Intel’s list of processors constantly grows, and its whole new naming scheme just got even more confusing. Today’s leaks imply that Intel might be working on another Raptor Lake refresh, this time under the Core 200 name. That’s right — just Core 200, without the Ultra. We also spotted some more budget-friendly, previously unheard-of Arrow Lake chips.

With Intel Arrow Lake right around the corner and Lunar Lake CPUs freshly out and available, Intel’s got a lot going on in the CPU department right now, and there’s more to come. Some non-Ultra Core 200 chips appeared in various Business Applications Performance Corporation (BAPCo) benchmarks, including the Core 7 250U, the Core 7 250H, and the Core 5 220H. There’s also the Core 7 Ultra 255H, which is likely an upcoming Arrow Lake-H CPU set to appear inside next-gen laptops.

But what are these non-Ultra CPUs? This is where things get even trickier.

Many might guess that the Core 200-series CPUs are a Meteor Lake refresh. Meteor Lake was launched under the Core Ultra 100-series umbrella, so it kind of makes sense. However, as discovered by VideoCardz, the specs of the CPUs don’t line up with Meteor Lake chips, but rather with Raptor Lake. This would be an interesting choice, seeing as Intel has already given Raptor Lake CPUs a refresh, but that’s what might be happening here.

Refreshing last-gen CPUs is nothing new to Intel, but giving them a strikingly similar naming scheme to next-gen parts might be confusing for some consumers. It wouldn’t be unusual, though, as Intel’s Raptor Lake refresh followed the same pattern, with CPUs such as the Core 3 100U and the Core 5 120U.

Moving on to next-gen chips, CPU-Z just added support for several Arrow Lake processors that are aimed at more budget-conscious users: the Core Ultra 5 235, Core Ultra 5 225, and the Core Ultra 5 225F. The Core Ultra 5 235 is said to come with 14 cores, including six performance cores and eight efficiency cores, as well as a boost clock speed of 5GHz.

Intel

The two Core Ultra 5 225 CPUs are essentially the same chip, but the F model won’t have integrated graphics. As per VideoCardz, both are rumored to feature 10 ores (six P-cores and four E-cores) and a maximum clock speed of 4.9GHz. Unlike the initial Arrow Lake-S lineup, all three of these chips are said to feature a much lower thermal design power (TDP) of 65 watts (down from 125W).

Making sense of these names is increasingly harder, but this is the reality that both laptop and desktop users will just have to get used to. Until Intel itself confirms any of the above, we can’t even be sure all of these chips will make it to market. Intel is expected to announce Arrow Lake-S CPUs on October 10, but even that is yet to be confirmed at this point.










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