It looks as though the forthcoming Intel Core Ultra 300 gaming CPU lineup will require you to buy yet another new motherboard, as the company moves to its Nova Lake architecture. Following speculation that the Intel Core Ultra 300 range would be based on a refresh of the Arrow Lake architecture currently used in Core Ultra 200 chips, the latest rumor states that these new chips will actually still use the current 200-series branding.
Historically, Intel has sometimes pushed its model numbers up a generation when it launches a refresh of an existing CPU architecture. For example, the Core i9 14900K is based on a refresh of the same Raptor Lake architecture as the Core i9 13900K. However, it looks as though the company is going to make a clean break when it launches Nova Lake with Core Ultra 300 branding, with these new chips rumored to be using a new LGA1954 socket.
This latest rumor comes from regular Intel tech leaker jaykihn0, who states in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that “ARL-S and ARL-HX refreshes should be Core Ultra 200-series. Preliminary.” In this case, ARL-S refers to desktop Arrow Lake CPUs, while ARL-HX refers to high-end Arrow Lake laptop CPUs. The post responded to a predicted roadmap for Intel and AMD, which listed Arrow Lake refresh CPUs under the “Core Ultra 300?” banner.
Intel has previously released refreshes of CPUs with the same model number series, however. One example is when it released its Devil’s Canyon CPUs a year after its first Haswell CPUs, giving the new chips slightly higher model numbers than their predecessors, going from the Core i7 4770K to the 4790K, for example. As such, the top Arrow Lake refresh CPU could be called the Intel Core Ultra 295K, for example.
Of course, this is all based on rumor and speculation right now, as Intel hasn’t even confirmed the existence of its Arrow Lake refresh CPUs yet, never mind their model numbers. Intel has been giving its current Arrow Lake CPUs very competitive prices lately, however, as well as introducing its new Intel 200S boost overclocking feature to improve performance. If Intel can address gaming performance on the new chips, and price them competitively, there’s a chance they could get on our best gaming CPU guide in the future.
In the meantime, check out my Intel Core Ultra 7 265K review to see how the Arrow Lake architecture coped with our game benchmarks, as well as my guide on how to install a CPU, which runs you through the process of fitting your new chip.
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