Field Update 1 of 2: Intel Core Ultra 200S Series Performance Status

Intel® Core™ Ultra 200S Processors (codename Arrow Lake-S) launched at the end of October with significant advancements for multi-threading performance, performance-per-watt, platform I/O, and overclocking. Editorial conclusions on gaming performance were more polarized, with noteworthy statistical variation from one article to the next. These results were inconsistent with our internal testing.

Starting October 26, the team launched a daily investigative effort to understand and address these gaming-specific reports. By November 8, sufficient early indicators had been established to inform a commitment: a public root cause analysis and action plan in 4-6 weeks.

We recently concluded our investigation, and we have determined that there are five distinct topics that could alter performance or functionality:

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.

We are pleased to report that 5 of 5 issues have been root caused, 4 of 5 issues are already solved with updates available to you, and significant performance upside is accessible by applying these updates.

Bottom Line: Apply the latest BIOS updates for your motherboard and update Windows 11 to build 26100.2314 (or newer). New BIOS files with net new performance enhancements will also be available in January to once again improve performance in select games and applications. Intel will publish a complete performance digest, inclusive of the January BIOSes, at CES 2025. You can apply the available updates now or wait for the final performance update in January. The exact performance uplift you individually experience depends on the current patch/update condition of your system, the applications you prefer, and the BIOS/OS/software settings you prefer.

For completeness, a more thorough technical treatment of the issues is available below.

Missing PPM Package

The behavior of a PC processor is highly adjustable by software. In the Windows OS, this is done through Power Plans. These Power Plans have names like Balanced, High Performance, Power Saver, and so on. The plans provided with a fresh OS installation are relatively generic to accommodate a wide range of processors. It is customary for hardware vendors to update these parameters to better fit the underlying silicon, and this is typically performed through Windows Update or a chipset driver.

Missing, incomplete, or malfunctioning PPM updates can negatively impact CPU frequency ramp speed, core parking, C-State entry/exit/latency, and other functional DVFS or power management capabilities.

• Root Cause: Intel incorrectly scheduled this Windows Update package for user/retail availability, not reviewer availability.
• Symptoms: Unusual CPU scheduling behaviors; artificial performance increases when cores are manually disabled or affinitized; high run-to-run variation in benchmarks; reduced single-threaded scores or performance; intermittent DRAM latency spikes (~1.5-2.0x expected); and unexplained performance differences between Windows 11 23H2 and 24H2.
• Performance Cost: Approx. 6-30% (estimated), depending on workload or parallel issues present in the system.
• Status: RESOLVED in Windows 11 build 26100.2161 (KB5044384).

Intel APO Could Not Take Effect

Intel Application Performance Optimizer (APO) is a software-level feature that performs real-time thread scheduling optimization within the game and operating system to improve performance. A high-level goal of this technology is to help games make core/thread scheduling decisions that better fit our hardware, thus raising performance.

Not every game benefits from APO, so titles are enabled on a case-by-case basis as per-game profiles. These profiles depend on the CPU core/thread availability working as intended. If APO cannot detect the expected environment, its performance benefit cannot be realized.

• Root Cause: The missing Intel PPM placed the processor into an aberrant state where APO could not take effect.
• Symptoms: No performance gain observed from A/B testing APO on enabled titles.
• Performance Cost: Approx. 2-14% (estimated), varying with title and/or parallel issues present in the system.
• Status: RESOLVED in Windows 11 build 26100.2161 (KB5044384).

BSOD When Launching Easy Anti-Cheat Titles

• Root Cause: A known issue between Windows 11 24H2 and the April 2024 (or older) Easy Anti-Cheat driver bundled with PC games.
• Symptoms: A system halt and blue screen when attempting to launch a game that utilizes Easy Anti-Cheat software.
• Performance Cost: None, functionality impacted
• Status: RESOLVED. Epic Games is actively distributing an updated Easy Anti-Cheat driver to impacted developers and publishers. The updated Easy Anti-Cheat driver will be pushed as a game update via digital delivery services.

Select Performance Settings Misconfigured in Reviewer BIOSes

Modern gaming PCs benefit from several performance-enhancing firmware capabilities that are exposed by or dependent on modules in the system BIOS. For Intel, these settings include: PCIe® Resizable BAR, Intel APO, compute tile ring frequency, memory controller ratio (“gear”), sustained/transient power limits, and more.

Intel identified that one or more of these “VIP settings” were not consistently toggled to the most performant state if the user restored default BIOS settings during the review period. Some preview BIOSes had only one of these settings misconfigured, some had more than one setting misconfigured, and some had default settings change between preview BIOS releases.

• Root Cause: Consistency of VIP settings not sufficiently re-validated or enforced by Intel.
• Symptoms: Aberrantly high memory latency (~1.5-2.0x expected); erratic or fluctuating compute tile ring frequency; high run-to-run stdev 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.
• Performance Cost: Approx. 2-14% (estimated), depending on application and/or BIOS setting.
• Status: RESOLVED. Current BIOS releases for Intel Z890-based motherboards have harmonized these settings.

New BIOS Performance Optimizations

As a result of our daily investigative efforts since October 26th, Intel has additionally identified a small selection of performance optimizations that are recently developed, or were not ready for the motherboard BIOS images released thus far.

This fifth and final category of performance update requires a new firmware image that is currently undergoing Intel validation prior to customer release. We expect user-facing BIOSes to be released in the first half of January 2025. Exact availability will depend on the test and release schedule for your specific motherboard. The correct BIOSes will be identified with Intel microcode version 0x114 and Intel CSME Firmware Kit 19.0.0.1854v2.2 (or newer).

Conclusion and Next Steps

1. Intel has fully resolved 4 of 5 issues that impacted performance or functionality during the launch of the Intel Core Ultra 200S processors. Complete and intended functionality is restored.
2. These updates are immediately available: update your motherboard BIOS and apply Windows updates until reaching Windows 11 build 26100.2314 (or newer).
3. The fifth and final performance update requires additional firmware updates, which are planned to intercept new motherboard BIOSes in January 2025. We advise that this update will provide another modest performance improvement in the single-digit range (geomean, ~35 games). These BIOS updates will be identified with Intel microcode version 0x114 and Intel CSME Firmware Kit 19.0.0.1854v2.2 (or newer).
4. The exact performance uplift you will experience with these updates depends on the specific issue, or combination of issues, present on your system when your data was originally collected. Results also depend on your selection of games or applications. Some issues are more elusive than others, more relevant to certain workload characteristics, and/or intermittent in nature.   
5. Intel will provide a comprehensive performance update to the media, inclusive of all the above solutions, at CES 2025. We intend to provide a full performance sweep of games and applications, issue-by-issue A/B analysis, and combinatory analyses. This will be Field Update 2 of 2.
6. Intel has implemented a selection of new practices, policies, and procedures that will prevent these issues (or related/similar) from reoccurring.

Finally, we would like to thank the reviewer and user communities for their generous feedback. Whether it was sharing performance traces and test data, or conversation on services like Reddit and Bluesky, this feedback helped us triangulate the right answer for complicated issue spaces. You have our gratitude.

Very sincerely,

The Intel Client Team

Footnotes:

• Results that are based on pre-production systems and components as well as results that have been estimated or simulated using an Intel Reference Platform (an internal example new system), internal Intel analysis or architecture simulation or modeling are provided to you for informational purposes only. Results may vary based on future changes to any systems, components, specifications or configurations.
• Performance varies by use, configuration, and other factors. Learn more on the Performance Index site.
• No product or component can be secure.
• Your costs and results may vary.
• Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software, or service activation.

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