Intel Launches New Core Ultra 200S Series Desktop CPUs for AI PCs

Intel introduced today its first Core Ultra desktop processors for AI PCs, the new Core Ultra 200S series family that will be available starting October 24. Intel’s new desktop processors (codenamed “Arrow Lake-S”) complete the new “Lunar Lake” Core Ultra 200V mobile CPUs for Copilot+ PCs that the company announced last month.

Intel’s Core Ultra 200S series processors are the company’s first desktop CPUs to integrate a neural processing unit (NPU) for AI workloads. This NPU can deliver up to 13 trillion operations pers second (TOPS) of AI performance, which won’t be enough to support the new Copilot+ PC features on Windows 11 that require an NPU with 40+ TOPS. However, Intel still promises up to 50% faster performance in AI-enabled creator applications.

While Intel finally shipping desktop chips for AI enthusiasts is nice, what should really matter is the power efficiency improvements that Intel is promising with its latest CPUs. “The new Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors deliver on our goals to significantly cut power usage while retaining outstanding gaming performance and delivering leadership compute,” said Robert Hallock, vice president and general manager of AI and Technical Marketing, Client Computing Group. “The result is a cooler and quieter user experience elevated by new AI gaming and creation capabilities enabled by the NPU, and leadership media performance that leverages our growing graphics portfolio.”

The lineup of Intel’s Core Ultra 200S series processors include 5 different SKUs, with the top-of-the-line Core Ultra 9 285K offering 24 cores (8 P-cores and 16 E-cores), 24 threads, and 5.7 GHz maximum frequency. These next-gen CPU cores should deliver up to 6% faster single-threaded and up to 14% faster multi-threaded performance over the previous generation.

This flagship Core Ultra 9 chip is completed by two Core Ultra 7 chips with just 20 CPU cores, and two Core Ultra chips with only 14 CPU cores. You can see the full details for the 5 SKUs below:

Intel claims that its new Core Ultra 200S desktop CPUs consume up to 58% less power in “everyday applications,” adding that power consumption is up to 165W lower while playing games. Still, Intel says that its latest desktop chips offer an up to 28% uplift in gaming performance compared to AMD’s flagship Ryzen 9 9950X. The chip maker also highlighted more granular overclocking controls on its latest desktop chips.

Intel’s Core Ultra 200S series chips will start at $294 for the baseline Core Ultra 5 245KF chip, with the flasghip Core Ultra 9 285K priced at $589. The company also teased today the upcoming launch of Core Ultra H and HX series mobile chips in the first quarter of 2025.