Intel Arrow Lake Desktop CPU Lineup Leaked: Models and Clock Speeds

Before the launch of AMD's Zen 5 CPUs, many people noted that Intel's issues with Raptor Lake had given AMD a “choice” over rival Intel. However, given the modest performance and efficiency gains over the previous generation Zen 4 parts in client workloads, the narrative has changed, and some commentators now believe that it is actually Intel that has the chance to fight back against AMD with its Arrow Lake CPUs.

If you're stuck, let us explain. Arrow Lake is the codename of Intel's upcoming processors that are said to bring Team Blue's chiplet-like “tiles” to the desktop for the first time. Besides advanced packaging, Arrow Lake brings new architectures for both P-cores and E-cores, as well as the GPU and probably the NPU as well. The latest leaks on Arrow Lake are quite comprehensive. First, well-known “Korean PC Tech Fan” 포시포시 (better known by his Xwitter handle @harukaze5719) posted the following table on Sunday, listing the core configurations and clock speeds of almost all of Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake desktop CPUs.

Diagram: Benchlife

The diagram actually comes from a Chinese tech blog Benchlifea known source of many leaks and rumors. However, the site points out that it actually compiled this information from numerous previous leaks. Given this, the accuracy could be questioned, except that another leaker, Jaykihn, has now published his own version of the chart, which largely confirms the information above and adds more information:

There are a few errors in the data; Jaykihn's chart shows the wrong clock speed for the 7-8 core P-Core boost clock of the 65W Core Ultra 9 285 (should be 5.3, not 4.6), and Benchlife has swapped the lines for Core Ultra 265F and 265T. 포시포시 points out the lack of Core Ultra 3 SKUs; Jaykihn says his list only includes chips “exclusive to the B0 chip,” meaning Core Ultra 3 processors could be based on a different chip design.

For his part, Benchlife focuses on the fact that even the top-of-the-line Core Ultra 9 285K doesn't reach the clock speeds of the Core i9-13900K, let alone the 14900K or their “KS” variants. That might not matter, depending on how much Intel's Lion Cove core improves IPC over Raptor Lake. The difference between a Core i9-14900K and a Core Ultra 9 285K is roughly 5% in terms of clock speed, while Intel claimed a 14% IPC increase between Lion Cove and Redwood Cove, the P-core architecture in Meteor Lake.

The more interesting changes arguably concern the E-cores, with Skymont being a radical evolution of the previous generation's Crestmont E-cores with gigantic IPC gains. It may be that Arrow Lake's single-core performance (similar to Zen 5) is only marginally better than the previous generation, but we expect the new CPUs to be absolute multi-core monsters despite the loss of Hyper-Threading.

Despite the delay of its innovation event, Intel said Arrow Lake was on track, and indeed, Benchlife confirmed that the release date for these parts is October 10. As with previous generations, we expect Intel to launch the high-end “K” and “KF” CPUs first, with the rest of the family likely to arrive later in the year, or possibly not until CES 2025.