At CES 2025, Intel has announced that Arrow Lake, the CPU architecture behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, is coming to gaming laptops.
Just like their desktop counterparts, these laptop processors will include a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit), which should greatly improve AI performance. However, also like their desktop counterparts, most laptops with an Arrow Lake-HX or H processor will also have a dedicated GPU, which will relegate the NPU to lighter background AI tasks, like managing your battery.
Regardless, these Intel Core Ultra 200HX processors are going to be featured in some of the best gaming PCs of the next year or so. The CPUs will feature up to 24 cores on the high end, with the Core Ultra 9 285HX featuring 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores. Just like previous generations of Intel processors, the performance cores are reserved for heavier, focused work, while the efficiency cores will focus on background tasks.
Unlike previous generations, the performance cores are single-threaded, just like their desktop counterparts. However, through IPC improvements Intel was able to make with this generation, it claims it doesn't lose much in the way of performance.
If you want to get your hands on a gaming laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 200H or 200HX processor, you'll start seeing them on store shelves over the next few months.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
