We already know a lot about Intel’s plans over the next few years, but just recently got a rumor about the tentatively-named 15th-gen Arrow Lake processors. Following a leaked road map last week, further information has emerged about the upcoming chips, showing how they’ll stack up to the stiff competition from AMD and Apple, as well as how they’ll handle integrated graphics.
AdoredTV, a YouTube channel that often leaks information about upcoming gaming chips, revealed some details about Arrow Lake-P. This is the mobile variant of Arrow Lake, which we hadn’t heard of before. According to the leaker, the top Arrow Lake-P chip will come with six Lion Cove and eight Skymont cores, totaling 14 cores and 20 threads.
Similar to Alder Lake and Intel’s other upcoming processors, Arrow Lake-P will use a hybrid design with “big” and “little” cores. The big Lion Cove cores support hyperthreading, while the little Skymont cores don’t. Still, Intel is able to cram more dedicated processing units into each chip, which should boost multi-core performance.
This is the same configuration Intel is rumored to release for its Alder Lake-P mobile platform, just with updated core designs. The big news for Arrow Lake-P is how it will push Intel’s graphics department. The leaker says that the top chip will come with 320 Intel Iris Xe execution units (EUs), totaling 2,560 cores.
Currently, Intel’s top Iris Xe offering comes with 96 cores, so Arrow Lake-P looks like a big step up. As we found in our Tiger Lake gaming tests, Iris Xe is a fantastic integrated graphics solution, even if it still falls short of a dedicated card. When Arrow Lake-P rolls around, that could change.
Having 320 EUs could push in toward mid-range graphics cards that are available today. It’ll be a while until we see Arrow Lake, however. The desktop platform is rumored to launch in the second half of 2023, and we don’t have any word on the mobile platform yet. Intel usually leads with its mobile launches first, but the company is in a bit of a renaissance at the moment, so that could change.
Regardless, the chip is shaping up to take on the best from AMD and Apple. We don’t know what Apple has in store for its M2 chip, or what AMD is working on with Zen 5, both of which should compete with Arrow Lake-P. The leaker says Intel is adding an additional cache on the chip, which could take some inspiration from AMD’s 3D V-Cache.
As for the desktop parts, Arrow Lake-S is rumored to top out with 40 cores and 48 threads. The flagship model will reportedly feature eight Lion Cove cores and a staggering 32 Skymont cores. The chips will apparently follow the launch of Meteor Lake processors in 2023 and use the Intel 4 manufacturing process. Intel could jump down to Intel 3, but the company hasn’t revealed anything yet.
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