Intel Arrow Lake may not be too late after all – new rumor suggests next-gen CPUs will hit shelves in October, not December

Intel has accelerated its pre-release schedule for Arrow Lake processors, and the most recent rumor of a December 2024 launch is no longer true, according to new information from Rumors.

That’s the latest word from leaker Jaykihn, who claims over at X that the Arrow Lake (Core Ultra 200) desktop (ARL-S) flagship CPU has moved its Qualification Sample (QS) testing and validation forward by six weeks, which is quite a jump. (QS chips are essentially the finished version of the silicon in all but name – the CPUs are in the final stages of testing.)

Earlier Jaykihn had said that the QS validation, based on their sources, would take place in the first week of October, or week 40 of this year. But as you can see in the post above, it has now been moved to week 34.

A subsequent screenshot of Intel’s updated Arrow Lake roadmap was then shared by Jaykihn, as Video cardz reports that show the QS timeframe as week 34-36, but on X the leaker leaves no doubt that it will not be the earlier week.

Week 34 would be the penultimate week of August, and would theoretically allow Intel to release Arrow Lake desktop processors (or at least the first batch) in late October.

The leaker notes how this throws cold water on the most recent theories (from last week) that Intel might not get Arrow Lake chips on shelves until December. Note that this was corroborated to some extent by Jaykihn’s earlier leak, as a week 40 date for QS validation would align with this launching very late in 2024).

Jaykihn’s last mention of the 6+8 in week 49 refers to the non-K processors for Arrow Lake – as opposed to the unlocked ‘K’ CPUs (which can be overclocked), which are coming out first, in late October as noted. The non-K models are expected to hit QS in early December – that’s ahead of a previously rumoured early 2025 release (this timeline would actually point to February 2025).

In case you were wondering, 6+8 refers to the CPU configuration of 6 performance cores plus 8 efficiency cores. (And 8+16 is the flagship, with 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores – just like the current 14900K for Raptor Lake Refresh, which as you may have noticed is currently embroiled in quite a bit of controversy.)

Analysis: Better news for Intel – but still a steep hill to climb

Clearly, this seemingly very recent development – ​​the timeframe shift happened literally a few days ago, we’re told – is positive news for those hoping to get their hands on an Arrow Lake CPU, and for Intel in general.

As we’ve written before, Intel needs to get its next-gen desktop CPUs to market as quickly as possible – with the Ryzen 9000 hitting the market in late July – and a delay until December for the Core Ultra 200 family would be a major blow to Team Blue’s chances of success in the next-gen processor wars.

A late October on-sale date is more what we expected based on previous rumors and the likelihood that Arrow Lake would be revealed in September. (An initial announcement in September – at the Intel Innovation event – ​​followed by a three-month delay before release would seem rather odd.)

Even with an October release, Intel could still have its work cut out for it, as Arrow Lake could potentially be outdone by another launch from AMD. That would be new 3D V-Cache processors, Ryzen 9000 X3D models, which are rumored to be on track for a September launch, meaning they’re still making fun of Arrow Lake.

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