Intel’s Arrow Lake-S chips hit the market last October. For many gamers and design pros, they didn’t quite live up to expectations. People felt they lacked the raw power needed for top-tier performance. Now, whispers from the tech world suggest Intel is gearing up for a quick follow-up. This “Arrow Lake Refresh” is reportedly set to arrive in the second half of 2025.
Good news for some users: these new processors will still fit into the LGA 1851 motherboard socket. They will also work with the existing 800 series chipsets. This means many people can upgrade their CPU without buying a whole new motherboard. This move also buys Intel some time before their next big platform, Nova Lake, is expected in 2026.
More Speed and Smarter AI
The big change in this refresh focuses on two areas. First, there’s a small speed bump for both the CPU and the built-in graphics. Intel achieved this by making their Intel 20A process and RibbonFET technology more efficient. This could mean a bit more performance for tasks that use many processor cores or for rendering images.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, the chips will get a stronger Neural Processing Unit, or NPU. The Arrow Lake Refresh will swap out the older NPU 3 for the more powerful NPU 4. This is the same NPU found in Intel’s Lunar Lake mobile chips. This upgrade boosts local AI performance up to 48 TOPS. It also makes these new processors compatible with Microsoft’s Copilot+ certification.
What This Means for You
Experts are quick to point out that this refresh isn’t a massive leap forward. The basic design of the chips stays the same. The small speed increases and improved AI features likely won’t put Arrow Lake Refresh ahead of competitors like AMD’s Zen 6 chips. For serious gamers, many might still prefer CPUs designed specifically for gaming, such as AMD’s Ryzen 9000X3D or even Intel’s older Raptor Lake Refresh chips.
According to reports from WCCFTech, this update mainly targets a specific group of users:
- People who already own a computer with an LGA 1851 motherboard and want to add AI features without swapping their main board.
- Professionals who use local AI workloads, like editing software that uses AI, image recognition, or automation.
- Anyone looking for a decent upgrade without waiting for Intel’s future Nova Lake platform.
However, if you’re looking for huge jumps in raw processor speed or top-tier gaming performance, you might be better off looking at other options. Or, you could just wait for Nova Lake to arrive in 2026. This refresh seems more about adding smart AI capabilities than winning the overall speed race.