Intel is planning a refreshed lineup of new Intel gaming CPUs aimed at gaming enthusiasts, according to a new rumor. The Intel Arrow Lake refresh will apparently deliver new overclockable K and KF-series Intel Core Ultra CPUs for gamers and enthusiasts. The company is also reportedly planning to issue new motherboard BIOS updates to improve the gaming performance of existing Intel Core Ultra 200 CPUs.
It’s fair to say that Intel has fallen behind in recent years, unable to shift AMD from its pedestal and challenge with the best gaming CPUs. As our Intel Core Ultra 7 265K review showed, the Intel Core Ultra 200 lineup simply hasn’t been competitive from a gaming perspective compared to the likes of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, offering poorer performance for gamers.
According to a post on X (formerly Twitter) by hardware leaker jaykihn0, the Arrow Lake S refresh will focus on unlocked K and KF series CPUs that allow for overclocking. The post also goes on to say that “opt-in uplifts” will be delivered for current Core Ultra 200 K and KF CPUs, with jaykhin0 explaining in a later comment that these will be “BIOS presets for performance profiles within warranty” that differ from Intel BIOS updates already introduced for this lineup.
Jaykihn0 doesn’t provide any other information about the scope of these potential changes. However, a recent Intel Arrow Lake refresh rumor suggested that a new Intel Core Ultra 300 lineup could include stronger neural processing units (NPUs) for improved AI performance.
Intel hasn’t confirmed any details so far, but a hardware refresh could be advantageous for gamers if it can nail down performance. The company has already delivered several Arrow Lake CPU updates to the existing lineup in the form of BIOS updates to help deliver performance boosts, so it will be interesting to see what further BIOS updates can do to improve performance further for existing owners.
In the meantime, we’ll be waiting to see whether Intel can turn this troubled CPU series around and provide an answer to the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Check out our 9800X3D review next to see why we’re recommending that CPU over any chips that Intel has to offer right now.
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