If recent rumors are true, Intel appears to have changed its plans for desktop CPUs and no longer has an Arrow Lake refresh in the works. You may remember that Intel's next generation of CPUs, called Arrow Lake, is set to debut (October, supposedly). Rumor has it that Team Blue's upcoming silicon generation will be an Arrow Lake Refresh. As per Everest's X-ray, Arrow Lake Refresh has been canceled, according to leaker Panzerlied, a frequent contributor of hardware-related theories from the Chiphell forums.
What will take its place, then? Panzerlied says that absolutely nothing will happen; in 2025, Intel just won't bother developing new desktop chips. If the leaker is accurate, Team Blue will instead just look to release brand-new Nova Lake CPUs in 2026. Of course, this is all subject to some interpretation.
Intel usually releases new desktop CPUs every year, or roughly every other year. If a complete range of processors isn't released, Intel will still release a basic update, like the Raptor Lake Refresh, as was the situation with the current generation. According to Intel's previous plans, the reports of an Arrow Lake Refresh appeared to make sense as a prelude to the real next generation, Nova Lake; however, it doesn't appear like this is how things will work out.
Though there is much room for speculation, if we accept this most recent report at face value, it indicates that Intel will only be offering desktop processors from Arrow Lake for the next two years. As previously mentioned, in 2026, the desktop train will stop at Nova Lake. We had assumed that Nova Lake, the location of Intel's massive Royal Core project, would debut later in 2026. However, since there won't be a new desktop CPU lineup in 2025, it's possible that Intel will want to introduce Nova Lake earlier in 2026.
Naturally, a significant upgrade from Intel is required to compete with AMD's Zen 6 CPUs (Ryzen 10000?; perhaps a name change is necessary). primarily because Zen 6—which is anticipated to launch in 2026—is anticipated to represent a significant advancement for AMD in a manner akin to Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000), which was a significant step toward moving from the original Zen's 14nm process to a 7nm one.
It is possible that Intel is content to depend on the Arrow Lake desktop processor for the next two or three years, or that this is a reflection of Team Blue's growing emphasis on laptops and improving the efficiency of mobile processors (Lunar Lake sounds pretty awesome), rather than focusing on raw performance. Or, as we've already mentioned, this could all be useless chitchat from the gossip mill that proves to be untrue. In either case, proceed with caution.
No comments