Intel Announces Core Ultra 200 Series Desktop CPUs, the First Desktop AI Processors on the Market

Intel this week announced its latest desktop processors, the Intel Core Ultra 200 series, the first desktop processor with a built-in NPU for AI workloads.

Formerly codenamed Intel Arrow Lake, the new processor series has been completely redesigned to focus on efficiency and performance per watt and features the same multi-module chip architecture as Intel Meteor Lake laptop processors.

The new processors are a major change for Intel’s desktop portfolio, with a new core architecture for performance and efficiency.

The new Skymont efficiency cores have a claimed 32% instruction per clock (IPC) increase over the previous generation Gracemont cores in Intel Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh.

Intel also says its Lion Cove performance core architecture has a 9% IPC improvement over its previous generation Raptor Cove performance cores.

In addition to the new P-core and E-Core architecture, the new Core Ultra 200 series processors will feature Intel Xe-LPG graphics architecture, the same architecture that powers Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics cards.

This gives the CPU’s integrated GPU powerful new hardware-accelerated ray tracing support, as well as Intel XeSS support built directly into the CPU.

While this won’t replace the best graphics cards in a desktop system, for more budget-oriented desktops or all-in-one PCs, the new Core Ultra 200 series processors will deliver significantly better graphics performance than the iGPU in Intel Raptor Lake processors currently on the market. be a market.

The Core Ultra 200 series will also be the first desktop processors with integrated neural processing capabilities that previously required a dedicated graphics card. And while the 13 TOPS NPU in the Intel Core Ultra 200 series isn’t as powerful as the recently released Intel Lunar Lake laptop processors, this NPU for AIO desktops will enable some new features that simply weren’t possible on an earlier version . generation Intel desktop chip.

The entire chip architecture is capable of 36 TOPS spread across the CPU, NPU and iGPU, and the sky’s the limit when you consider dedicated GPUs, which have much more powerful neural network capabilities.

The new processors go on sale on October 24 and there will be five SKUs available at launch.

Significantly improved energy efficiency without sacrificing performance

One of the biggest problems with recent generations of Intel desktop processors has been their relatively high power consumption. The Intel Core i9-14900K, the best processor of the previous generation, regularly consumed more than 300 W of power during intensive workloads.

While this translates to best-in-class performance (as well as record speeds of over 6.0 GHz out of the box), for many this level of performance was not worth the extra investment required in terms of cooling and PSU support. .

In terms of performance, recent benchmark leaks have shown that the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor is unlikely to beat the gaming performance of the previous generation Core i9-14900K, but it will remain within a hairline of that performance. the previous generation at a significantly lower TDP.

Intel says the new flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor will deliver about 8% better single-core performance than the Core i9-14900K, and about 4% better performance than the recently released AMD Ryzen 9 9950X.

In terms of multi-core workloads, the new Core Ultra 285K will deliver up to 15% faster performance than the 14900K, and up to 13% better performance than the Ryzen 9 9950X. The latter is especially notable because the 9950X has two threads per core, compared to the single thread per core of the Intel Core Ultra 200 series.

Intel says it can deliver this performance at significantly lower power. For low-threaded workloads like Zoom calls, the new Core Ultra 9 285K uses up to 58% less power, with up to 42% less power on intensive single-core tasks like video and 3D rendering (as tested in CineBench R24).

Intel says the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K will be able to deliver approximately 95% of the gaming performance of the Intel Core i9-14900K with up to 188W lower power consumption and approximately 15°C lower temperature, meaning a quieter system with a smaller cooling solution.

A new chipset means a new motherboard socket

While there will be a lot of excitement surrounding the new Intel Core Ultra 200 series processors, there will also be some pain for those hoping to upgrade from a previous generation system.

The new Core Ultra 200 series processors require the new Intel 800 series chipset on LGA 1851 socket motherboards, which go on sale this month from major manufacturers like NZXT, MSI, Asus and more.

If you have a 12th, 13th or 14th generation Intel system, you will need to buy a new motherboard in addition to the new processor. And since the new chip design requires a different CPU cooler mounting, your existing CPU will require new mounting hardware to ensure it effectively cools the chip.

However, what you get for the new chipset is more maximum memory capacity (192 GB, with support for 48 GB DDR5 RAM modules, integrated WiFi 6E and Thunderbolt 4 support (with WiFi 7 and Thunderbolt 5 support as a separate add-in components), and improved overclocking in 16.67MHz steps for more precise adjustments and stable performance.

Can the Intel Core Ultra 200 Series keep AMD at bay?

The Intel Core Ultra 200 series processors come at a good time for Intel, as the new processors could blunt any remaining momentum AMD built with its previous Ryzen launch a few months ago.

AMD’s recent launch of the Ryzen 9000 series wasn’t the best either, as the new chips were met with some disappointment, especially from enthusiasts hoping for significant performance improvements over the well-received Ryzen 7000 series processors.

Those same enthusiasts will likely be just as disappointed with the Intel Core Ultra 200 series, and Intel is already tempering performance expectations.

Users shouldn’t expect a 15-20% increase in performance from generation to generation like we saw with the 13th generation Intel Raptor Lake chips, but I have extensively tested, retested, and tested all of these chips for good measure. , and the only people who would even notice the performance improvements of the latest generation of processors are people like me who are obsessed with CPU benchmarks.

For casual users, the performance of the Intel Core Ultra 200 series will be more than enough for their needs, and the power efficiency of these new chips (assuming they live up to Intel’s claims) will make smaller form factor PCs more powerful and larger desktop systems more efficiently, which will ultimately save users money on energy costs in the long run.

I’ve long argued that AMD, Intel and Nvidia should call a truce in the performance race (which was much more about industry bragging rights than actual value to customers) and focus more on making their products more efficient and practical .

While I’m just now wrapping up my Ryzen 9000 series reviews, I can tell you that AMD’s latest chips won’t blow the roof off your PC, nor will the Ryzen 7000 series in terms of performance, but the new Ryzen chips deliver better performance with much lower power consumption.

So Intel’s Core Ultra 200 series makes the right move at the right time, as Intel would have been ill-served by releasing even more power-hungry chips that delivered more high-end performance that very few people would actually need, even if for very resource-intensive workloads, such as video editing or gaming.

With the Intel Core Ultra 200 series, along with the recent launch of Intel Lunar Lake, Intel has an opportunity to stem some of the financial bleeding that has dominated the news in recent months, giving it a stable foundation to to try to win itself back to its previous position as a market leader. Whether it will succeed remains to be seen, but if the Intel Core Ultra 200 series delivers on its promise, Intel will be off to a good start.

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