The fate of Intel's Arrow Lake refresh has been the subject of much speculation. Initial rumors suggested an increase in the core count and NPU enhancements, which then turned into a complete cancellation of such refresh. Meanwhile, it seems we'll get a refreshed series after all, but the latest information indicates that it will be more limited than initially anticipated.

According to Jaykihn, Intel is reportedly focusing only on the K and KF-Series CPUs instead of a complete refresh across the entire Arrow Lake lineup. These will likely be named the “Core Ultra 300K” series. In the meantime, the older Arrow Lake SKUs will reportedly get new “opt-in uplifts”. These are distinct from previously announced BIOS fixes and represent a new optimisation option that is still unknown.

The leaker stated that these “uplifts” are similar to Intel's new feature called IPO (Intel Performance Optimization), but not the same. For those who don't know, IPO is an overclocking and optimisation feature geared towards system integrators and OEMs seeking to enhance the performance of their systems in a more controlled and stable manner by adjusting CPU frequencies, power limits, and memory overclocking. While overclocking will remain the preferred choice for those who want to extract the most performance out of the CPU, the IPO aims for stability while improving performance considerably over stock.

We still don't have much information on the release date, but it seems the new Core Ultra 300K series will be released later this year.

KitGuru says: Should Intel launch an Arrow Lake refresh or move straight to the following architecture?

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