Intel's latest Arrow Lake CPUs launched in October, promising impressive performance with improved power efficiency. However, early reviews, including ours, highlighted underwhelming gaming performance

The chipmaker has since acknowledged the issues and stated that it has been rolling out updates to address them, as first reported by Tom’s Hardware.  One major issue involved a delayed update intended to optimize Windows’ processor power management (PPM) system for the Core Ultra 200S-series CPUs. 

Unfortunately, this update wasn’t available before reviewers tested the processors, resulting in subpar gaming performance. Without the PPM update, Intel’s Application Performance Optimizer (APO), which boosts performance in games, couldn’t function properly. Additionally, certain performance settings were misconfigured, further impacting benchmarks.

Intel plans to release another round of performance updates for Arrow Lake CPUs in January, with a more detailed performance update to be shared during CES. For now, the company recommends keeping Windows updated and applying the latest BIOS update to your motherboard. Users can also wait for the “final” performance enhancements set to arrive next year.