Intel announced that its first wave of updates to address the gaming performance issues plaguing the Arrow Lake processors is now available. Intel says the updates available today will deliver “signficant performance upside” and restore the “complete and intended functionality” of the Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake processors. We’re currently testing the fixes and have summarized the root causes below.
Intel’s update comes after a disappointing round of Core Ultra 200S launch day reviews, which found wildly variable gaming performance recorded by different media outlets. Those results overwhelmingly did not match the performance benchmarks that Intel had shared before the launch, leading to an overall poor reception for the Arrow Lake processors. Last month, Intel’s Robert Hallock announced that an investigation was underway, saying the company planned to restore gaming performance to its original targets and would share details this month.
Intel has detailed major updates in the quest to improve performance of its ill-fated Core Ultra 200 Arrow Lake processors that were released back in October. The inconsistent performance at times saw them perform slower that older models with some very questionable results, especially in games. However, it has released a long list of fixes that could improve performance by up to 30%.