Intel Arrow Lake S and H in brief: Significantly higher efficiency, cooler and not slower

1 - Einführung, Übersicht und technische Informationen 2 - Benchmarks, Effizienz, Übertaktung und Fazit

Gaming performance

The gaming performance of the upcoming Intel Arrow Lake S processors initially gives a very mixed picture based on the slides. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, the flagship model, shows comparable results to the current i9-14900K in gaming benchmarks, with marginal differences in some games. While gaming performance is slightly lower in certain titles such as Far Cry 6, it shows an improvement of up to 15% compared to its predecessors in other games such as F1 23. This indicates a general optimization of the architecture, but without offering a massive leap in performance in gaming scenarios.

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An important aspect, however, is the lower energy consumption: Arrow Lake shows significantly improved energy efficiency with comparable gaming performance and requires around 80 W less power compared to Raptor Lake, which is due to optimized thermal management and the use of Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB). This could be of particular interest to users who are looking for a balance between performance and energy consumption.

It remains to be seen whether these results are confirmed in independent benchmarks, although the manufacturer’s specifications appear more realistic this time and largely correspond to my own estimates from previous leaks. Compared to AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series, which offers superior gaming performance through 3D V-Cache technology, Arrow Lake could score points with its improved single-thread performance and efficiency, but may not take the absolute top spot. The exact competitive ranking will be revealed in the upcoming benchmarks, which I will publish soon to further put the manufacturer’s claims into perspective and give a complete picture.

AI and creation performance

The performance of Arrow Lake S in AI and content creation tasks shows significant improvements over previous generations. By using Intel’s new “Lion Cove” architecture for performance cores and optimized “Skymont” efficiency cores, Arrow Lake achieves noticeable performance leaps in specific workloads such as video editing and 3D rendering. According to leaks from IFA and reports from Videocardz, the processors show up to 30% better multi-thread performance than the i9-14900K in synthetic benchmarks such as Cinebench and Blender. This increase is made possible by the increased number of efficiency cores and optimized cache architectures, which offer particular advantages for parallel workloads.

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While AI performance benefits from an improved NPU (Neural Processing Unit) with a performance of 13 TOPS, it lags behind dedicated accelerators such as those in AMD’s future AI-focused CPUs. Nevertheless, the new architecture provides better support for AI-powered applications running on the CPU, enabling smoother use of features such as image processing and real-time video analysis. These improvements should be particularly noticeable in content creation software and AI-supported tasks.

Energy efficiency is also an important feature of Arrow Lake here. For AI and rendering tasks, the energy consumption is lower than that of Raptor Lake, which means more efficient use of thermal capacity and makes the processors suitable for longer tasks under high load. This could give Intel an advantage over AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series, especially in workflows that rely on a good balance between multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The upcoming benchmarks will show whether these improvements prove to be true in practice, although the manufacturer’s claims so far seem largely realistic and confirm my earlier leaks.

New platform and more overclocking scope

The new platform for Arrow Lake, including the Z890 chipset, brings with it significant innovations and improvements that increase both performance and overclocking flexibility. The Z890 chipset is tuned to the new LGA-1851 socket, which enables improved power supply and provides greater stability under intensive loads. This platform only supports DDR5 memory, which enables higher memory bandwidths and more efficient data processing, while DDR4 is no longer compatible. This means that Arrow Lake can benefit from the higher performance of the DDR5 standard, especially for memory-intensive tasks.

Overclocking capabilities on the new platform have also been improved. With the introduction of Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) for all K processors, including the Core Ultra 5 models, Intel has made it possible for the first time for all K-series chips to dynamically achieve higher clock speeds when thermal conditions allow. This gives overclockers more scope to exploit the maximum performance of their systems. In addition, the Z890 chipset offers improved voltage control and thermal management to support stable overclocking at higher clock speeds.

With Arrow Lake, Intel also introduces finer gradations in clock speeds that allow for more flexible adaptation to thermal conditions and performance requirements. A major new feature is the expanded use of Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB), which is now available for all K series models, which in the past was limited to the high-end chips. TVB allows processors to dynamically increase clock speeds when the temperature is low enough to enable additional performance without exceeding thermal limits. This means that even mid-range models such as the Core Ultra 5 245K can benefit from this dynamic adjustment, which is particularly interesting for overclockers and performance enthusiasts.

Intel has also refined the gradation between base and boost clock rates. With Arrow Lake, there are not only the classic base and turbo clock rates, but also graduated boost levels based on the thermal load. For example, a staggered boost behavior is implemented, which offers more intermediate stages under heavy load in order to continuously and flexibly adjust the clock rate instead of abruptly dropping to a lower level. This finer granularity allows the processor to maintain higher performance states and adjust clock rates more precisely to the workload.

These changes also improve energy efficiency, as the gradations prevent clock rates from dropping unnecessarily, which would otherwise result in a loss of performance. This helps to keep overall performance consistently high, especially in demanding applications such as gaming and content creation, where CPU performance often needs to be dynamically adjusted. The improved gradations in clock speeds are therefore an important innovation for the Arrow Lake processors, increasing both performance and efficiency.

The platform itself also integrates more advanced connectivity options, such as PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 slots directly from the processor, increasing bandwidth for graphics cards and storage drives. Thunderbolt 5 is also supported, doubling data transfer rates over Thunderbolt 4 and future-proofing the platform. For enthusiasts who want to achieve maximum performance through overclocking, the new architecture offers additional features such as improved cooling options and finer controls for the power supply.

With the Z890 chipset, the Arrow Lake platform offers a comprehensive evolution that not only boosts performance but also increases flexibility for overclockers. The improved overclocking features, coupled with the latest memory and connectivity technology, make the platform ideal for high-end gaming and professional applications. The actual overclocking performance will be examined in more detail in the upcoming benchmarks, although the manufacturer’s statements on the overclocking potential so far appear very promising.

Overview and concluding remarks

In conclusion, Arrow Lake S looks promising as a significant step in Intel’s CPU roadmap, particularly in terms of improvements in architecture, efficiency and graphics performance. While the manufacturer’s own benchmarks are surprisingly realistic this time around, they are largely in line with my own assessments that I published months ago. It remains to be seen how the processors will perform in the upcoming independent benchmarks, which not only I will be presenting soon to provide a comprehensive picture of the actual performance. The whole thing can of course be broken down into even more detail in advance, as the last table for today shows:

Compared to AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series, Intel’s Arrow Lake relies on a more balanced mix of single-thread performance, multi-thread optimizations and more efficient energy consumption. While AMD traditionally scores with its high core count and multithreading strength, Intel is trying to achieve a compromise between pure performance and efficiency through the improved IPC and the increased use of efficiency cores. The differences between the two series could therefore become particularly clear in specific application scenarios, where it will become clear whether Intel really has the edge thanks to the increased single-thread performance and the new architecture.

The upcoming tests will therefore be crucial to further validate Intel’s claims and to see how well Arrow Lake S actually performs compared to the competition.

igor’sLAB received the information from Intel as part of an Arrow Lake event before IFA 2024 in Berling and an online briefing last week under NDA. The manufacturer had no influence or obligation to report. The only condition was the earliest possible publication date.