Intel only plans eight 65W and 125W Arrow Lake-S, but as much as 13 35W models?
This year should be very fruitful for processors. First AMD’s Zen 5 in the coming months, said to be the biggest leap since the first Zen. But Intel should have a breakthrough, too: The new Arrow Lake processors with their new LGA 1851 platform and a completely changed chiplet concept. There are also new CPU cores and GPU architecture derived from Alchemist graphics as well. But will the core and thread counts somehow change as well?
We’ve already reported on the leak of the alleged product names of the upcoming Arrow Lake-S desktop processors. The BenchLife website, which has a decent track record of obtaining internal Intel but also AMD documents has now published a first outline of the specifications.
According to BenchLife, 21 Arrow Lake generation Core Ultra desktop processor models are known so far, but interestingly, the site doesn’t have definitive names for them yet – so it couldn’t confirm whether the previous news about the designations is true.
125W “K” models
There will be a total of three models in the 125W TDP range for enthusiasts, and the main takeaway is that the core counts will remain unchanged from the previous generation. The Core Ultra 9 will have 8+16 cores (8 P-Cores of the Lion Cove architecture, 16 E-Cores of the Skymont architecture). The cheaper Core Ultra 7 model will have 8 P-Cores and 12 E-Cores like the Core i7-14700K. The last model, the unlocked Core Ultra 5, will get 6 P-Cores and 8 E-Cores.
However, the thread counts will change as these CPUs have Hyper-threading removed from the P-Cores, so they will only provide 24, 20 and 14 threads respectively. This can probably degrade multi-threading performance. Since the core counts have not increased, Intel will have to compensate for the lack of HT with higher single core performance, instead.
Anyway, there should be only one single model in each (Ultra 9/7/3) tier.
65W mainstream models
It will apparently be the same for the locked 65W processors, which would be a new thing, because Intel used to produce more price-tiered models, especially in the Core i5 range. However, there are only one Core Ultra 9, one Core Ultra 7 and one Core Ultra 5 each planned for the 65W Arrow Lake-S lineup so far.
The configurations of the 65W Core Ultra 9 and Core Ultra 7 will be the same, i.e. 8+16 and 8+12 cores respectively. However, the 65W Core Ultra 5 SKU is going to have lower core count than its 125W enthusiast sibling. This is what Intel does today with the cheapest Core i5 models (i5-13400, i5-14400), but until now it also offered more powerful Core i5 models (14500, 14600) with 6+8 cores, matching the 125W SKUs. These extra higher-spec i5/Ultra 5 SKUs might apparently disappear in the Arrow Lake generation.
Nor is there anything like a cheaper Core i3 SKU planned for the time being (or more accurately Core Ultra 3 SKU), it seems.
Only two processors without an iGPU?
According to BenchLife, only two “F” models are planned so far, which should be 65W models without integrated graphics. One would apparently be the Core Ultra 5 240F, which will probably also have 6+4 cores. What the second model will be, whether Core Ultra 9 or 7 derived SKU, is not clear.
There’s also no mention of KF models, which would be processors without iGPUs with 125W TDP and an unlocked multiplier based on K models. In theory, Intel could reduce the number of these and offer maybe just one 65W and one 125W TDP model which would be the second of the two F SKUs mentioned by BenchLife.
Read more: Cheap Arrow Lakes: Core Ultra 5 240F to have two versions again
13 models in the T series
While BenchLife reports only six models in the 65W and 125W series, the 35W desktop series (which Intel traditionally labels T) is supposed to have significantly more models, reportedly 13. A possible explanation is that embedded (industrial) versions may be included in this count, but who knows. Or maybe with Arrow Lake Intel wants to focus on low-power processors instead of the power-hungry 65W and 125W ones, and the number of models reflcts this focus… Although only time will tell what the real consumption will be for these nominally “35W” Arrow Lake CPUs. Current Intel 35W processors exceed 100 W of turbo boost power consumption.
However, it is not at all certain that these numbers of processors will hold true in the end. There’s nothing stopping Intel from adding more SKUs to the lineup – like the KF versions that are missing from BenchLife’s information for now.
For now, it is roughly expected that these processors should come out sometime around September/October/November this year. However, this may only apply to the more powerful 125W models, the 35W and 65W models could be released later by Intel. In recent generations, they used to be released after a couple of months early next year, for example during CES in January, or even later in Q2 in the past.
Source: BenchLife
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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