Intel chief monetary officer (CFO) David Zinsner has simply confirmed that “one other wave” of Intel Arrow Lake CPUs is certainly on the way in which, plugging the hole between the corporate’s present Core Extremely 200-series chips and its next-gen Nova Lake processors. There have been rumors about an Intel Arrow Lake refresh for numerous months now, however that is the primary time that it has been publicly acknowledged by anybody at Intel.
The primary wave of Arrow Lake CPUs noticed Intel make big strides relating to thermals and energy effectivity, however, as I discovered in my Core Extremely 7 265K assessment, these chips additionally actually wrestle to compete with the newest AMD CPUs relating to gaming. With increased clock speeds, it is attainable that Intel might begin to shut the hole with a brand new Arrow Lake refresh lineup, nevertheless it’s the forthcoming Intel Nova Lake structure that actually has the potential to alter Intel’s fortunes relating to desktop PC gaming.
Presenting at Citi’s 2025 International Expertise, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Convention, Zinsner mentioned Intel’s new in-house 18A manufacturing course of, which it will likely be utilizing to make its new Panther Lake and Nova Lake CPUs, whereas the core chiplet fabrication for its Arrow Lake CPUs is at the moment outsourced to TSMC.
“We nonetheless have some work to do on the consumer facet on the portfolio,” admitted Zinsner (noticed by Wccftech), earlier than including that “there’s one other wave of Arrow Lake that we’ll see. But it surely’s not until Nova Lake that actually, I feel we have now fully addressed that scenario. And so we might count on to get to a reasonably good place as we get into Nova Lake, and Nova Lake can have 18A as effectively.”
Zinsner did not share any extra particulars in regards to the new Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs, however earlier leaks have pointed to improved AI efficiency for the NPU. Nonetheless, this was later shot down by an extra leak, which recommended that the primary distinction can be a rise in Arrow Lake refresh clock speeds. The brand new chips are additionally rumored to be retaining the Core Extremely 200-series branding of Intel’s present CPUs, with Core Extremely 300 reportedly skipping the desktop, and Core Extremely 400-series mannequin numbers used for Intel’s next-gen Nova Lake CPUs.
All of the phrase about clock speeds, mannequin numbers, and NPU efficiency is all firmly in rumor territory, however we do know one factor for certain now – extra Arrow Lake CPUs are coming, and meaning there’s no less than one potential improve path for homeowners of LGA1851 motherboards.
Should you’re pondering of upgrading, then try our information to purchasing the perfect gaming CPU, in addition to our greatest gaming motherboard information, which covers each Intel and AMD sockets.
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