Intel Arrow Lake Refresh to lack major AI improvements – New leak claims

Intel’s upcoming Arrow Lake refresh may lack expected NPU improvements

According to a new report from @jaykihn0, Intel’s upcoming Arrow Lake Refresh may be less exciting than expected. Refuting recent claims by ZDNet, it has been reported that Intel’s enhanced Arrow Lake CPU lineup will not feature major NPU changes. Instead of using Intel’s newer NPU 4 design, Intel may opt to continue using its NPU 3 silicon.

If Intel doesn’t enhance its refreshed Arrow Lake CPU lineup with a new NPU, it means that its Arrow Lake lineup will only feature higher clock speeds than its last-generation counterparts. This means that Intel’s new Arrow Lake chips will not feature a large improvement to AI performance, and that they will not be Microsoft Copilot-ready. Sadly, this means that we should only expect higher CPU clock speeds for Intel’s new CPUs.

ARL-S and HX Refresh will not receive NPU changes.

This is contradictory to the preliminary information published a year ago.

— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) July 18, 2025

Based on today’s information, Intel’s next wave of LGA-1851 CPUs will not be that exciting for PC builders. If this report is true, we can expect higher CPU clock speeds and “opt-in uplifts” for all currently available Arrow Lake-S K and KF series CPUs. These “uplifts” will become available through new BIOS revisions.

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