processor is, there are far better CPUs out there to choose from.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Intel's next batch of CPUs might still be called Core Ultra 200S, possibly because the Arrow Lake refresh won't be much of a boost
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Over the years of producing CPUs, Intel has a long history of refreshing its current architecture, rather than wholesale replacing it. The updates typically offer higher clock speeds and occasionally a new feature or two, but they've always involved a new name for the processors. However, for the Arrow Lake refresh, it's being claimed that the tweaked chips will still be called Core Ultra 200S. Admittedly, it's just the one person making the claim, X-user Jaykin (via Videocardz), but they have a good track record when it comes to tech leaks and rumours. Jaykin also suggests that the Arrow Lake refresh will involve an updated NPU (neural processing unit), courtesy of a larger SoC tile. Both desktop and mobile variants of Arrow Lake (ARL-S and ARL-HX, respectively) will still have the same package size and, in the case of the former, will still use the LGA1851 socket. While that doesn't automatically mean your current Z890 or B850 motherboard will support the refreshed chips, there's a good chance it will. In previous years, when Intel launched a refreshed CPU line-up, it has always renamed the chips. So why would Team Blue stick with Core Ultra 200S? I suspect that it's because there will be no changes that affect their fundamental performance, such as higher clock speeds, more cores, or a faster memory system. If the only thing that's being improved is the NPU (possibly to ensure that Intel's chips now meet Microsoft's requirements for its Copilot AI PC ecosystem), then the new processors would perform no better than the current ones do in games, content creation, and general use. Then again, the recently launched Core 200S Boost feature showed there is some scope for improving the performance of Arrow Lake without having to change various internal components. In other words, Intel could tweak all of the internal clocks and timings, plus add a larger NPU, and have a big enough difference in performance to warrant calling them Core Ultra 300S. After all, it was happy to refresh its Raptor Lake-powered Core 13th Gen series, call it Core 14th Gen, and barely change anything other than the boost clocks and power consumption. I suspect that Intel wants to keep Core Ultra 300S for its next generation of CPU architectures, namely Panther Lake for mobile platforms and Nova Lake for desktops, both targeted for release in 2026. Your next upgrade Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and gaming motherboard: The right graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest. These are expected to be significantly better in performance than the current Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake processors, and given the lacklustre reception the latter received, it makes sense to keep the new name for something that's (hopefully) a lot better. One concern that I have is whether the Arrow Lake refresh is going to be the last processor that supports Intel's LGA1851 socket. If it is and the refreshed chips aren't any better in gaming, for example, then it would be really disappointing to see. AMD was still releasing CPUs for its AM4 socket last year, a good eight years after it first appeared, and while Intel is well-known for changing its sockets every couple of processor generations, you'd think it would take a leaf from Team Red's book of design and make something that lasts. Of course, changing the socket forces OEMs and system builders to push out entirely new platforms, which in turn helps Intel shift a whole heap of processors. Hopefully, the Arrow Lake refresh does offer more than just a larger NPU because, as things currently stand, I wouldn't recommend that any PC gamer buy a Core Ultra 200S chip. It's not bad, but regardless of what your budget is or what your use scenario for the processor is, there are far better CPUs out there to choose from.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
Intel Core Ultra 200 CPUs May Bottleneck Gen 5 SSDs
It seems that Intel Core Ultra 200S CPUs have a design issue that can cause some latency when using Gen 5 SSDs. The SSD Review noticed that it wasn't getting anywhere near 14GB/s when plugging SSDs into the M.2 slots of Intel Z890-based motherboards. After significant testing and checking in with Intel, The SSD Review narrowed the suspect list to the CPU—when the SSD is plugged into the M.2 slot. The latency is dramatic: 12GB/s sequential read speeds have been the norm for the SSD reviewer with Core Ultra 200S CPUs in the test bench. Random write speeds are apparently lower than expected, too. Kudos go to Intel for responding to The SSD Review. It pointed out that the die-to-die path on its CPU is a little longer for Gen 5 memory than for other PCIe lanes. 'Intel can confirm that the PCIe Lanes 21 to 24 Gen5 root port on Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors may exhibit increased latencies compared to the PCIe Lanes 1 to 16 Gen5 root ports, owing to a longer die-to-die data path,' Intel noted to The SSD Review. 'However, any variations are contingent upon the specific workload and the capabilities of the PCIe endpoint device.' Credit: Intel As Tom's Hardware notes, Raptor Lake doesn't appear to suffer the same problem. The SSD Review tested the issue with Micron Pro and Samsung 9100 Pro SSDs on its test bench with Arrow Lake and Raptor Lake setups. The different CPU/motherboard combos highlighted the problem: The Raptor Lake setup logged 14.3GB/s, while the Arrow Lake setup landed at 12.3GB/s. That's not what you want to see from newer, more advanced hardware. That's an annoying problem, for sure, but you can circumvent it by picking up a PCIe add-in card instead of an M.2 card. The SSD Review had no problem getting full speeds from the PCIe 5.0 lane. And, although we're generally loathe to take the 'grin and bear it' approach, it may be the easiest path for you if you already have Gen 5 memory in an M.2 slot on an Intel Z890 board. After all, as The SSD Review points out, even at 12GB/s, the setup provides much faster speeds than a rig with Gen 4 speeds. If you have been using your PC without complaint until now, there's really no need to make a change.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
Arrow Lake die shot shows off the details of Intel's chiplet-based design
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Intel Die shots of Intel's Arrow Lake architecture have been published, revealing Intel's chiplet (tile) infused design in all of its glory. Andreas Schiling on X shared several images of Arrow Lake up close, revealing the layout of Arrow Lake's individual tiles and the layout of the cores inside the compute tile. The first photo exposes the full die of Intel's desktop Core Ultra 200S series CPUs, with the compute tile on the upper left, the IO tile on the bottom, and the SoC tile and GPU tile on the right. To the bottom left and top right are two filler dies designed to provide structural rigidity. The compute die is fabbed on TSMC's bleeding-edge N3B node, with a total area of 117.241 mm². The IO tile and SoC tile are fabbed on TSMC's older N6 node, with the IO tile measuring 24.475mm squared and the SoC tile 86.648mm squared. All of the tiles rest on an underlying base tile fabbed on Intel's 22nm FinFET node. Arrow Lake is the first Intel architecture that is fabricated entirely using nodes from a competitor, except for the base tile. The next image shows all of the sub-components for the secondary tiles in Arrow Lake. The I/O die houses the Thunderbolt 4 controller/display PHY, PCIe Express buffers/PHYs, and TBT4 PHYs. The SoC tile houses the display engines, media engine, more PCIe PHYs, buffers, and the DDR5 memory controllers. The GPU tile houses four Xe GPU cores and an Xe LPG (Arc Alchemist) render slice. The final image shows off Intel's latest core configuration for Arrow Lake, which differs from previous hybrid Intel architectures. For Arrow Lake, Intel opted to sandwich the E-cores between the P-cores rather than putting them all in their own cluster, allegedly to reduce thermal hotspots. Four of the eight P-cores reside on the borders of the die with the other four residing in the middle of the die. The four E-core clusters (which house four cores each) are sandwiched between the outer and inner P-cores. Schilling's die shot also exposes the cache layout for Arrow Lake, comprised of 3MB of L3 cache per P-core (36MB in total) and 3MB of L2 cache per E-core cluster, with 1.5MB shared between two cores directly. An interconnect bridges the two L2 cache clusters (and their associated cores) together, which is also responsible for connecting each core cluster to the ring agent. One major upgrade Intel made with Arrow Lake is connecting the E-core clusters to L3 cache shared by the P-cores, effectively giving the E-cores an L3 cache. Arrow Lake is one of Intel's most complex architectures to date and the first from the company to bring a chiplet-style design to the desktop market. That said, Intel's first attempt at a desktop chiplet-based competitor has not been well received, due to latency issues from the interconnect, which is responsible for connecting all the tiles together. Intel is attempting to rectify the issue through firmware updates. Still, its current implementation can't touch AMD's competing Ryzen 9000 CPUs (such as the 9800X3D), nor is it enough to even beat its own previous-generation 14th-generation processors in gaming (such as the 14900K). All that said, moving to a chiplet approach will afford Intel more ways to optimize its architectures down the road, in a more efficient manner. Each tile can be developed independently of others and built with different nodes to improve yields, optimize development, and reduce production costs.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Yahoo
Intel IPO delivers better gaming performance than 200S Boost in user benchmarks
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Intel has recently introduced two performance-boosting features for its Core Ultra 200S (codenamed Arrow Lake) processors, which rank among the best CPUs. While IPO (Intel Performance Optimizations) and 200S Boost share the same objective, one BiliBili user's tests (via Uniko's Hardware) seemingly show that IPO delivers a higher gaming performance uplift. The user performed the tests with a Core Ultra 7 265K, DDR5-8000 memory, and a GeForce RTX 5090D. They benchmarked IPO and 200S Boost across seven games with different quality settings at 2160p (3840 x 2160) and DLSS activated when applicable. The Core Ultra 7 265K was a part of three configurations. The XMP configuration enables XMP to get the memory up to DDR5-8000 with no changes to the processor. The 200S Boost configuration increases the Die-to-Die (D2D) communication fabric from the default 2.1 GHz to 3.2 GHz and the Next Generation Uncore (NGU) fabric from 2.6 GHz to 3.2 GHz. On the other hand, the IPO configuration makes several changes to the processor. For starters, it increases the P-core and E-core clocks to 5.4 GHz and 4.9 GHz, respectively, from the default 5.2 GHz and 4.9 GHz. While the 200S Boost doesn't touch the Ring (3.8 GHz), IPO overclocks it to 4 GHz. These adjustments limit IPO from pushing the D2D and NGU as hard as 200S Boost. As a result, the IPO only dials in at 3.1 GHz for the D2D and NGU. The memory, however, is tuned to DDR5-8400 with optimized timings. IPO pumped out 2% higher average frame rates than 200S Boost in Forza Horizon 5 and less than 1% higher 1% Lows. In Cyberpunk 2077, however, IPO exhibited 3% higher average frame rates and 6% higher 1% Lows. IPO also excelled in Total War: Warhammer III, delivering 6% better average frame rates and 9% better 1% Lows than 200S Boost. With Black Myth: Wukong, IPO only showed 2% higher average frame rates and 1% Lows than 200S Boost. The tests showed similar results in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege. Counter-Strike 2, tested at 1080p (1920 x 1080), gained the most from Intel's performance enhancements. It is not unexpected, as Counter-Strike 2 is very processor-intensive. IPO boasted 16% higher average frame rates and 20% better 1% Lows. Meanwhile, IPO outperformed 200S Boost in Watch Dogs: Legion with 8% and 9% improved average frame rates and 1% Lows, respectively. Since their introduction, Intel's Core Ultra 200S processors have exhibited performance challenges, prompting Intel to develop various optimizations to enhance their competitiveness against AMD's Ryzen 9000 (codename Granite Ridge) processors. Nonetheless, user-provided benchmarks indicate a comparative advantage for Intel IPO over 200S Boost. It's understandable since the former makes more changes to the processor's parameters and overclocks compatible DDR5-8000 memory kits to DDR5-8400. As the results have shown, the performance margins between Intel's IPO and 200S Boost are small unless you're playing a processor-intensive game. For instance, running Cyberpunk 2077 at 289 FPS or 297 FPS may not be discernible to the human eye if you don't have a frame rate monitoring software on screen. Intel's 200S Boost is available to all Arrow Lake processor owners via a motherboard firmware update. Intel IPO, on the other hand, is currently only available in China. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
