Intel chief financial officer (CFO) David Zinsner has just confirmed that “another wave” of Intel Arrow Lake CPUs is indeed on the way, plugging the gap between the company’s current Core Ultra 200-series chips and its next-gen Nova Lake processors. There have been rumors about an Intel Arrow Lake refresh for a number of months now, but this is the first time that it’s been publicly acknowledged by anyone at Intel.
The first wave of Arrow Lake CPUs saw Intel make huge strides when it comes to thermals and power efficiency, but, as I found in my Core Ultra 7 265K review, these chips also really struggle to compete with the latest AMD CPUs when it comes to gaming. With higher clock speeds, it’s possible that Intel could start to close the gap with a new Arrow Lake refresh lineup, but it’s the forthcoming Intel Nova Lake architecture that really has the potential to change Intel’s fortunes when it comes to desktop PC gaming.
Presenting at Citi’s 2025 Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Conference, Zinsner discussed Intel’s new in-house 18A manufacturing process, which it will be using to make its new Panther Lake and Nova Lake CPUs, while the core chiplet fabrication for its Arrow Lake CPUs is currently outsourced to TSMC.
“We still have some work to do on the client side on the portfolio,” admitted Zinsner (spotted by Wccftech), before adding that “there’s another wave of Arrow Lake that we’ll see. But it’s not till Nova Lake that really, I think we have completely addressed that situation. And so we would expect to get to a pretty good place as we get into Nova Lake, and Nova Lake will have 18A as well.”
Zinsner didn’t share any more details about the new Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs, but previous leaks have pointed to improved AI performance for the NPU. However, this was later shot down by a further leak, which suggested that the main difference would be an increase in Arrow Lake refresh clock speeds. The new chips are also rumored to be retaining the Core Ultra 200-series branding of Intel’s current CPUs, with Core Ultra 300 reportedly skipping the desktop, and Core Ultra 400-series model numbers used for Intel’s next-gen Nova Lake CPUs.
All the word about clock speeds, model numbers, and NPU performance is all firmly in rumor territory, but we do know one thing for sure now – more Arrow Lake CPUs are coming, and that means there’s at least one potential upgrade path for owners of LGA1851 motherboards.
If you’re thinking of upgrading, then check out our guide to buying the best gaming CPU, as well as our best gaming motherboard guide, which covers both Intel and AMD sockets.
Are you tempted by a new lineup of Arrow Lake CPUs, or would you rather pick up an AMD X3D CPU? Let us know your thoughts on our community Discord server.
