Intel Arrow Lake CPUs could be on sale in October - a quick enough answer to Ryzen 9000?

Intel's Arrow Lake desktop processors are going to be out in October, or at least that's the word from Computex 2024.

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Intel needs to ensure Arrow Lake isn't too far behind Ryzen 9000, that much is certain (Image Credit: Intel)

This comes from Wccftech which has been tapping motherboard makers at Computex, firms that are showing off their Z890 boards - and have inside info on the Arrow Lake release timeframe.

Note that the mentioned October date is for Arrow Lake CPUs to be on shelves, not just some kind of initial reveal. In fact, the announcement of the next-gen desktop processors is planned to happen at Intel Innovation in September (which has been previously mentioned via the rumor mill).

Typically, a launch followed by an on-sale date a month later seems about right, so this looks promising - but we should always be cautious about taking rumors at face value.

As already confirmed by Intel, Arrow Lake desktop is due to debut first, with laptop chips to follow (these will complement Lunar Lake, with Arrow Lake comprising of the higher-powered offerings for the likes of gaming laptops).

In terms of performance, as already rumored we can expect a 14% uplift for IPC in Arrow Lake's big cores - and the efficiency cores will be driven ever harder with a 38% increase, no less.

Clock speeds will be somewhat toned down, though - to around the 5.5GHz area or thereabouts - as part of an effort to get the power envelope more under control with Intel's desktop CPUs, after pushing harder still with Raptor Lake Refresh in this regard.

Expect TDPs of Arrow Lake processors to be 80% of Raptor Lake, so considerably tamer, which is great news for trying to keep these chips cool (and it doesn't hurt to have a little less on your utility bill, either, if you have your PC on most of the time like many enthusiasts do).

Meeting the Ryzen challenge

How does all this compare to Zen 5 processors from AMD? Well, Ryzen 9000 chips have just been revealed at Computex, with four CPUs initially set to debut, and funnily enough, the IPC gains promised are very much in the same ballpark as Arrow Lake here (just a touch more at 16% on average, gen-on-gen).

The key point for AMD is that Ryzen 9000 processors will arrive on shelves in July, so they're just a month away now. However, Arrow Lake will only be three months behind that - assuming both that this rumor is right, and Intel's intended schedule stays on track, of course.

That's a gap which is just about manageable, we'd say, and we certainly had fears that Arrow Lake wouldn't be out until later in 2024, perhaps - which could still happen, as noted, and would pretty much be a disaster for Team Blue.

However, even if the next-gen CPU launches pan out just like this, Intel still has a steep hill to climb in terms of AMD potentially springing Ryzen 9000 X3D models perhaps not long after Arrow Lake has arrived.

Naturally, a lot will depend on exactly how these rival CPUs stack up, and relative pricing to boot, where Intel could always go more aggressive if needed. Particularly as Arrow Lake will be coming to market after Zen 5, so Team Blue will be able to see a clear lay of the land, as it were. Interesting times ahead, no doubt.

Read more: Here's all the latest news from Computex 2024