Intel has recently addressed the performance challenges experienced during the October launch of its Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake-S) processors. Following an in-depth investigation, five distinct issues were identified as the culprits affecting the platform’s performance. Thankfully, four of these issues have already been resolved, with the final fix anticipated by January 2025.
One major discovery by Intel’s team was the absence of a crucial Performance & Power Management (PPM) package. This omission led to several erratic behaviors: improper CPU task scheduling, varying performance when certain cores were disabled, and occasional memory latency spikes that reached as high as twice the normal levels. This singular problem resulted in a performance decline ranging from 6% to 30%, depending on the specific system activity.
Additionally, complications arose from the Intel Application Performance Optimizer (APO), which was non-functional due to the missing PPM package. As a result, the anticipated gaming performance enhancements were absent, decreasing performance by approximately 2% to 14%. Systems also faced crashes when launching games supported by Easy Anti-Cheat, due to compatibility issues with Windows 11 24H2.
Further complications were identified in the BIOS setup of review units, where inconsistencies in settings such as PCIe Resizable BAR, compute tile ring frequency, and memory controller ratios led to another performance drop of 2% to 14%, contingent on the app and BIOS configurations.
Intel has swiftly addressed most of these issues. The glitches with PPM and APO were rectified with the release of Windows 11 build 26100.2161 (KB5044384). Also, Epic Games rolled out a new Easy Anti-Cheat driver, alongside fresh BIOS updates for Intel Z890-based motherboards.
The final step is the release of a performance optimization package scheduled for January 2025. This package will include firmware updates featuring Intel microcode version 0x114 and Intel CSME Firmware Kit 19.0.0.1854v2.2 or newer versions. Once applied, these updates are expected to provide gamers with modest yet noticeable performance improvements across different gaming titles.
Looking ahead, Intel plans to showcase a comprehensive performance review at CES 2025, complete with detailed benchmarks and comparison tests. Furthermore, Intel has implemented preventative measures to avoid similar issues arising in the future.
