Intel is introducing two desktop processors under the name Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus Series. Intel is tweaking the underlying Arrow Lake architecture without truly bringing a major innovation to the market.
Intel is launching two new desktop processors under the Core Ultra 200S Plus banner. The name says it all: the new CPUs build on the Core Ultra 200S desktop processors from 2024 and have nothing to do with the Panther Lake CPUs for laptops that the manufacturer launched earlier this year.
Arrow Lake reissued
Core Ultra 200S Plus is therefore built on the Arrow Lake architecture from 2024, and like other processors in that family, it is manufactured in a TSMC factory. Intel relies on its competitor’s N3B process for this.
Those waiting for a radical desktop innovation will have to wait a bit longer. Intel isn’t changing anything regarding the fundamental issues of Core Ultra 200 in that context. The chips in the series are excellent in laptops, thanks to their energy efficiency, but they still lack some raw computing power in a desktop context.
Faster
Intel does address this slightly with the upgrade. The processors are said to be about fifteen percent faster. This is partly due to the addition of four extra cores, although these are exclusively E-cores and not the P-cores that are much more relevant in a desktop context.
Several other improvements are also included. According to Intel, the speed between the CPU and memory controller has improved, and the chips support faster DDR5 memory (DDR5 7200 MT/s).
Two chips
The upgrade specifically consists of two components: the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. Intel has announced suggested retail prices of $299 and $199, respectively.
The launch of Core Ultra 200S Plus is a positive development: you get more horsepower for your money. However, the desktop chips clearly remain laptop processors built for efficiency, just in a different package. On paper, this upgrade does not offer a real answer to AMD’s more custom-built Ryzen processors.