Intel Arrow Lake-S 24 & 20 Core Desktop CPUs Spotted: Core Ultra 200 ES Chips Without SMT, Up To 3 GHz

13.04.2024 - 20:13 / wccftech.com / Lake S.Desktop / Hassan Mujtaba

Intel's next-gen Arrow Lake-S Desktop "Core Ultra 200" CPUs have been spotted in 24 and 20 core flavors, and also reveal no SMT support.

Intel Driver Logs Confirm Two Arrow Lake-S "Core Ultra 200" Desktop CPU Configurations: A 24 Core & A 20 Core Variant

Intel's Arrow Lake-S CPUs will mark a major transition for the desktop platform. You will be getting a chip with a brand new architecture in all regards and a new platform based around the LGA 1851 socket. The Arrow Lake-S CPUs will be comprised of Lion Cove P-Cores and Skymont E-Cores. We've so far seen the CPUs in up to 24 core configurations in 8+16 layout and now we have two additional leaks.

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The CPUs leaked out today are referenced in the latest driver log as "Arrow Lake Client Platform" & are running on the MTLSFWI1.R00.3473.D80.2311222130 BIOS which is dated 11/22/2023. The two Intel Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs include a 24-core part which should be using the same 8 P-Core & 16 E-Core configurations and has a listed clock speed of 3.00 GHz while the second model features a 20-core spec which should utilize an 8 P-Core and 12 E-Core configuration and has a listed clock speed of 2.30 GHz.

These CPU configs look similar to the existing Core i9-14900K and Core i7-14700K but the major difference is that there's no SMT / HT support mentioned. It was recently highlighted that removal of SMT / HT from Intel's CPUs has to do with the more efficient utilization of E-Cores where those take up the role of HT for multi-threaded apps, providing faster performance in a more efficiency-optimized manner.

Intel Arrow Lake-S 24 Core "Core Ultra 200" Desktop CPU:

Intel Arrow Lake-S 20 Core "Core Ultra 200" Desktop CPU:

We'll see how the removal of HT from Intel's next-gen CPUs pans out but Intel still runs into trouble with optimization of its E-Cores in certain apps and games. Intel did work to make its E-Core utilization better in the form of APO (Application Performance Optimization) but it only supports a small list of games and is also limited to the latest CPUs. Intel only recently opened APO support to older chips but we have yet to see the support be rolled out.

In addition to the CPU compute tiles, Intel's Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs will feature a GT1-tier iGPU based on the Arc Xe-LPG "Alchemist" architecture. The mobility parts are expected to get improved Alchemist+ "Xe-LPG+" graphics with some optimizations over the original design but that's about it.

These will also most likely be Intel's first desktop family to feature an NPU, AMD has already beaten Intel in featuring a dedicated AI NPU unit on both mobile and desktop platforms.