Intel "Arrow Lake-S Refresh" CPUs Mentioned in "W880" Workstation Motherboard Chart

[T0@st]

We have not heard much about Intel's much-debated "Arrow Lake-S Refresh" (or ARL-S Refresh) desktop CPU family in the second quarter of this year. Going back to March, Golden Pig Upgrade predicted another revival of Team Blue's troubled mid-gen update—aka the Core Ultra 300 series. A week or two later, Jaykihn—another tenured discloser of inside track info—theorized an upcoming lineup of "-K and -KF only" SKUs. Hardcore PC hardware enthusiasts and overclockers will likely welcome these unlocked offerings, but an alleged lack of "normal" refreshed options will sting certain consumer bases. The ever intrepid momomo_us has discovered an interesting tidbit; bringing and end to two+ months of "Arrow Lake-S Refresh" silence.

A leaked "W880 PCH" workstation-grade motherboard flow diagram mentions support for "Arrow Lake-S Refresh." This is under the banner of "Core Ultra (Series 2) processors up to 125 W TDP." Unsurprisingly, we are looking at repeat business with the current generation's LGA 1851 socket platform. Intel is still working on the "Nova Lake‑S" (NVL‑S) CPU range; serving as a natural successor to their "Arrow Lake-S" desktop lineup. Lately, data miners have unearthed details regarding a matching "LGA 1954" socket type. According to official announcements, "Nova Lake" processors are "on track" to launch somewhere within 2026. Before then, "Arrow Lake-S Refresh" CPUs are expected to arrive later this year—possibly signalling the final tranche of "ARL."




The first wave launched late last October, but was not well received by PC gamers. Late last month, Team Blue rolled out a "200S Boost" factory-approved overclocking profile for unlocked Core Ultra 200S desktop processors. Around early May, the North American giant announced price cuts—in an effort to make their current-gen offerings appear more attractive to discerning buyers. We are many months away from a rumored retail release of refreshed variants, so speculative MSRPs have not yet turned up online.

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[FreedomEclipse]

**Crys in W880**

 

[Chaitanya]

**Crys in W880**

View attachment 401876

Those were the fun days and Sony phones were actually great compared to competition.

 

[Daven]

Someone needs to tell Gigabyte it’s Trillion or Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS). Shortening to TOP doesn’t make any sense.

 

[Tea_n_Crumpets]

So following the (let's be honest here, pretty damn embarrasing) launch of Arrow Lake-S, Nova Lake-S might be on an entirely new socket? I swear, sometimes I really wanna try some of what Intel is smoking...

 

[oddrobert]

**Crys in W880**

View attachment 401876

So they're still figuring out GAAFET( remember those promises about 2024 amiability, leaving the hard part (manufacturing) to the big players—TSMC—right? (When will it be ready? 2027?)".
Computing has gotten so weird—worse performance for higher prices. At this point, just be grateful you can buy anything at all (sigh). It’s not like this console generation even offers anything sustainably better anyway, but in 2028 it will deliver something new.

 

[Squared]

If they move the Arrow Lake-S compute tile from TSMC N3B to N3X, then that could make a very impressive "refresh".

 

[RandallFlagg]

The real problem right now seems to be how many different generations of CPUs are in the retail space, both laptops and OEM desktops.

I had to search for a laptop yesterday, and I kept tripping over the variety of CPUs. Tiger Lake on a brand new laptop is a thing, and on the AMD side you need a decoder to figure out that at 7730U is basically a rebranded Zen 3 5825U from Q1 2022 - literally released 3 1/2 years ago.

On to OEM desktops, Best Buy's #1 selling desktop is a 14th gen Intel (fine), but their 2nd best seller is a 12th gen with a 3 year old chip? And #3 is an actual 5000 series Zen 3. That is a 4 1/2 year old CPU.

Consumers have no idea they are buying 3 and 4 year old CPUs on these brand new boxes. Both Intel and AMD seem to have a racket going with the OEMs to keep bringing in cash from their bloated supply of old CPUs.

 

[oddrobert]

If they move the Arrow Lake-S compute tile from TSMC N3B to N3X, then that could make a very impressive "refresh".

It seems like the industry is on hold, milking profits until GAAFET (Gate-All-Around FET) arrives—bringing another 5-year leap in performance and a new upgrade cycle. Until then, modest specs like 12GB GDDR6, 6700 XT-tier GPU power (good enough for PS6), and 6 to 8 solid CPU cores will do the job.

Meanwhile, most gamers will likely shift to 1440p VRR displays in the coming years. I used to be ahead of the curve, but I’m definitely not jumping to 4K anytime soon.

For now, a 1440p Mini-LED IPS display with good VRR (no flicker or smearing) is the best I can realistically hope for in coming years.(severely downgrading my GPU expectations)