Detailed Intel 15th gen Arrow Lake leak suggests massive 20% IPC uplift over Meteor Lake alongside "large" efficiency improvements
Expected to come out in the second half of 2024, Intel’s 15th gen Arrow Lake processors will use the Intel 20A/TSMC N3 process. Reports from last year suggest that the Arrow Lake CPUs will bring huge IPC gains over the 13th gen Raptor Lake and the upcoming 14th gen Meteor Lake chips. For instance, Moore’s Law is Dead has claimed previously that Arrow Lake’s “Lion Cove” P-cores will enjoy a 22-34% IPC uplift over Meteor Lake’s “Redwood Cove” P-cores. Additionally, the 15th gen “Skymont” E-cores are also purported to experience a generational IPC boost over the 14th gen “Crestmont” E-cores.
Now, Paul from RedGamingTech reports that, with the Lion Cove P-cores, we are indeed looking at about a 20% IPC uplift over Meteor Lake’s Redwood Cove and a stunning 45% over Alder Lake’s “Golden Cove” P-cores. However, just like MLID’s report, Paul hasn’t shared any numbers for the Skymont E-cores' IPC as he only mentions that the cores are “extremely impressive”.
Furthermore, Arrow Lake will reportedly be a big jump in terms of efficiency. If true, it could be an indication that Intel is getting increasingly serious about performance/watt, as we recently reported that Meteor Lake CPUs could be north of 1.5x more efficient compared to Raptor Lake.
Moving on to hardware specs, Paul alleges that the desktop ARL-S processor will top out at 24 cores (8 P-cores + 16 E-cores), as the 40-core (8 P-cores + 32 E-core) SKU has been canned to “simplify power delivery”. It is important to note that Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake are expected to share the same LGA 1851 socket which could explain Intel’s attempts to simplify power delivery.
Sadly, the clock speed information is still under wraps but Paul thinks that Arrow Lake's frequencies could be higher than Meteor Lake. Meteor Lake CPUs are rumored to experience a slight frequency downgrade vs Raptor Lake. So, it will be interesting to see whether Arrow Lake can exceed the clock speeds offered by the 13th gen Raptor Lake which can now go up to an insane 6 GHz out of the factory.
It bears repeating that Raptor Lake CPUs are still relatively new which is why Intel is yet to officially reveal any information regarding the specs of upcoming architectures. Therefore, take the rumors detailed here with caution.