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Something to look forward to: Intel is reportedly developing a lineup of mobile processors with powerful graphics to compete with AMD's upcoming Strix Halo. Dubbed "Arrow Lake Halo," these next-gen chips are designed for high-end laptops and feature a larger GPU compute tile, catering to both gamers and creators.
Arrow Lake Halo was first rumored two years ago, but there has been little information since then – until now. A 2022 report mentioned that these processors would feature 14 CPU cores, a 320EU GPU chipset, and a dedicated Adamantine L4 cache. The moniker has recently reappeared on a shipping manifest from China's NBD website, suggesting that the chips are already in transit.
According to the manifest, Arrow Lake Halo is designed for enthusiast mobile workstations and was tested on a Reference Evaluation Platform (RVP) in India. One listing also suggests they were manufactured in September 2023, although the only two entries are from last month. While details remain scarce, more information is expected in the near future.
In addition to Halo, the Arrow Lake lineup is expected to include the "S" series for desktops and the HX/H/U series for laptops. While Intel has not yet announced a definite launch date for the Arrow Lake processors, a recent leak suggests they could be officially unveiled on October 10. The lineup is rumored to be led by the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K, which recently appeared on Geekbench, showing a boost clock of up to 5.7GHz.
Alongside the 285K, Intel will likely introduce the more mainstream Core Ultra 7 265K and Core Ultra 5 245K, both of which will feature unlocked multipliers for overclocking. Additionally, Intel's motherboard partners are expected to announce their flagship LGA 1851 boards on the same day.
Meanwhile, AMD's Strix Halo lineup is anticipated to be more powerful than the current Strix Point CPUs. While the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU offers 12 Zen 5 cores and 24 threads, the Strix Point Halo flagship is rumored to feature 16 Zen 5 cores and 32 threads, likely running at higher clock speeds. The Strix Halo chips will also likely include an RDNA 3.5 iGPU with 40 compute units, a significant upgrade over the regular Strix Point chips, which feature RDNA 3.5 GPUs with up to 16 compute units.