Intel Arrow Lake rumored to be the best part of 1GHz slower than 14th-gen CPUs

Intel's next-gen flagship CPU could be dialing back clock speeds considerably - by a whole lot, in fact, at least if this leak turns out to be correct.

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Intel's next-gen processors might surprise us with just how much they rein in power usage (Image Credit: Intel)

Upfront, let's arm ourselves with the usual helping of seasoning, and indeed a heavier dose than normal here, as this is a rumor that comes from Weibo, not exactly our favored source for reliability (though it does get some things on the money).

At any rate, Wccftech noticed that user 'MebiuW' posted about how Intel's Arrow Lake range - which could be revealed in Q3 - will witness clock speeds being reined in considerably.

Apparently, we're talking about the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K running at up to 5.5GHz for boost (it's a 24-core CPU, 8+16), which is a big drop from the top speeds seen with Raptor Lake Refresh. The leaker subsequently hints that in actual fact, the boost could be even slower than this, at maybe 5.3GHz (though the translation and context may leave some room for doubt as to the exact meaning here).

At any rate, even if it is 5.5GHz, Intel's current CPU champ, the Core i9-14900KS, can hit 6.2GHz out of the box before any overclocking, so that would represent a pretty large gulf of 700MHz between that and the top Arrow Lake chip. Even the vanilla 14900K hits 6GHz, still 500MHz more - and the difference could be more like 900MHz and 700MHz respectively, as noted (if the 5.3GHz theory is right).

With the Core Ultra 9 285K at this level, the tiers down from that - the Core Ultra 7 265K and Ultra 5 245K (we're still not keen on this new naming) - will obviously be proportionately slower still.

Doomsaying?

So, is this a serious dollop of doom and gloom for Arrow Lake? Well, no, in a word. For starters, it's just a rumor, and the source - and vagueness around the exact clock speeds - give us some pause for thought.

Even if Arrow Lake's clock speeds pan out like this, we've still got to bear in mind that this doesn't wash away all the other rumors around Team Blue's next-gen desktop line-up.

All of which are pretty positive in terms of the generational leap that we'll (hopefully) witness with Arrow Lake - even if more recent chatter has toned down the talk of huge gains somewhat, big things are still expected here.

Clock speeds aren't everything, of course, and Intel's architectural changes with Arrow Lake - a major reworking - could pep up performance (IPC) substantially.

Whatever the case, it looks like part of Intel's design with Arrow Lake is to make processors that are easier on the old PSU, and chug less wattage, which is unsurprising given some of the controversy around stability issues with its Core i9 chips of late.

Generation after generation, Intel has been flooring the pedal with power usage, and that obviously can't continue anyway - and with Arrow Lake, it looks like Team Blue has a different philosophy. And ultimately, that should be a good thing going forward, so don't fret too much about clock speeds - especially rumored ones - just yet.