The very first desktop Core Ultra chips, the 200S-series, are out, but reviews haven’t been great. Intel is hoping it can squeeze more performance out of the processors in future updates.
Robert Hallock, Intel’s VP and GM of client AI and technical marketing, addressed the concerns about Intel’s Core Ultra 200S chips (particularly those about the Core Ultra 9 chips such as the Core Ultra 9 285K) in a recent interview, acknowledging the performance gaps and assuring users that Intel is playing around with possible fixes to that. He emphasized that the issues are solely Intel’s responsibility and not related to Microsoft or other factors.
While admitting that performance is underwhelming (this comes as no surprise, as Intel itself quietly admitted it some time ago), Hallock expressed confidence in the underlying architecture of the Arrow Lake chips, stating that their “bones are solid.” He attributed the performance bottlenecks to unforeseen interactions between various factors, leading to “wild unintended effects.” Intel is currently investigating the root causes of these issues and plans to provide a comprehensive update, including solutions, by the end of November or early December. The company anticipates that the fix will be straightforward, likely involving a BIOS update and a Windows update.
It should be noted that while the Arrow Lake chips might perform worse on paper, they also consume less power, and power draw has been an ongoing issue for Intel for years. So for what we know, a part of this could also be intentional—some users will probably appreciate Intel sacrificing year-over-year performance improvements for one year to get temps straightened out. Still, the controversy ultimately adds up to Intel’s recent bad fortunes. The company was recently suffering the consequences of a massive overvolting flaw in its 13th gen and 14th gen chips, and while that flaw has apparently been fixed now, a lot of buyers were still left with permanently-damaged chips.
This is not the first time we’ve seen a chip manufacturer roll out a fix to improve initially-underwhelming CPU performance, as AMD also had to famously roll out some fixes to improve the performance of its most recent Ryzen chips.
Source: The Verge
