Recent benchmarks have revealed further degradation making life even more terrible for Intel after a real annus horribilis this year.

Its "Raptor Lake Refresh" series faced criticism over thermal instability, and now the Arrow Lake-S lineup is under scrutiny for significant performance discrepancies between internal testing and consumer systems. The 0x114 microcode, introduced as part of a broader "Field Update" to address these issues, has so far failed to deliver the promised improvements.

Benchmarks by @CapFrameX found the Core Ultra 9 285K running Cyberpunk 2077 showed an average FPS decline of approximately 18 per cent compared to earlier results. This drop comes despite Intel's assurances of "double-digit" performance gains with the BIOS update.

Additionally, memory latency increased by 14 per cent in the same tests, compounding concerns about the new microcode's effectiveness.
Industry analysts suggest further testing is needed to confirm the consistency of these results across different systems. However, the preliminary data points to more woe for Intel.

Chipzilla plans to address these issues at a media briefing during CES 2025, where it is expected to discuss the performance problems with its Core Ultra 200S series. For now, Arrow Lake-S consumers are left awaiting further updates as Intel works to reestablish confidence in its desktop CPU offerings.