Intel Arrow Lake (15th Gen, Core Ultra): Leaks, Release Date + Everything We Know!

It's an interesting time to be Intel. Between rumors of an alleged Qualcomm takeover bid (that's bad), the recent fanfare around the Core Ultra Gen 2 laptop launches (that's good!) and ongoing drama over stability issues in its 13th and 14th gen desktop chips (that's bad)... there's a lot going on.

So you could be forgiven for not remembering that we're rapidly approaching the expected release window for new 15th gen desktop processors -- aka Arrow Lake -- aka Core Ultra 2 for desktop. And these new CPUs will be crucial in bringing the heat to AMD in terms of performance per watt in particular -- 'cause right now, those 13 and 14900K chips are known to run pretty toasty.

So let's jump into what we know so far about Intel's 15th gen Arrow Lake CPUs.

0:00 Intro
0:47 Designed by Intel, Made by TSMC
2:06 The Socket: LGA1851
3:39 AI & GPU
4:54 Cores, Threads & Release Date
6:18 Wait and See?

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[nivea]

i'm excided for Intel Arrow lake, also we dont need new cpus all years two year intervall would be good

[nizaramanchar]

Intel should have just left producing their precious 14nm cpus in peace

[randomgaming]

man Im waiting to build a new pc and i want this arrowlake so hard

[leonardoruiz]

Actually the reason behind Intel’s decision for TSCM to instead of their own nodes was cost. Intel 20a was supposed to be the first step before 18a that was supposed to be an iteration of 20a but 20a was not going to be sold to other companies it was meant to be just for Intel products. The cost to transition to a new architecture 18awas too high when they already have a mature 18a process (which means they consider their 18a good enough to be sold to other companies without the feedback of 20a) so they went with TSMC instead

[thetrigon]

untill business laptops ships with windows intel is not going anywhere near future, just like windows phone windows os will not work very well on ARM, microsoft will not survive without Intel, both are supporting each other.

[paulboyce]

When we talk about Arrow Lake and INTEL architecture we can't not to talk about Battlemage. This is huge. It includes my suspension about Nvidia 5080/5090 also.

INTEL ARC A770 has 32 Xe cores. Predicted top Battlemage has predicted more than 32 Xe2 cores. Xe vs Xe2 already is 50% jump in performance. I've seen rumors of 40 Xe2 cores if not more for the top Battlemage. Now we are closing to double the performance of the first gen INTEL ARC GPU's.

A770 GPU clock speed is 2.1 GHz. The upcoming GPU BMG-G21 that is predicted to be the replacement for the A750 and has specs reaching to 2.85 GHz. So we should expect 3 GHz and above from the top Battlemage performer. Then there is the Memory speed/Bandwidth from 17.5 Gbps/560 GB/s from A770 to 19 Gbps/608 GB/s from the top Battlemage.

Now add Intel Application Optimization (APO) that promise 10-50% gain with top INTEL CPU. INTEL XeSS XMX also is close to equal to DLSS.

Don't forget that INTEL ARC via REBAR uses 2 silicon architecture taking the advantage of both silicon and doubling the performance. For example i7-13700k 253W (max) + A770 225W (max) = 478W (max). In general Wattage = performance. It is a good indication now that the clock speeds are predicted to match the competitions clock speeds.

Plus with two silicon architecture there is no queuing or waiting meaning every frame is perfect. A770 in reality already gives you better experience on 4k than 4070ti. Current testing doesn't give you the performance of 2 silicon combined performance or recognize architecture where you don't have queuing or waiting, counting every error and broken frame. To beat you need at least double the FPS count from AMD/Nvidia single silicon architecture at high resolution demanding tasks where CPU plays only very small part for AMD/Nvidia GPU performance. Hence insane Wattage like 450W from 4090 or the predicted 600W from 5090 (that I suspect of being dual GPU).

INTEL is cooking something big for sure. Don't forget that Arrow Lake also plays a huge part. Battlemage predicted Wattage is 250-275W. So it looks like it will be close to 4080/5080 cards with combined wattage of 500-550W with Arrow Lake. Arrow Lake max Wattage is predicted to be max 250-275W. It would make sense to match the Wattage on GPU and CPU to avoid bottlenecks (as you can also see speculation on 5090 doubling the specs of 5080 as two equal sides. also the INTEL CPU/GPU pairing tool supports this narrative). So when talking about Battlemage you should also add the Arrow Lake into the picture because it is going to be a big part of the performance if not half. Also new Motherboards for the Arrow Lake most likely will have enhanced REBAR for pairing via native 5.0 PCI interface to the CPU. Would make sense (also for 5090 to have two GPU's on the same card).

4090 24gb VRAM 384 bit bus 450W
4080 16gb VRAM 256 bit bus 320W
4070ti 12gb VRAM 192 bit bus 285W

a750 8gb VRAM 256 bit bus 225W
a770 16gb VRAM 256 bit bus 225W

Price point for the top Battlemage I predict is $500 (for reference 4080 +$1300). But here is the catch. You need top upcoming Arrow Lake CPU to get all the performance from Battlemage and that is a new build $500 for the CPU and $500 for the Motherboard. That's $1500 as a rounded ruff estimate. Now it doesn't look that cheap anymore. But if this combo competes with 4080/5080 then it starts to look extremely good value if you are looking for a new build. Also when the Wattage of the 4080/5080 are 320W/predicted 400W and add the Wattage of the CPU it is looking very similar in power cost. Arrow lake Wattage predicted Wattage is 250-275W. Top AMD CPU 170W. Battlemage prediction is 250-275W. Top INTEL combo 275W + 275W = 550W vs Top AMD CPU 170W + 320W(400W)4080(5080) = 490W(570W).

As a summery I think we are looking at doubling the ARC Alchemist/13th gen/14th gen CPU performance with Battlemage/Arrow Lake CPU that would compete with 4080/5080 performance. Potential also gives hope that it might even be more and beat these cards. It will come down to price and build new vs old for the top performance. So look for the Arrow Lake CPU launch and you can be sure Battlemage won't be far behind.

Going back to the dual GPU of 5090 prediction or maybe just a feeling of it it would do similar job as the INTEL pairing to INTEL CPU. There is talk about Nvidia getting into CPU market and I think this might just be the reason to have two silicon instead of one in 5090. This is just guessing and making conclusions/speculations from the specs. When I look at the specs of 5090 it is pretty much double than the 5080 to the point. The first thought that comes to mind is 5090 has two (2) 5080 GPU's on the same card and because 600W is the limit/max that can be supported and that it has the same 12 pin power supply indicates two GPU's in the one card as it is 2 x 300W not single 600W. This in my knowledge can be susteined through the existing power architecture and the troublesome 12 pin connector from the 4090. Also because the two GPU's are not pushed as hard as 5080 (2 x 300W for 5090 vs 1 x 400W for 5080) there is less heat/GPU and similar size cooler can fit the 5090 as it is predicted it will be 2 slot card. 600W to single silicon would run so hot that it would need at least 3 slot cooler. all indicate that there is two silicon instead of one GPU in the 5090. Old SLI comes to mind but in one card. Also I think Nvidia has seen the future of pairing two silicon from INTEL but they do not have CPU's at this point of time and the closest they would come is with dual GPU card. To me this is a scam because now you have 3 silicon in your system but only need 2 and your CPU is on idle and RAM use minimal as it has never really made that much difference in performance. INTEL Arrow Lake will change this because it is fully utilized and paired to take half the tasks of the paired INTEL ARC GPU. We end up with less hardware but same performance if not more with RAM counted in also. This does raise some questions like VRAM. Battlemage predicts to have 16 GB VRAM. With the new Arrow Lake can you add RAM as your graphics memory also if there is native link via PCI 5.0 between GPU/CPU is a question and how well. It almost looks like INTEL combo will have two hearts beating and syncronised together.

Food for thought.

[sezwo]

I am waiting to see Bartlett Lake cpu's... coming Q1 2025 and p-core only chips in Q3 .

[squatch]

Did you say Intel Arrow Lake won't be using Xe2 graphics?

[SirIsaacMewtonIII]

intel will be on par to amd for about a month, then amd will be coming out with their x3d variants like 9800/9950x3d and amd will be ahead, again, probably for a good chunk of 2025 due to the 3d v-cache. no major upgrades until maybe late 2025 from intel when they'll come out with panther lake and powervia. amd's gonna be crushing intel this next year.

[d.petrakov]

No way to buy motherboard with LGA1851 if will support only one gen CPU. A lot of people will skip it. We don't want to buy new motherboard for every new cpu. That mean many people will skip this intel generetion and I will buy AMD, like me 😁

[CherryColaWizard]

Looks like Intel does not care much about Hyperthreading anymore.

[seeranos]

It's frustrating to see how often Intel is changing their socket and therefore forcing new motherboard upgrades. I think it's actually lowering their sales for each particular chip generation because people who are any level of price conscious are waiting for a more long-lived socket.

[videocruzer]

you dont think it was great timing that two weeks before the so called cpu issues that the US gov told us they were going to be investing 100 Billion dollars into Intel over the short term, then like 2 weeks later there is a story that craters the stock to 50% of its value. Why by high when you can create a story that can help give you a controlling interest. Pretty funny stock story, cause big plays always go down exactly like this.

[El.Duder-ino]

Based on Lunar Lake... I wonder what performance Apple's M4 could deliver with the 250 W TDP😈

[Blaquegold]

Still using my 10850k. Yes I know it’s old now but it’s still working with no issues. I hope for it to last hopefully 2 more years.

[TamaoWasHere]

Does the stability issues on 13th and 14th also affect laptop cpus? Or only desktop?

[LeicaM]

All Task Manager showing „NPU not used at all“, not even by Geekbench AI Benchmark😂😂

[Nemesisism]

the xeon 6900p is on intel 3 and is the highest core count x86 on the planet AMD no longer leads and you are cluesless as to that fact

[Decki]

Arrow lake will support 10000mhz ram which is amazing for gaming

[chuckvee]

I wish Intel success as everyone will benefit when there is competition.