Intel’s Arrow Lake performance fix is now available — another update coming next month

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.

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 of the fix — a new BIOS revision. That 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’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. 

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 poor gaming performance 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 behavior of the CPU. The PPM is typically delivered through a chipset driver of Windows Update. Intel says that a missing or malfunctioning PPM impacts multiple facets of performance (details in the accompanying blog post), thus reducing performance by anywhere from 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. While Intel is clear that the PPM wasn’t available in Windows at the time of reviews, it is unclear if this PPM was provided to reviewers in the chipset drivers provided for launch. We’re following up for clarification on this point. 

2.) Intel’s Application Performance Optimizer (APO) boosts game performance in several select titles. This software utility is now automatically installed by default in Windows, but it must also be manually enabled in some BIOSes (we confirmed the feature was enabled in our testing). Intel says a missing PPM (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 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 a range of “VIP settings” had incorrect default settings in the motherboard BIOSes provided to reviewers. The number of incorrect settings, and the settings impacted, varied by the vendor. This 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. This issue is corrected in all new BIOS revisions. 

5.) Intel will issue a new BIOS and CSME firmware kit in the first half of January 2025, but the availability will vary based on the vendor. Intel says this final update will have   an undisclosed “small selection of performance optimizations.” Intel says this final piece of the fix will add another single-digit percentage of performance in gaming (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).

Thoughts

Intel says the currently available Windows and firmware updates will bring Arrow Lake to the promised performance levels. 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. 

However, 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 was in a beta state. We’ll have to wait for the official versions to pass judgment. 

In the meantime, all that’s left to do is test Intel’s claims. As you can imagine, we’re already busy putting the changes to the test. Stay tuned.