Intel exec says Arrow Lake launch ‘just didn’t go as planned’

Reviews of Intel’s new Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 9 200S-series processor have been lackluster, specifically when it comes to gaming performance, but Intel says that’s not the end of the story. Its new chips should be performing better, and the company will have an ETA on getting them there soon, according to Robert Hallock, Intel’s VP and GM of client AI and technical marketing, in a new interview with HotHardware’s Dave Altavilla and Marco Chiappetta.

Intel was up-front in saying these new chips wouldn’t beat AMD’s chips for gaming. But reviewers’ findings have been unexpectedly poor. Despite some efficiency gains like those noted in Tom Warren’s Verge review of the Core Ultra 9 285K, the new chip seems to lag behind even Intel’s earlier Raptor Lake chips in gaming. That’s to say nothing of its performance versus AMD’s very good Ryzen 9800X3D.

Intel’s Arrow Lake chips’ “bones are solid,” Hallock said during the interview. Still, the company has identified factors “that can combine to produce some pretty wild unintended effects.” Hallock was also clear that the new Arrow Lake performance issues are strictly Intel’s responsibility, and not the fault of Microsoft or anyone else.

As for when Intel will provide an ETA on fixes, Hallock said Intel hopes to give a “comprehensive update” on what the chip’s issues are and what’s causing them by the end of November or early December. The good news is that the fix will be easy, according to Hallock, who called it a “flash the BIOS and update Windows kinda situation.”