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Intel introduces Core Ultra 200S desktop CPUs

11/10/2024

Translation: machine translated

Intel's new Core Ultra 200S series is trimmed for efficiency. Depending on the application, this should save up to 165 watts compared to previous CPUs with the same performance. The CPU temperature is also reduced. There is also a new NPU.

Intel's desktop CPUs are finally getting an NPU too. This performs AI calculations more efficiently than the CPU. And the rest of the new Core Ultra 200S aka Arrow Lake is also trimmed for efficiency. This means that the bottom line is that you get the same power as the predecessor CPUs for much less energy. This in turn means that it is not necessarily worth switching from the 14th generation to the new chips purely in terms of performance. Nevertheless, it is the right way to go, as AMD has long been ahead in terms of energy efficiency.

By the way, Intel is saying goodbye to the "Core i" brand with the release of the new CPUs. This is quite fitting, as the previous chip design is also becoming obsolete. Instead of a single monolithic die, there are several small tiles, as Intel calls them.

Overview and price - on sale from 24 October

Intel is having the new chips manufactured by TSMC, which is a first for its desktop CPUs. Three overclockable K models will be available at the launch on 24 October: Core Ultra 9 285K for around 600 US dollars, Core Ultra 7 265K for around 400 US dollars and Core Ultra 5 245K for around 300 US dollars. There is also a KF version of the Ultra 7 and Ultra 5 without or with a deactivated integrated GPU.

The KF versions have no iGPU.
Source: Intel

The Ultra 9 top model uses 24 cores. Eight of these are performance cores with a clock frequency of up to 5.7 gigahertz. The previous top-of-the-range i9-14900K model (also 24 cores) had up to 6 gigahertz. Hyper-Threading is history compared to the Raptor Lake CPUs. The Smart Cache (L3) remains unchanged at 36 megabytes. However, the L2 cache increases to 40 megabytes (i9-14900K still had 32 megabytes).

The integrated XE-LPG Arc graphics has 4 cores, the NPU installed for the first time should offer an AI performance of up to 13 TOPS. According to Intel, the AI chip performs as follows compared to the CPU and iGPU in Geekbench AI:

Depending on the deep learning model, the current CPU and iGPU perform better than the NPU. Nevertheless, it works more efficiently and also reduces the workload.
Source: Intel

Everything trimmed for energy efficiency

For basic desktop tasks, the new processors should only be half as power-hungry as their predecessors. When it comes to gaming, between 50 and 150 watts should be saved compared to Raptor Lake, depending on the title. In exceptional cases, such as "Warhammer: Space Marines 2", it is even 165 watts.

Uses significantly less power when gaming.
Source: Intel

The frame rates and performance, respectively, are hardly changed with the new flagship processor, as can be seen in the following picture.

The new top model delivers roughly the same performance in games as its predecessor.
Source: Intel

As a result, AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains the best gaming CPU. However, the new Intel CPUs can make some gains outside of gaming - for example in content creation tasks where pure multi-core performance is required.

The pure multi-core power should increase slightly.
Source: Intel

Intel states the effect of the energy savings on the CPU temperatures as follows. Depending on the game, this drops by up to 17 degrees Celsius compared to Raptor Lake.

New motherboards will also be available from 24 October

The previous motherboards with socket 1700 are unfortunately not compatible with the new CPUs. This requires a new Z890 board with an LGA-1851 socket. At least coolers can still be used due to the same dimensions. Support for DDR4 RAM is also no longer available - DDR5 is now a must.

The new motherboard chipset still offers 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes.
Source: Intel

In terms of PCI Express 4.0, there are still 24 lanes with the 800 series chipset. There are also up to eight SATA 3.0, ten USB 3.2, 14 USB 2.0 and four lanes for NVMe SSD and Z890 chipset (eSPI).

Thunderbolt 5 is available as an option for the first time.
Source: Intel

In terms of connectivity, there is now optional Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 and a 2.5 gigabit network port. Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 and a gigabit network port are guaranteed. The new mainboards will be launched at the same time as the Arrow Lake processors and can also be purchased from 24 October.