- Intel will be launching its Arrow Lake chip series on October 24. As a preview, the company has shared a few details about the upcoming products.
- For starters, this series is hyper focused on improving performance, enabling better cooling, and reducing power consumption.
- There are also some significant structural changes to do away with the issue of CPU bending.
Intel’s Arrow Lake is about to hit the market in two weeks (on October 24), and the company has revealed some interesting information for us to marinate in before we get to see the actual thing.
Although we can’t vouch for all the claims until we test it out ourselves, here’s an in-depth rundown of what Intel says about its new CPU series.
About the New Chip
The flagship Intel Arrow Lake CPU is the Core Ultra 9 285K. Right off the bat, we can see that Intel has decided to change the name. Instead of going with its usual naming pattern of 13th, 14th, 15th generation, and so on, this one’s called “the Core Ultra 9 285K.”
Here are some of its basic specs:
- Total Cores: 24 (8 P-cores and 16 E-cores)
- P-Core Max Turbo Clock: 5.5GHz
- Max Turbo Power: 250W
- PCIe Lanes: 24
- Claimed NPU performance: 13 TOPS
- Memory Support: Dual-channel 6,400 MT/s DDR5, up to 192 GB
What’s New?
A lot of things are seemingly fresh in this exciting new chip series. Here are some of our favorites:
- Unlike its previous chips, this one has no hyperthreading. Instead, it has a single-thread architecture to boost clock speed. A lot of users believe that thread count has something to do with efficiency, but that’s not true. It all depends on how it’s constructed.
- The company has heavily focused on efficiency and power consumption in this model and claims to have cut power consumption in half (compared to 4900k) while keeping performance the same. It also offers up to 10°C lower temperatures during active gaming.
- Instead of the traditional single-chip structure, it has a multi-tiered structure consisting of 6 individual chips. At the bottom is the base tile, followed by the Compute tile, Filler tile, I/O tile, SOC tile, GPU tile, and the IHS is at the top. This multi-tier structure allows for more nuanced tuning.
- It’s equipped with a DLVR (Digital Linear Voltage Regulator) bypass. Traditionally, the core voltage is directly supplied to the CPU. However, in this chip, it goes through the DLVR. This helps regulate voltage and reduce voltage ripples, which in turn reduces power consumption. There’s also a DLVR bypass option if you want to disable it.
- A more granular core clock system ensures that you can easily hit the sweet spot while overclocking. With an upper limit of 16.67MHz, you can now maximize your performance without compromising on stability.
Does It Really Do Away with CPU Bending?
Intel claims that the new chip series fixes the problem of CPU bending. In case you’re wondering, CPU bending is when the CPU can’t make proper contact with the socket, which leads to stability issues.
To fix this, Intel has increased the PCB thickness and made the IHS longer and narrower. It has also introduced two sockets. The first one is the usual ILM socket, and the second one is the Reduced ILM socket. It comes with an additional plastic strip that increases elevation, reduces load, and prevents the CPU from bending.
Ideally, this issue could have been handled in better ways. However, when tested, it was found that the elevation does help. The first socket causes a bend of 70 micrometers, whereas the second one brings it down to 45 micrometers.
If everything else that Intel has promised is indeed true, then the Intel Arrow Lake is undoubtedly something to look forward to. However, as with all things tech, we’ll know for sure only after the launch.
