Intel doesn't have a new generation of desktop processors launching this year, but we could still see new CPUs before the year is over. A little over a week ago, ZDNet Korea reported that Intel is working on a refresh to its Arrow Lake-S desktop processors like the Core Ultra 9 285K. Supposedly launching in the second half of the year, the Arrow Lake refresh was originally rumored to come with a slight bump to clock speeds and a redesigned NPU to meet Copilot+ requirements in desktops. According to leaker Jaykihn (spotted by VideoCardz), however, Intel has apparently scrapped the NPU plan.

Intel's Arrow Lake refresh looks like no more than a clock speed bump

Not even on the level of Raptor Lake refresh

Intel is no stranger to refreshing older architectures for new CPU releases; a practice that it's even found itself in hot water for in the past. So, it's not surprising that we'd see an Arrow Lake refresh. You could argue that it's even expected. What's unexpected is how minor this refresh is supposed to be. Originally, rumors suggested the Arrow Lake refresh could push out a new core configuration for Intel, featuring a flagship with eight performance cores and 32 efficiency cores, along with the NPU reporting from ZDNet. Now, Jaykihn suggests the refresh offers no more than a bump to clock speed.

14th-gen Raptor Lake refresh was the last time Intel put out an older architecture under a new generation, and 14th-gen CPUs were mostly 13th-gen CPUs with higher clock speeds, short of Core i7 models, which saw a bump from eight efficiency cores to 12. It doesn't look like Arrow Lake will get the same bump, but Arrow Lake is also much more capable when it comes to overclocking. You can push chips like the Core Ultra 7 265K very far, not only with the core clock speed, but also high memory speeds. Intel might be able to offer a decent performance improvement solely from clock speed with Arrow Lake refresh.

According to Jaykihn, the Arrow Lake refresh will focus exclusively on K and KF models, and it won't use new model names. We're getting a refresh of an older architecture this year, but hopefully Intel won't package and sell it as an entirely new generation.

Intel hasn't confirmed that it's refreshing Arrow Lake desktop processors yet, but if they arrive in the second half of the year, you should expect to see them around the fall. That's when 14th-gen CPUs arrived, and it's usually when Intel launches a new generation of desktop processors. If we do see them, they should be compatible with previous LGA 1851 motherboards.