In two months, Intel's new processor Core Ultra 200 series, the Arrow Lake-S, will be released. Unlike the existing Core 12~14 generation processors, the structure of the new Core Ultra 200 series will be fundamentally changed - in short, the Core Ultra 200 processors are designed with a modular architecture, which is very different from traditional processors.
How do you look at the 18 processors so that you don't get confused?
The Core Ultra 200 series currently has 18 known upcoming products, divided into three series, namely the Core Ultra 9, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 5, but there is no Core Ultra 3 series. Referring to the power consumption part, 125W corresponds to an unlocked processor ending in K/KF; 65W corresponds to ordinary processors; The 35W corresponds to a low-power processor ending in T.
The Core Ultra 9 series is the flagship product, with a total of three models, corresponding to 125W, 65W, and 35W respectively, all of which are 24-core (8P+16E) 24-thread products, and the chip step is B0;
Core Ultra 7 series high-end products, a total of six models, 125W, 65W, 35W power consumption three each, all of which are 20 core (8P+12E) 20 thread products, and distinguish between 4Xe core version and coreless graphics products, the chip step is B0;
The Core Ultra 5 series is a mainstream market product, with a total of 10 specifications of products, with different processor cores, different power consumption, whether it has a core graphics card, and the number of core graphics cores. Moreover, some of them use B0 stepper chips, some of them use C0 stepper chips, and there are two products that mix B0/C0 stepper chips. Often. Mix. Disorderly.
The Core Ultra 9 and Core Ultra 7 series are relatively straightforward, but the Core Ultra 5 is more of a "hodgepodge" of aggregates, and it's really hard to judge so many products in the same series.
Another notable thing about this generation is that the Core Ultra 200 series processors don't have an Ultra. Line. Cheng (see "Deep Picking!") for details. Why is there no hyper-threading in the next generation of Core Ultra)! And the number of cores of this generation of processors is the same as that of the same level, such as the Core Ultra 9 series are 24 cores and 24 cores (8P+16E), the Core Ultra 7 series are all 20 cores (8P+12E), only the Core Ultra 5 series has one product that is 10 cores (6P+4E), and the others are 14 cores (6P+8E) specifications. This means that the means to widen the performance gap at the same level are mainly concentrated in the two parts of frequency + power consumption.
Note: The temperature threshold is 5% higher!
The upper temperature threshold (TJMax) has also changed on the new generation Core Ultra 200 series - the current Core 12th ~ 14th generation temperature threshold is upper limit of 100°, and the temperature above this temperature will trigger the downclocking mechanism to ensure the safety of the processor. But on the new Core Ultra 200, this temperature ceiling will be increased by 5% to 105°. Interestingly, the maximum turbo frequency of the flagship model Core Ultra 9 285K is P-core 5.7GHz, E-core 4.7GHz, compared to the Core 14th generation flagship model i9-14900K, the P-core is up to 6.0GHz, and the E-core is 4.4Hz, that is, the P-core is reduced by 300MHz, and the E-core is increased by 400MHz. Combined with the use of newer process technology (Intel 20A Compute Module + TSMC N3B Control Module), a new modular structure (reduced power consumption), and an increase in temperature threshold...... What do you think of?
Three generations worship in the same house! LGA 1851 is coming
The LGA 1700 is a long-lived interface spec - from the Core 12th Gen to the Core 14th Gen, the new Core Ultra 200 series has been upgraded to the LGA 1851 (the size is compatible with existing heatsinks), and there is a version with only DDR5 memory (the memory controller does not support DDR4), which is a very big change.
LGA 1851 interface corresponding to the chipset motherboard is 800 series, currently known including H810, B860, Q870, Z890 and W880 five products, H810 is the cost-effective level, B860 corresponds to the mainstream market, Q870 is mainly used for commercial machines, Z890 corresponds to the high-end flagship market, W880 corresponds to the workstation market.
Among them, the Z890 will be the only one under the LGA 1851 platform that supports CPU overclocking, which can adjust the core (IA) voltage and base clock frequency (BCLK); The B860 will succeed the B760, and the H610 will have a large number of affordable products launched. The Q870 and W880 are not available in the retail market, so they can be ignored (Note: W880 supports DDR5 ECC memory).
The 800 series supports PCIe 5.0, with the H810 supporting PCIe 5.0 ×16 directly connected to the processor, the B680 supporting one PCIe 5.0 ×16 and one PCIe 5.0 ×4, and the Q870, Z890, and W880 all supporting one PCIe 5.0 ×16 and one PCI-E 5.0 ×4, or a combination of 2×8+1×4 and 1×8+3×4. Also note that the second PCIe 4.0 directly connected processor is only supported by Q870, Z890 and W880 (1×4), not H810 and B860.
The total number of PCI-E lanes, Z890 and W880 can reach 48; Q870 reduced to 44; B860 is 34; H810 has at least 24 entries.
Another important point is USB 4, the H810 and B860 support one USB 4, and the Q870, Z890 and W880 support two USB 4 – an interface that supports USB 3.2, PCI-E and DisplayPort 1.4a protocols with a total bandwidth of 40Gbps, making it an important external interface for the future.
The price prediction is that the motherboard of the 100 yuan level in the future will be the world of the H810 chipset, and the price range should be 500 yuan ~ 900 yuan; The B860 chipset is the main force of the thousand-yuan level, and the price range should be in the range of 900 yuan ~ 2000 yuan; Z890 is a 2,000 yuan level product, ranging from 2000 yuan ~ 5000 yuan (top flagship) range.
The final question is, is the Core Ultra 200 worth buying? First, at this stage, we have to wait for the evaluation, the first K/KF series processors to be launched in October this year, it is expected that the energy consumption ratio will be greatly improved, if you are interested, you can pay attention to us; Second, the Core 12th generation ~ 14th generation will greatly promote destocking at the end of the year, and price-sensitive users must keep an eye on Double 11; Third, the end of the AI PC is approaching, and processors that do not have AI computing power will not be able to play the full performance of the new version of Windows (note that it is not performance) - AI will greatly change the way computers are applied, and the method of improving efficiency is also different from the current simple IPC performance, so those who have this need must wait for the Core Ultra 200.