Field Update 1 of 2: Performance Status of the Intel Core Ultra 200S Series.
Intel Core Ultra 200S Series
With notable improvements in multi-threading performance, performance-per-watt, platform I/O, and overclocking, Intel Core Ultra 200S Series Processors (codename Arrow Lake-S) were introduced at the end of October. With significant statistical diversity between articles, editorial opinions about game performance were more divided. It own testing did not agree with these results.
The team began a daily investigation on October 26 in an attempt to comprehend and respond to these concerns that were particular to gaming. By November 8, there were enough early signs in place to support a commitment: in 4-6 weeks, a public root cause study and action plan will be developed.
After completing the study, have identified five different themes that may change functionality or performance:
- Performance & Power Management (PPM) is absent.
- APO (Intel Application Performance Optimizer) was unable to function.
- BSODs while trying to start games that use the Easy Anti-Cheat service.
- Some performance parameters on reviewers or early-enabling BIOSes were incorrectly setup.
- Updated BIOS performance enhancements.
It are happy to inform you that four of the five issues have already been resolved with the updates you have access to, and that installing these updates will result in a considerable improvement in performance. Five of the five issues have been identified as root causes.
Bottom Line: Update Windows 11 to version 26100.2314 (or higher) and apply the most recent BIOS upgrades for your motherboard. To further boost performance in specific games and apps, fresh BIOS files with net new performance advancements will also be made available in January. At CES 2025, Intel will provide a comprehensive performance summary that includes the January BIOSes.
You have the option of waiting for the final performance upgrade in January or applying the available changes right away. Your preferred programs, BIOS/OS/software settings, and the patch/update status of your system will all affect how much of a speed boost you personally receive.
A more detailed technical discussion of the problems is provided below for completeness.
The PPM package is missing
Software has a great deal of control over how a PC CPU behaves. Power Plans are used in the Windows OS to do this. These power plans are called Power Saver, High Performance, Balanced, and so on. To support a broad variety of processors, the plans that come with a new OS installation are quite general. To better suit the underlying silicon, hardware makers usually change these settings. Usually, a chipset driver or Windows change is used to do this.
CPU frequency ramp speed, core parking, C-State entry/exit/latency, and other operational DVFS or power management capabilities can all be adversely affected by missing, insufficient, or broken PPM updates.
- Root Cause: This Windows update package was scheduled for user/retail availability rather than reviewer availability by Intel.
- The symptoms include reduced single-threaded scores or performance, sporadic DRAM latency spikes (~1.5-2.0x expected), unexplained performance differences between Windows 11 23H2 and 24H2, unusual CPU scheduling behaviors, artificial performance increases when cores are manually disabled or affinities, and high run-to-run variation in benchmarks.
- Performance Cost: Approximately 6-30% (estimated), contingent on system parallel problems or workload.
- As of Windows 11 build 26100.2161 (KB5044384), the issue has been resolved.
Intel APO Was Unable to Implement
A software-level tool called Intel Application speed Optimizer (APO) optimizes thread scheduling in real-time within the operating system and game to boost speed. This technology’s overarching objective is to assist games in scheduling core and thread operations in a way that best suits the hardware, improving performance.
Since not all games benefit from APO, titles are enabled as per-game profiles on an individual basis. The proper operation of the CPU core/thread availability is necessary for these profiles. The performance benefit of APO cannot be realized if it is unable to identify the intended environment.
- Root Cause: The processor was in an abnormal condition due to the missing Intel PPM, which prevented APO from working.
- Symptoms: A/B testing APO on enabled titles did not result in any performance gains.
The projected performance cost ranges from 2 to 14%, depending on the title and/or concurrent problems in the system. - As of Windows 11 build 26100.2161 (KB5044384), the issue has been resolved.
When Introducing Simple Anti-Cheat Titles, BSOD
- Root Cause: A known conflict between the Easy Anti-Cheat driver included with PC games and Windows 11 24H2 (or later).
- Symptoms include a blue screen and system halt while trying to start a game that uses Easy Anti-Cheat software.
- No cost to performance, however functionality is affected
- The situation has been resolved. A revised Easy Anti-Cheat driver is being aggressively distributed by Epic Games to affected publishers and developers. Digital delivery services will be used to release the upgraded Easy Anti-Cheat driver as a game update.
Choose Performance Preferences, Incorrectly installed reviewer BIOSes
Several firmware features that improve performance are available on modern gaming PCs and are either dependent on or exposed by system BIOS modules. These options for Intel include memory controller ratio (“gear”), compute tile ring frequency, Intel APO, PCIe Resizable BAR, sustained/transient power limitations, and more.
During the evaluation period, Intel discovered that whenever the user restored the normal BIOS settings, one or more of these “VIP settings” were not consistently toggled to the most performant state. Some preview BIOSes had default settings that changed between preview BIOS versions, some had multiple settings that were incorrectly configured, and some just had one of these settings incorrect.
- Root Cause: Intel failed to adequately re-validate or enforce the consistency of VIP settings.
- Symptoms include: high run-to-run stdev for dynamic or unpredictable workloads; unpredictable or erratic compute tile ring frequency; abnormally high memory latency (1.5–2.0x expected); no performance boost for games that benefit from PCIe Resizable BAR; and no performance boost for games that benefit from Intel APO.
- Depending on the application and/or BIOS configuration, the projected performance cost ranges from 2 to 14%.
- The situation has been resolved. These parameters have been standardized in the most recent BIOS updates for motherboards built on Intel Z890.
New BIOS Performance Enhancements
Intel has also discovered a limited number of performance optimizations that are either newly created or were not prepared for the motherboard BIOS images that have been made public thus far as a consequence of the daily investigation efforts since October 26th.
A new firmware image is needed for this fifth and last type of performance upgrade, and it is presently undergoing Intel approval before being made available to customers. The first part of January 2025 is when one can anticipate the introduction of user-facing BIOSes. The precise availability will be determined by the motherboard’s test and release timeline.
Intel microcode version 0x114 and Intel CSME Firmware Kit 19.0.0.1854v2.2 (or later) will be used to identify the relevant BIOSes.

Conclusion and Next Steps
- Four out of five problems that affected functionality or performance during the introduction of the Intel Core Ultra 200S processors have been entirely fixed by Intel. Full functioning as intended is restored.
- Update the BIOS on your motherboard and install Windows updates until you reach Windows 11 version 26100.2314 (or above). These updates are available right now.
- Additional firmware upgrades are needed for the fifth and final performance improvement, which is scheduled to intercept new motherboard BIOSes in January 2025. It predict that this upgrade will result in another little boost in single-digit performance (geomean, about 35 games). The Intel microcode version 0x114 and Intel CSME Firmware Kit 19.0.0.1854v2.2 (or later) will be used to identify these BIOS changes.
- The particular problem or set of problems that existed on your system at the time your data was first gathered will determine the precise performance boost you will get from these changes. The games or apps you choose will also affect the outcome. Certain problems are more elusive than others, more pertinent to particular aspects of the task, and/or sporadic in nature.
- At CES 2025, Intel will provide the media a thorough performance update that includes all of the aforementioned solutions. Everyone want to offer combinatory studies, issue-by-issue A/B analysis, and a comprehensive performance sweep of games and apps. This will be the second of two field updates.
- A number of new practices, rules, and processes have been put in place by Intel to stop these problems or ones that are related or similar from happening again.
Lastly, let express gratitude to the user and reviewer communities for their insightful comments. This input helped us identify the correct approach for complex issue areas, whether it was through the exchange of test data and performance traces or discussions on platforms like Reddit and Bluesky. Everyone are grateful to you.