Intel Releases Arrow Lake CPU Updates to Fix Performance Issues

Intel has issued performance fixes for its Arrow Lake CPUs that are claimed to fix most of the issues that were identified by the chipmaker. The Intel Core Ultra 200S processors that were launched in October were criticised after benchmark test scores did not match the company's claims when it unveiled the chips. After investigating the issue, Intel says that it found five issues that could have caused the performance issues, and most of these can be resolved by installing the newly released updates.

Intel Fixes Four Out of Five Issues Affecting Arrow Lake CPUs

Intel explains in a blog post that it has identified five issues that affect the performance of its Core Ultra 200S processors that were unveiled in October. The chipmaker has determined the root cause of these performance issues, and it is now rolling out software patches that resolve four out of the five identified issues.

Intel says its updates restore "complete and intended functionality" (tap to expand)
Photo Credit: Intel

The chipmaker says that its firmware for the Arrow Lake CPUs was missing a Performance & Power Management (PPM) package, while the Application Performance Optimizer (APO) that enables real-time thread scheduling optimisation could not take effect. Both of these issues have been fixed with Windows 11 build 26100.2161, which is part of the KB5044384 update.

Meanwhile, Intel says that Epic Games is rolling out an updated Easy Anti-Cheat driver that fixes the blue screen of death (BSOD) issue that affected the new Core Ultra 200S CPUs when a game using the Easy Anti-Cheat service was launched.

The latest BIOS releases for Intel Z890-based motherboards will also fix another issue that affected from reviewers' PCs where some performance settings were misconfigured. Intel says that the BIOS updates will now use the optimal settings for elevated performance.

Fix for Fifth Performance Issue Expected to Roll Out in January

The fifth issue detected by Intel is related to optimisations that were not ready for release by the time issued the other four fixes. These optimisations are part of a new firmware image that is still being evaluated by Intel, and the chipmaker says BIOS images for affected motherboards should be available in the first half of January 2025.

At CES 2025, Intel will also provide a detailed issue-by-issue A/B analysis along with details of how the performance of its chipsets. The company says that it has restored "complete and intended functionality" of its chipsets, with the four fixes that are rolling out to users.