Intel Arrow Lake-S desktop chips can match Raptor Lake-R performance using half as much power

Intel’s new Core Ultra 200S series processors, also known by the code-name Arrow Lake-S, are designed to do two things: offer significant gains in CPU, graphics, and AI performance and also reduce power consumption.

The chip maker says that the new chips can deliver 15 percent better multithreaded CPU performance than previous-gen Raptor Lake Refresh chips sold under the 14th-gen Intel Core brand. But they can also match the performance of a Raptor Lake-R chip while consuming half as much power. The new chips also bring the latest Intel GPU and NPU technologies to the company’s desktop processors. But it’s really the CPU that’s the focus for these new chips, as customers who want to use a desktop  for gaming are more likely to invest in a discrete GPU.

So while the new processors have an Intel AI Boost NPU and integrated graphics based on Intel Arc architecture, much like the Intel Lunar Lake (Core Ultra 200V) mobile processors that launched earlier this year, Intel’s laptop chips actually have higher-performance GPUs and NPUs.

The desktop-class Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors have an NPU that tops out at 13 TOPS of AI performance, while Lunar Lake chips support up to 48 TOPS.  And the desktop chips have integrated graphics with support for features like ray tracing, XeSS upscaling, and DirectX 12. But the desktop versions of these iGPUs top out at just 4 Xe graphics cores and 4 ray tracing units.

When it comes to other features though, these desktop chips have a lot to set them apart from their mobile counterparts.

For one thing, all of the Lunar Lake processors announced to date are 8-core chips with 4 Performance cores and 4 Efficiency cores and max turbo power consumption of 37 watts.

Arrow Lake-S chips, meanwhile, range from a 14-core (6P + 8E) processor that runs at up to 159 watts to a 24-core (8P + 16E) chip with max turbo power of 250 watts. Every member of the Arrow Lake-S lineup has a base power consumption of 125 watts.

In other words, these chips may be more energy-efficient than their predecessors, but they’re clearly designed for desktops, not laptops, handhelds, or mini PCs.

Another difference? Lunar Lake chips support up to 32GB of on-device LPDDR5x-8533 memory, which is not user upgradeable. But Arrow Lake-S chips support up to 192 GB of dual-channel DDR5-6400 memory which is user replaceable.

One thing that’s the same across all of Intel’s Core Ultra 200 series processors though? Hyperthreading isn’t a thing. So whether you have an 8-core or 24-core processor, you have just as many threads as you do CPU cores.

Here’s an overview of the first five Core Ultra 200S series processors: