Intel’s desktop CPU road map may have changed

Intel’s list of best processors is about to expand with the upcoming launch of Arrow Lake-S, also referred to as Intel Core Ultra 200-series for desktops. But what comes next is less certain, and even more so now. According to a post on the Chiphell forums, Intel may have decided to cancel the Arrow Lake-S refresh (Intel Core Ultra 300-series, presumably) that was reportedly slated for sometime next year as a follow-up to this year’s initial launch. On the upside, the code name for an upcoming desktop CPU generation was also leaked.

The rumored Arrow Lake-S refresh was never confirmed, but there have been many whispers about it from various leakers. Much like the Raptor Lake refresh, it was never meant to be a groundbreaking update; the neural processing unit (NPU) was the main thing that was going to be updated.

With no core configuration or clock speed adjustments, Intel’s choice becomes clearer. The NPU doesn’t play as big a role in a desktop PC as it does in a thin and light laptop, as a discrete graphics card can handle AI workloads much better in most scenarios. If the NPU was the only thing to be changed, we likely wouldn’t have seen any performance improvements in things like gaming and many other workloads.

By the sound of it, many of us would do just fine without an Arrow Lake-S refresh. However, this does mean that the LGA1851 socket might end up being used in just one generation of processors unless Intel sticks to it with Nova Lake. Nova Lake-S was initially rumored to use a new socket, and it’s also not expected to hit the market until 2026 and beyond. This would leave Intel with an up to two-year gap between CPU generations.

There’s some hope for that Arrow Lake-S refresh yet, though. For starters, the user who originally said that it’s been canceled and that ARL-S would last for two years edited their post. They’re still implying that a refresh isn’t happening, but it’s now less of a definite statement — and as it wasn’t confirmed to begin with, you should take it with some skepticism. And even if the desktop refresh is never released, Intel might still refresh Arrow Lake-H and HX, meaning the laptop variants.

Razer Lake

— HXL (@9550pro) September 23, 2024

Although Intel’s road map may now be looking pretty bare as far as desktops are concerned, we might have just learned the name of what comes after Nova Lake. According to frequent hardware leaker HXL on X (formerly Twitter), the successor to Nova Lake-S will be called Razer Lake. Another source, Bionic_Squash, agreed with this leak.

As things stand now, we’re still waiting for an official announcement regarding Arrow Lake-S. Rumor has it that Intel might unveil its new desktop CPUs on October 10, followed by an October 24 release date.