Friday, August 16th 2024
Top Intel Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" Part Boost Clocks Surface
Intel Core Ultra "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors are expected to debut later this year, and introduce the new Lion Cove P-cores, along with Skymont E-cores to the desktop platform. Engineering samples and qualification samples with specs close to retail chips seem to already be in the hands of PC OEMs and motherboard vendors, given the volume of leaks over the past few days. Jaykihn0, one of the more influential sources of these leaks, revealed a few interesting details of the maximum boost frequencies of these chips.
The QS of a top Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" SKU, probably the flagship model that succeeds the current Core i9-14900K, is described as having a maximum P-core boost frequency of 5.70 GHz, and an all-P-core boost frequency of 5.40 GHz. The maximum E-core boost frequency, which is also the all-E-core boost frequency, is said to be 4.60 GHz. Let's unpack this. "Arrow Lake" uses the same mix of "Lion Cove" P-cores and "Skymont" E-cores as "Lunar Lake," albeit arranged along a ringbus, and sharing an L3 cache, unlike on "Lunar Lake," where the P-cores have their own exclusive L3 cache, and the E-cores are arranged in a low-power island, with the fabric of the SoC tile connecting the two.
We know from the "Lunar Lake" deep-dive from Intel, that the company claims a 14% IPC gain for "Lion Cove" over the previous generation "Redwood Cove" P-core found in "Meteor Lake." Given that "Redwood Cove" cores have been tested in the real world to offer roughly similar IPC to the "Raptor Cove" P-cores powering "Raptor Lake," if Intel's IPC claims for "Lion Cove" hold, then at 5.70 GHz, the P-cores of "Arrow Lake-S" should be 14% faster than "Raptor Cove." It's worth noting here that "Lion Cove" cores lack Hyper-Threading, but "Arrow Lake-S" has 8 of these, and as our recent "Zen 5 without SMT" article has shown, games largely aren't affected with the lack of SMT/HTT if the core count is as high as 8.
The cache sub-system of "Arrow Lake-S" is another interesting factor that could influence its gaming performance. Each "Lion Cove" P-core on the Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" is expected to have 3 MB of dedicated L2 cache, and the 8 P-cores share 36 MB of L3 cache along with the four "Skymont" E-core clusters. Thread Director tends to avoid scheduling game workloads on the E-cores, unless there are specific optimizations within the game that use them (eg: for processing game physics, audio DSPs, network stack, etc).
Intel has promised a massive IPC leap for the "Skymont" E-cores over the current "Gracemont," with the company claiming an IPC resembling that of the "Raptor Lake" P-core. Of course there are some riders—"Skymont" cores don't boost nearly as high as "Raptor Cove" P-cores do, even in this top Core Ultra 9 SKU, the maximum E-core boost frequency is a moderate 4.60 GHz. Also, the SPECrate2017 benchmark Intel uses in its IPC calculations isn't memory intensive; "Skymont" cores are clustered into groups of four cores, and made to share a 4 MB L2 cache on "Arrow Lake-S."
All in all, with these frequencies, the top Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" part seems to be gunning for the gaming performance leadership crown from AMD, which has held the bragging rights of selling the fastest gaming processor for 16 months now (since the April 2023 launch of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D).
Sources:
Jaykihn0 (Twitter), VideoCardz
The QS of a top Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" SKU, probably the flagship model that succeeds the current Core i9-14900K, is described as having a maximum P-core boost frequency of 5.70 GHz, and an all-P-core boost frequency of 5.40 GHz. The maximum E-core boost frequency, which is also the all-E-core boost frequency, is said to be 4.60 GHz. Let's unpack this. "Arrow Lake" uses the same mix of "Lion Cove" P-cores and "Skymont" E-cores as "Lunar Lake," albeit arranged along a ringbus, and sharing an L3 cache, unlike on "Lunar Lake," where the P-cores have their own exclusive L3 cache, and the E-cores are arranged in a low-power island, with the fabric of the SoC tile connecting the two.
The cache sub-system of "Arrow Lake-S" is another interesting factor that could influence its gaming performance. Each "Lion Cove" P-core on the Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" is expected to have 3 MB of dedicated L2 cache, and the 8 P-cores share 36 MB of L3 cache along with the four "Skymont" E-core clusters. Thread Director tends to avoid scheduling game workloads on the E-cores, unless there are specific optimizations within the game that use them (eg: for processing game physics, audio DSPs, network stack, etc).
Intel has promised a massive IPC leap for the "Skymont" E-cores over the current "Gracemont," with the company claiming an IPC resembling that of the "Raptor Lake" P-core. Of course there are some riders—"Skymont" cores don't boost nearly as high as "Raptor Cove" P-cores do, even in this top Core Ultra 9 SKU, the maximum E-core boost frequency is a moderate 4.60 GHz. Also, the SPECrate2017 benchmark Intel uses in its IPC calculations isn't memory intensive; "Skymont" cores are clustered into groups of four cores, and made to share a 4 MB L2 cache on "Arrow Lake-S."
All in all, with these frequencies, the top Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" part seems to be gunning for the gaming performance leadership crown from AMD, which has held the bragging rights of selling the fastest gaming processor for 16 months now (since the April 2023 launch of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D).
46 Comments on Top Intel Core Ultra 9 "Arrow Lake-S" Part Boost Clocks Surface
the Ryzen 9000X3D must be very good to save Zen 5 reputation
I still remember when Intel hired that random company to do early benchmarks and they crippled ryzen on purpose. Thankfully GN blew that all up lol.....
These companies man.....
Although, a reduction of clocks compared to 14th gen is a welcome feature considering the recent fiasco around stability issues.
Edit: typo
Now we are being told that no HT and E core complex will result in a faster chip.
I had my share of Issues with the Ryzen 5000 and 7000er Series, AMD Radeon 6000 and 7000er Series. Although I bought it very late.
Those websites hardly write anything about the "user experience" after 24 months (ryzen 5000) or after 12 months (ryzen 7000). For example what are the Known issues of processor, graphic card, mainboard after 12 or 24 month after a release. In windows 11 pro or from the power user linux perspective. (I do not want to see anything from a user who does not compile his own stuff and his own kernel and userspace)
I'm kinda gifted in buying mainboards, graphic cards, power supplies, network interface cards and processors with hidden flaws.
If you see something like 1.55V, that chip is going to die. 1.35V is already walking on thin ice and they should know better.
wccftech.com/intel-core-ultra-9-285k-arrow-lake-cpu-blazes-past-core-i9-14900ks-ryzen-9-9950x-benchmark-leak/
The "X3D" part is just a cache, so I would expect nearly IDENTICAL performance uplift from 9700X as from the 7700X to 7800X3D.
Keep in mind the Ryzen 9000 has a slightly different architecture that MAY see performance benefits relative to the 7000 series later if software takes advantage of it. But then all of Ryzen 9000 should benefit.
Anyway, Windows branch prediction yada yada aside, when the issues get sorted out my guess is roughly 10% or so in CPU bound scenarios above the 7800X3D. And a few specific use cases will exceed that.
The 9800X3D will probably be the best gaming CPU I'll end up recommending to those with the budget. I won't recommend 12/16-core AMD for gamers due to potential latency issues (plus, there's really no benefit unless you have other needs). And I can't trust Intel until they can rebuild said trust.
On the VALUE side the R7-5700X3D is an amazing CPU right now if the price makes sense (will vary but it was something like $230USD recently). Especially if you're invested in AM4 already. (i.e. upgrading from an R7-2700x would be amazing. double-check BIOS compatibility)