Intel Arrow Lake Refresh CPU Lineup Leak Details New Plus Models And Specs

One of the strangest parts of AMD's stagnation in the early 2010s was that it simply stopped releasing new desktop CPUs for a while. It's true that there wasn't much point in continuing the lineage of the inefficient (and unpopular) Bulldozer processors, but OEMs like "new" parts so they can sell systems with the "latest hardware". Despite some initial gamer disinterest, Intel's Arrow Lake family is nowhere near in the same position as Bulldozer, and so it follows that the company is doing a refresh of its first chiplet desktop CPUs since Nova Lake isn't going to be ready for a bit.

To be clear, Intel still hasn't officially announced the Arrow Lake Refresh family beyond acknowledging its existence back in September. However, Videocardz seems to have some insider information on the next-generation Core Ultra parts—namely, the specifications of the Core Ultra 9, Ultra 7, and Ultra 5 parts for the Arrow Lake Refresh family.

According to the info, the Core Ultra 9 285K will be refreshed as the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, with a 100 MHz bump to the max P-core clocks. The more interesting changes are in the lower-spec chips, where the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus apparently gains an additional E-core cluster over the Core Ultra 7 265K, giving it the same 8P + 16E setup as the Core Ultra 9 part, just with lower clock rates. Finally, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus will gain both a 100 MHz bump to the P-core turbo max as well as an extra E-core cluster, bringing it to a 6P+12e configuration.


Besides these changes, there's not much else to discuss, contrary to earlier rumors. All three chips will apparently get minor DDR5 memory speed bumps, from 6400 MT/s to 7200 MT/s, but this won't mean much unless it also comes with an according bump in the uncore (NGU) and fabric (D2D) clock rates. Intel's Core Ultra 200 Boost Mode ramps both clock rates all the way up to 3.2 GHz; in our testing, these changes are responsible for the performance boost it gives, not the mandated 8 GT/s memory speed. It's not clear what the "Plus" branding indicates for these new parts; potentially, they could see a bump in NGU and D2D clocks that would give them a legit gaming performance boost.

As VCZ points out, Intel usually doesn't discontinue prior models when introducing new ones in the same family. Given that these parts will apparently carry Core Ultra 200-series branding, we imagine that these refreshed parts will probably slide into the product stack alongside the extant CPUs. TDPs remain the same; pricing is up in the air, though. It will be interesting to see where Intel prices these parts given seemingly stagnant Core Ultra CPU demand from the DIY market.