Intel announced that its first wave of updates to address the gaming performance issues plaguing the Arrow Lake processors is now available. Intel says the updates available today will deliver "signficant performance upside" and restore the "complete and intended functionality" of the Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake processors. We're currently testing the fixes and have summarized the root causes below.
Intel's update comes after a disappointing round of Core Ultra 200S launch day reviews, which found wildly variable gaming performance recorded by different media outlets. Those results overwhelmingly did not match the performance benchmarks that Intel had shared before the launch, leading to an overall poor reception for the Arrow Lake processors. Last month, Intel's Robert Hallock announced that an investigation was underway, saying the company planned to restore gaming performance to its original targets and would share details this month.
The update requires both a new motherboard BIOS firmware and a Windows update that also corrects several issues. Intel advises its customers to update to the latest BIOS from their motherboard vendor and to update Windows to build 26100.2314 (or newer).
In January, Intel will issue a final component — a new BIOS revision that provides additional performance beyond what was originally promised. These are features and improvements developed after that launch. Intel says the final update will add an additional single-digit percentage increase in gaming performance. At CES 2025, Intel will issue a full A/B performance analysis of the issues and new benchmarks reflecting the performance of the entire fix.
Intel identified five root causes, four of which are already addressed by updates available today. We'll cover Intel's list of the root causes, and then we'll give a synopsis of the fix for each.
Intel Arrow Lake Root Causes
- 1. A missing Performance & Power Management (PPM) package.
- 2. Intel Application Performance Optimizer (APO) could not take effect.
- 3. BSODs when attempting to launch game titles utilizing the Easy Anti-Cheat service.
- 4. Select performance settings misconfigured on reviewer or early enabling BIOSes.
- 5. New BIOS performance optimizations.
1.) The Performance & Power Management (PPM) package dictates how the Windows Power Plans control the CPU's behavior. The PPM is typically delivered through a chipset driver of Windows Update. Intel says that a missing or malfunctioning PPM impacts multiple performance facets (details in the accompanying blog post), thus reducing performance by 6 to 30% (est.), depending on the workload or other extenuating factors.
Intel says it incorrectly scheduled this update for 'user/retail availability' but not for reviewer availability. The PPM is now added in Windows 11 build 26100.2161 (KB5044384) or newer. It has been available in Windows Update since November.
During a YouTube live stream at Hot Hardware, Robert Hallock confirmed that the correct PPM package was not available to press for reviews, either in Windows Update or the chipset drivers. Intel says the impact of this can vary tremendously, so we'll have to test to see how it impacts our gaming results.
2.) Intel's Application Performance Optimizer (APO) boosts game performance in several game titles. This software utility is now automatically installed by default in Windows, but it also had to be manually enabled in some BIOSes (we confirmed the feature was enabled in our testing). Intel says the incorrect PPM (covered above) resulted in APO not working as intended, costing anywhere from 2% to 14% of performance. This is now resolved with the addition of the correct PPM package.
3.) The BSOD issues caused by anti-cheat software have been resolved by an Easy Anti-Cheat driver update that Epic Games is distributing to the relevant publishers and developers.
4.) Intel cites that the motherboard BIOSes provided to reviewers had incorrect default settings for a range of "VIP settings." The number of incorrect settings and the settings impacted varied by vendor. These included settings like "PCIe Resizable BAR, Intel APO, compute tile ring frequency, memory controller ratio (gear), sustained/transient power limits, and more."
Intel cited a whole host of potential effects, including "aberrantly high memory latency (~1.5-2.0x expected); erratic or fluctuating compute tile ring frequency; high run-to-run stdev [standard deviation] for dynamic or unpredictable workloads; no performance uplift for games that benefit from PCIe Resizable BAR; no performance uplift for games that benefit from Intel APO."
Intel says this impacted performance anywhere from 2% to 14% (the same as the performance loss from APO not working correctly). Intel said it did not correctly enforce the VIP settings with motherboard vendors. All new BIOS revisions correct this issue.
5.) Intel will issue a new BIOS and CSME firmware kit in the first half of January 2025, but the availability will vary depending on the vendor. This final update will include an undisclosed "small selection of performance optimizations" developed after the launch. Intel says this update will add another single-digit percentage of gaming performance (as measured by Intel with a geomean of ~35 games).
This new firmware update is Intel microcode version 0x114 and Intel CSME Firmware Kit 19.0.0.1854v2.2 (or newer). The 0x114 microcode will not work correctly unless paired with the CSME Firmware Kit. The CSME is fully encapsulated within the BIOS update, so it doesn't require other driver updates.
Thoughts
Intel says the currently available Windows and firmware updates will bring Arrow Lake to the promised performance levels — the newer BIOS coming in January is just an additional level of performance beyond Intel's original projections. We've also seen that software updates, such as the Cyberpunk 2077 update that increases performance by up to 33%, can also significantly improve Arrow Lake's standing. Both of those are promising developments.
We've also seen beta testing of the new 0x114 microcode slated for release in January. Those initial tests show little to no performance improvements, but that is with the caveat that the firmware requires the accompanying CSME Firmware Kit to work correctly, which isn't available yet. That invalidates the testing. We'll have to wait for the official versions of the 0x114 microcode to pass judgment.
In the meantime, all that's left to do is test Intel's claims that the performance issues are corrected with the updates available today. As you can imagine, we're already busy testing the changes. Stay tuned.
