Intel Arrow Lake-S “ES2” Desktop CPUs Offer 3% Single-Core & 15% Multi-Thread Uplift Over Raptor Lake

Intel's Arrow Lake-S engineering samples reportedly feature up to a 15% performance increase versus Raptor Lake CPUs.

We have seen some performance estimates for the Intel Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs in the past and now, @Jaykihn has shared new figures which are still based on early engineering samples, ES2 to be precise. The difference is that these are based on actual samples rather than being estimates like the ones we saw last year.

Starting with the information, the Intel Arrow Lake-S "ES2" Desktop CPU tested is an 8+16 SKU evaluated against a similar spec Raptor Lake chip (13th Gen) at 250W. Do note that this isn't a final TDP but rather used to evaluate the maximum potential of the chips at a set TDP. We've heard from our sources that the TDPs for the Arrow Lake-S chips will be lower than the 14th Generation (Raptor Lake-S Refresh) CPUs.

With ES2 (preliminarily), it’s +3% ST, +15% MT (marketing numbers, although it corresponds with my experience).That said, who knows how it’ll evolve over QS and the next few months.Moreover, that 6+8 CPU-Z “leak” is indeed fake.

— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) July 7, 2024

Perf, not IPC.ES2 8+16 vs 13900k, both 250W.

— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) July 7, 2024

Regarding performance, the Intel Arrow Lake-S "ES2" Desktop CPUs reportedly feature a +3% performance increase in single-thread and a +15% performance increase in multi-thread tests. It should also be pointed out that the single-thread increase isn't IPC but performance.

We currently don't know the exact IPC figure for the Lion Cove and Skymont Cores featured on Intel Arrow Lake-S CPUs but for Lunar Lake, the Lion Cove core features a +14% improvement while the Skymont Core is said to offer a +2% gain over Raptor Cove and that's in its LP-E configuration.

With the QS (Qualification Sample) revision which is the next step after ES2/Beta stage, we can even better performance so around +5% in single-core and close to +20% in multi-thread, and even those aren't the final PRQ (Production) silicon. Earlier, we disclosed that Intel's Arrow Lake-S top configs were rated at a maximum frequency of 5.5 GHz in ES state while the latest silicon is running at 5.7 GHz in terms of peak clocks.

A +5% or higher ST increase and close to 20% multi-thread increase will be a decent improvement for Arrow Lake-S CPUs over 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake chips. Of course, this is only a rumor for now but we can expect more information soon as Intel would like to offer a heated battle to AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9000 CPUs based on the Zen 5 core architecture which launch months ahead. Zen 5 is expected to hit shelves later this month while Intel's Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs are targeting a October release along with the new Z890 motherboards.