Intel Core Ultra 200S ‘Arrow Lake’ Desktop CPUs With AI Launched

Intel has launched the first of its Core Ultra 200S series desktop processors, codenamed ‘Arrow Lake’, which are the first of their class to feature integrated NPUs for AI acceleration. The launch also ushers in a new naming and numbering scheme for Intel’s desktop CPUs, matching the last two generations of mobile offerings. These CPUs replace the 14th Gen Core products currently on the market. “Core i” branding has been discontinued and a new generation number series has begun. These CPUs will go on sale worldwide starting from October 24.

Five new CPU models have been announced, with the new flagship Core Ultra 9 285K at the top. Intel promises significantly reduced power consumption for gaming, content creation, and AI workloads. They feature the same “Skymont” performance cores and “Lion Cove” efficiency cores as the Core Ultra 200 “Lunar Lake” laptop processor family launched earlier this year. The integrated NPU is capable of 13 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of throughput.

The new Core Ultra 9 285K features 8 P cores and 16 E cores, with a 5.7GHz top speed. Below that are the Core Ultra 7 265K and 265KF, and the Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF. As before, the F suffix indicates a lack of integrated GPU, which means lower prices but no other differences. Both Core Ultra 7 models have 8 P cores and 12 E cores with a 5.5GHz maximum speed, while the Core Ultra 7 models have 6 P cores and 8 E cores and can boost up to 5.2GHz.

All five models are unlocked and overclockable, as denoted by the K suffix. They all support up to 192GB of DDR5-6400 RAM. All five have the same 125W base power rating but the Core Ultra 9 and 7 models can draw up to 250W when used with adequate cooling solutions, while the Core Ultra 5 models top out at 159W. 

Intel’s biggest push with the Arrow Lake family is power efficiency. The company says these CPUs will run cooler and quieter by consuming as little as half as much power as the 14th Gen Core series, while delivering equivalent or better performance in games and content creation. Integrated AI acceleration will also boost content creation apps, while the next-gen integrated Xe GPU expands encoding and decoding acceleration to new content formats. 

With this generation, a new socket called LGA1851 is required, which means there’s no backward compatibility with older motherboards. Asus and Gigabyte are among the motherboard manufacturers that have announced new models with the top-end Z890 chipset. Lower-end chipsets are expected to be announced when Intel introduces non-K CPU models.

New platform-level features include Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, two Thunderbolt 4 lanes with support for Thunderbolt Share for direct high-speed connections between PCs. Motherboard makers can implement Thunderbolt 5 and Wi-Fi 7. Overclocking controls for enthusiasts are more fine-grained.

Intel also announced ‘Arrow Lake’-based Core Ultra CPUs for performance and gaming laptops, launching soon. These will feature H and HX suffixes and will be sold alongside slimmer and lighter laptops with Core and Core Ultra 200 series Lunar Lake CPUs.