Intel is betting big with this Arrow Lake range after having encountered difficulties with its 13th and 14th generations.
Raptor Lake in 2022 and Raptor Lake Refresh in 2023 were simply major updates to Intel's 12th-generation Alder Lake processors. Performance was certainly a little better, but thanks - above all - to an increase in operating frequency and a few minor optimizations. Worse still, a few months after the launch of these two generations, technical problems were spotted by some users under rather specific conditions. While these problems are unlikely to affect a large number of users, they are particularly stark at a time when Intel's reputation is already being undermined by the increasingly fierce competition from AMD's Ryzen.
First Core Ultra 285K 'Arrow Lake' seen on Geekbench © VideoCardz
The Arrow Lake generation, which has been on the American group's roadmap for several years now, is intended to make a clean sweep of the past, taking its inspiration from the Lunar Lake chiplet architecture for mobile computers. Intel is obviously hoping to convince as many people as possible, but while it has been slow to confirm its timetable, things are becoming clearer all the same: Arrow Lake processors have been spotted on the databases of popular measurement software Geekbench 6. These leaks concern several processors in the range, and in particular the Core Ultra 285K, the flagship processor with its 24 cores made up of 8 high-performance Lion Cove cores and 16 efficient Skymont cores.
Arrow Lake performs rather well on these first Geekbench 6 measurements © VideoCardz
On Geekbench 6, the processor scores around 3450 points single-threaded and around 23000 points multi-threaded. These results are all the more interesting in that they can be compared with those of today's top-of-the-range processors. Unsurprisingly, the Core Ultra 285K does better than Intel's Core i9-14900K (around 3000 and 21000 points), but above all it does better than the very recent Ryzen 9 9950X, the flagship of AMD's new Zen 5 generation. The latter is very close (around 3200 and 22000 points), but clearly behind the Arrow Lake chip, which bodes well for Intel.
Intel Arrow Lake line-up © VideoCardz
There's every reason to believe that the first Arrow Lake processors will be presented by Intel on October 10, with a release date a few days later - October 17 to be exact. The same October 17 will also see the launch of a new series of motherboards, as the Arrow Lake generation introduces a new socket, the LGA1851, with new chipsets. Initially, only the top-of-the-range Z890 will be available to accompany the processors. To take advantage of more affordable chipsets (H810/B660), you'll have to wait for the launch of the rest of the Arrow Lake range, in early 2025.
