While Intel's 13th and 14th generation CPUs have been the focus of much attention due to instability issues, there has been little mention of the upcoming Intel 15th generation (codenamed Arrow Lake) processors. These chips should appear by the end of the year and should form the next generation of Intel desktop (Core) and laptop (Core Ultra and Core H) chips. We are currently hearing rumors that they may be much more efficient than the current generation of chips.

According to Chinese tech blogger Little Pigeon's summary of a recent joint Intel and Asus conference (via VideoCardz), 15th generation Intel CPUs should deliver "at least 100W less power consumption while maintaining high frequency According to the company, the 15th generation Intel CPUs should deliver "at least 100W less power consumption while maintaining high frequency. Also, according to Wccftech's machine translation, these next-generation processors "will not have the previous overvoltage problem" and therefore "stability is guaranteed."

We have seen the first overvoltage BIOS fixes roll out in the current generation of Intel CPUs, so the news that Arrow Lake may not suffer from similar instability issues is not surprising. On the other hand, the low power consumption of 100W is welcome news if the higher frequencies are maintained.

Of course, given that the current high-end Core Ultra 9 185H has a TDP of only 45W and a maximum power of about 115W, we do not expect this 100W figure to be anything like the power reduction in the low-power Core Ultra laptop lineup.

Intel's high-end notebook CPU, the Core i9 14900HX, has a TDP of 45W, as does the Core Ultra 9 185H, but the PL2 is slightly higher at 157W. Call me a skeptic, but I don't think the 100W figure applies here either, given that it means the (untested) Core i9 15900HX, which runs at only 57W at full load.

Instead, if this 100W rumor is true, we would expect to see such a 100W power reduction in a desktop CPU; the Intel Core i9 14900K has a TDP of 125W and a PL2 (maximum power consumption) of 253W. If a high-end Arrow Lake desktop chip can sustain similar frequency and performance with a 100W lower PL2, this would be quite a feat.

Also, given that AMD Zen 5 has just been released and has very low power consumption, this may be just what Intel needs. According to Nick's tests, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X actually consumes very little power, even though the chip has a maximum package power consumption of only 88W. The next generation of CPUs will likely compete on power consumption and efficiency.

Less power consumption usually means less heat generation, which would be good news on the temperature front as well. Considering how hot the current generation of chips get, that is a welcome development.

The improvements in power, temperature, and efficiency may be due in part to architectural changes, but they could also be the result of process changes. Most of Intel's Arrow Lake compute tiles (for high-end CPUs) are rumored to rely on production at TSMC's N3 node, and the chipmaker began 3nm production of Arrow Lake in June.

In any case, it would be nice to see some positive press about Intel once in a while.