Tuesday, July 2nd 2024
Intel "Arrow Lake-S" Engineering Sample Posts Over 25% 1T Perf Gain Over i9-13900K, Falls Behind in nT
An unnamed Intel Core Ultra "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processor engineering sample (ES) made it to the hands of someone willing to post its CPU-Z Bench screenshot. The processor allegedly scores a whopping 1143.2 points in the CPU-Bench single-thread benchmark; and 12922.4 points in the multithreaded benchmark. When compared with the internal Intel Core i9-13900K reference scores of CPU-Z, the single-thread benchmark score is a staggering 26.71% increase over that of the i9-13900K (902 points); while the multithreaded score is 22% lower.
Since we don't know which processor model this "Arrow Lake-S" ES is, we have no way of telling if it is the top SKU with its rumored 8P+16E core configuration, or a mid-tier Core i5 SKU with the expected 6P+8E configuration. The single-threaded test only loads one P-core, and here the IPC of one of the chip's "Lion Cove" P-cores is able to trounce one of the "Raptor Cove" P-cores of the i9-13900K reference score. You also have to understand that the Hyper-Threading plays no role in this thread. Where it could play a role is the multithreaded test. "Lion Cove" lacks HTT support unlike "Raptor Cove," and the i9-13900K is a 24-core/32-thread processor. It's important to note here, that "Arrow Lake" doesn't just have up to 8 "Lion Cove" P-cores, but also up to 16 "Skymont" E-cores that Intel claims to have achieved a massive IPC gain over its predecessor, bringing its IPC in the league of past-generation P-cores such as the "Raptor Cove" or "Golden Cove."
Source:
Wccftech
Since we don't know which processor model this "Arrow Lake-S" ES is, we have no way of telling if it is the top SKU with its rumored 8P+16E core configuration, or a mid-tier Core i5 SKU with the expected 6P+8E configuration. The single-threaded test only loads one P-core, and here the IPC of one of the chip's "Lion Cove" P-cores is able to trounce one of the "Raptor Cove" P-cores of the i9-13900K reference score. You also have to understand that the Hyper-Threading plays no role in this thread. Where it could play a role is the multithreaded test. "Lion Cove" lacks HTT support unlike "Raptor Cove," and the i9-13900K is a 24-core/32-thread processor. It's important to note here, that "Arrow Lake" doesn't just have up to 8 "Lion Cove" P-cores, but also up to 16 "Skymont" E-cores that Intel claims to have achieved a massive IPC gain over its predecessor, bringing its IPC in the league of past-generation P-cores such as the "Raptor Cove" or "Golden Cove."
72 Comments on Intel "Arrow Lake-S" Engineering Sample Posts Over 25% 1T Perf Gain Over i9-13900K, Falls Behind in nT
Making a PS6 with only 8 cores, 4 normal, 4 castrated for "reasons" and all having HT removed so only 8 threads are supported would be a colossal downgrade, even if those cores were running a 6GHz. Plus, now all games would have to be re-compiled, and backwards compatibility would have to be emulated for the vast majority as performance issues would be prevalent in such a design, and soon that 6GHz will wish it was 12GHz pretty fast!
I don't get why Intel kids hate HT now, Intel invented the bloody thing in the first place! Go and benchmark your system right now, a mix of productivity and gaming, write the results down then go into your BIOS and turn HT off and repeat your benchmarks then come back here and post your honest results. I promise you that many benches, the vast majority would lower by at least 20% with some being affected more.
I don't want to live in your dystopian world where I cream my pants for a 1P 8E CPU, even if it's running at 12GHz!!!
You do understand why E cores exist in the first place don't you? You do understand that?
I think on average though it's going to be more serviceable with the hefty ST uplift. If things shift a bit more heavily to heavier MT it might be a little more dubious in relative terms, but if priced better doesn't really matter. Also whatever tweaks have been done to IMC and/or IGP and things along with chipset features. Will have to see how it stacks up against the new Zen chips, but isn't looking terrible.
I mean people were complaining vocally that they wanted more P cores essentially for higher ST and this is pretty much that coincidentally though they went about things differently. It looks like a solid change and concession by Intel and if this is merely the i5 SKU this is looking rather nice probably to people looking to a build a system in the near future.
purely hypothetically if the 14% IPC is translated into say a 13900KS 1T (stock is around ~950 1T afaik) and so it would likely be in the range of ~1080 score which would be cool to see a CPU break the 4 digit mark on 1T CPU-Z anyway.
But hey iPod was like 8 years before Windows 7 so I think we can get another 8 years out of the 3/5/7/9 naming scheme before they realize it's dated.
It's speculation on my part that Arrow Lake-S will have it but that seems very reasonable to assume.
Certainly Lion Cove in server parts will have HT.
Single core performance is still king in mainstream consumer workloads, raptor lake and alder lake are too emphasised on cinebench type performance which contributes to the amount of energy they can absorb and heat produced.
If you was to offer me today e.g. a 13700k with no HTT support but 25% better single core, snap your hand off. Yep, although I think this sample isnt a 8/16 chip.
Here is some notes from some maths I did.
HTT aside from being a complete security mess, are not actual cores, its just an extra thread allowed on the core where the second thread might be able to process something if the first thread is waiting for an i/o response. It works "ok" in specific workloads and is useless in "most" workloads. Its also power inefficient.
E-cores are actual physical cores, even though they not as fast as p-cores they will always offer more performance than a 2nd logical thread even under ideal HTT conditions. Also with e-cores being a different performance class on the windows scheduler, it can automatically move background processes to e-cores whilst keeping foreground processes on the p-cores which offers scheduling advantages. Same as what phones do.
Its nothing to do with fanboyism but rather progress. Not sure why you using terms like intel kids.
Not sure I want a 1P + 8E gaming CPU though, I prefer to keep top end chips as 8P, but no need to go above 8P in my opinion. Anything over that should just be e-cores, and reduce down to 4E from 8E/16E, add cache in the saved silicon and you have a beast of a CPU. Also the N100 which is an e-core only chip is proving very popular in the NUC community, most powerful portable Intel chip I have ever used.