Intel's Arrow Lake CPU lineup hasn't performed well in terms of consumer adoption, but for those unaware, a refresh is planned for the series, according to rumors that have been building over the past few months. The Arrow Lake Refresh "Core Ultra 200S Plus" lineup is set to be Intel's next primary offering for the desktop CPU market. It will follow a similar approach to what we saw with Raptor Lake Refresh SKUs, which featured higher clock speeds than the original models and minimal changes to the core configurations.
Intel's Arrow Lake "Refresh" Lineup: The Intent
The value proposition of Intel's Core Ultra 200 series has been a disappointing one, especially when you compare them against AMD's Ryzen 9000 offerings, since during the initial launch days of Intel's Arrow Lake lineup, we saw performance figures that were way short of what was claimed by the company, and to address this issue, Intel had to push out new microcode updates. However, by then, the damage had probably been done, and as a result, AMD's Zen 5 CPU offerings, notably the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, became the preferred choice among gamers in the market.
With Arrow Lake "Refresh", Intel isn't expected to bring a significant boost in performance, mainly since the on-paper configurations will likely remain similar to the Core Ultra 200 counterparts, but since it will be a newer release, hopefully without launch-day issues, Intel might expect it to do better relative to how Arrow Lake performed. We have already seen this happen once the 13th Gen and 14th Gen refresh models entered the market; hence, the Core Ultra 200S Plus could be a consumer-oriented platform, but that remains to be seen for now.
Typically, when Intel prepares for 'massive' consumer CPU launches, it introduces an intermediate lineup in between, such as the ARL-Refresh we are discussing. Team Blue's next major desktop CPU release is the Nova Lake-S lineup, which will feature several upgrades and a rework from the ground up; hence, ARL-Refresh is just a 'placeholder' release to prepare for the more aggressive Nova Lake lineup.
Intel's Arrow Lake "Refresh" Lineup: Three SKUs Revealed For Now, Including Core Ultra 9, Ultra 7, And Ultra 5 Models
The first major SKU in the Core Ultra 200S Plus lineup is the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, the successor to the Core Ultra 9 285K. This chip is expected to retain the same configuration as its Arrow Lake counterpart, with 24 cores and 24 threads, but with higher clock speeds. You are looking at a 100 MHz higher Max P-Core frequency as well as up to 5.8 GHz Thermal Velocity Boost (100 MHz higher than 285K).
The second model is the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, an upgrade from the 265K counterpart. The major difference here is that Intel will bring four additional E-cores onboard. So, you will have 24 cores onboard, comprising eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, which means that the 270K will be the more attractive option to consider when evaluating the performance improvement over Arrow Lake. This feels similar to the jump Intel made going from the Intel Core i7-13700K to the i7-14700K, as the latter was the only SKU to receive an actual core count upgrade in the entire Raptor Lake Refresh family.
In the Core Ultra 5 family, Arrow Lake Refresh will feature the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, which not only adds four additional E-cores but also increases the Max P-core frequency by 100 MHz. This makes it an 18-core CPU, sitting between the Core Ultra 7 265K and the Core Ultra 5 245K. These details clearly indicate that with the ARL-Refresh, Intel plans to make its Ultra 5 and Ultra 7 offerings dedicated to the mainstream market, as the E-core count boost will undoubtedly improve gaming performance across various scenarios.
That said, the Arrow Lake Refresh lineup will also bring better memory support and will officially support 7200 MT/s. This represents a significant 800 MT/s increment over the current SKUs and should help DDR5 memory push its limits.
Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" and Arrow Lake Refresh CPU Specs:
| CPU | Cores/Threads | Base Clock (P/E Core) | Max Boost (P/E Core) | Cache (L3 / L2) | Memory Support | TDP (PL1 / PL2) | Price (SEP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Ultra 9 290K Plus | 24/24 (8+16) | 3.7 / 3.2 GHz | 5.8 / 4.8 GHz | 36 MB / 40 MB | DDR5-7200 | 125W / 250W | Cancelled |
| Core Ultra 9 285K | 24/24 (8+16) | 3.7 / 3.2 GHz | 5.7 / 4.6 GHz | 36 MB / 40 MB | DDR5-6400 | 125W / 250W | $589 US |
| Core Ultra 7 270K Plus | 24/24 (8+16) | 3.7 / 3.2 GHz | 5.5 / 4.7 GHz | 36 MB / 40 MB | DDR5-7200 | 125W / 250W | $299 US |
| Core Ultra 7 265K | 20/20 (8+12) | 3.9 / 3.3 GHz | 5.5 / 4.6 GHz | 30 MB / 36 MB | DDR5-6400 | 125W / 250W | $394 US |
| Core Ultra 7 265KF | 20/20 (8+12) | 3.9 / 3.3 GHz | 5.5 / 4.6 GHz | 30 MB / 36 MB | DDR5-6400 | 125W / 250W | $379 US |
| Core Ultra 5 250K Plus | 18/18 (6+12) | 4.2 / 3.5 GHz | 5.3 / 4.7 GHz | 24 MB / 26 MB ? | DDR5-7200 | 125W / 159W | $199 US |
| Core Ultra 5 245K | 14/14 (6+8) | 4.2 / 3.6 GHz | 5.2 / 4.6 GHz | 24 MB / 26 MB | DDR5-6400 | 125W / 159W | $309 US |
| Core Ultra 5 245KF | 14/14 (6+8) | 4.2 / 3.6 GHz | 5.2 / 4.6 GHz | 24 MB / 26 MB | DDR5-6400 | 125W / 159W | $294 US |
Intel's Arrow Lake "Refresh" Lineup: Expected Performance
The ARL-Refresh isn't a lineup that has been discussed much, but fortunately, we did see a Geekbench leak surface around the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, which was tested on a Gigabyte Z890 Eagle WIFI7 motherboard with 64 GB of DDR5 memory operating at 4800 MT/s speeds. Here are the disclosed single-threaded and multi-threaded scores, which look interesting.
Geekbench 6 ST
Geekbench 6 MT
Based on the above scores, the Core Ultra 7 270K actually gives the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K a competitive fight, surpassing it in ST benchmarks but falling behind in MT. Compared to the Core Ultra 7 265K, you are looking at around a 5% performance bump, which could be more evident in gaming benchmarks, thanks to the extra power from the additional E-cores. For now, we haven't seen performance data for the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, but the performance difference is expected to be similar to what we observed with the 270K.
[Update #1]: We now have newer benchmarks for Intel's "Arrow Lake Refresh" Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, which is known to be the flagship variant in the entire lineup. Based on newer Geekbench results, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus was tested on a Gigabyte Z890 AORUS Tachyon ICE motherboard with 48 GB of DDR5-8000 memory, and here's how the performance numbers look:
Geekbench 6 (Higher is Better)
We are looking at almost 7% uplift in ST and 9% uplift in MT tests versus the Core Ultra 9 285K, and compared to AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D, the 290K Plus offers a 2% improvement in single-core and an 11% improvement in multi-core tasks. Initial benchmarks clearly indicate that the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is shaping up to be a solid refresh SKU, with more focus towards multi-core performance.
Arrow Lake "Refresh" Release Date, Launch Timeline and Pricing
Intel's Core Ultra 200S Plus lineup is officially confirmed to launch at CES 2026, marking Intel's desktop CPU offering alongside the powerful Panther Lake. We haven't seen any leaks on the pricing of these SKUs, but Intel is expected to set prices similar to those of the ARL counterparts, and the first retail listings reflect that.
Intel could make these offerings more competitive by maintaining consistent prices. It is also reported that Intel might drop the 290K Plus from the lineup and instead go with two mainstream models: the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. The Arrow Lake Refresh "Core Ultra 200S Plus" lineup is slated for launch in late March (23rd).
[Update #2]: Intel has finally launched the Arrow Lake Refresh SKUs, but interestingly, the showcase is limited to two models. This includes the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus & the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, and it appears Team Blue did limit the launch more than expected. The ARL-Refresh launch also includes a new optimization suite, the Binary Optimization Tool, which focuses solely on enhancing enthusiast performance across supported workloads. This is Intel's 'unofficial' replacement for APO, and based on what we have seen, it works.
The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus will be available for $299, while the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus will be available for $199.
