Intel Arrow Lake has struggled to compete against some of the best processors from both AMD and Intel itself, but improvements are on the way. In fact, a completely unexpected update just gave the CPUs a major boost. Unfortunately, there’s a caveat: That boost only applies to one game.
The update in question was just announced by CDProjektRed, which has dropped a surprise patch for Cyberpunk 2077. The game studio now promises to improve in-game performance on Arrow Lake CPUs by up to 33%, which is a tune-up that gamers badly need, considering that the CPUs generally failed to impress in gaming scenarios.
A 33% improvement is huge. According to CDProjektRed, the boost stems from optimizations made to the threading system, and Wccftech elaborates that this is related to the game’s ability to prioritize Intel’s P-cores in order to improve performance. This makes me wonder whether we might see an improvement on older Intel CPUs that also run P-cores, but that remains to be seen once reviewers benchmark the CPU with the new update.
Let’s put these numbers into perspective. In our benchmark of the Core Ultra 9 285K, we found the CPU just behind the Core i9-14900K, scoring 200 frames per second (fps) in Cyberpunk 2077. Admittedly, this was one of the better results for the chip, which ended up on par with the Ryzen 9 7950X in some titles, but it was still a whopping 18 fps behind the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in Cyberpunk 2077.
Assuming that the 33% performance boost translates to an fps increase, we’d now be looking at a much higher score for the Core Ultra 9 285K. This would bring the 200 fps result up to 266 fps, which would then put it 22% ahead of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. It’d even beat the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which averaged 232 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 in our testing.
It’s too early to take these numbers at face value, though. We’ll have to see how the new update really affects performance on Arrow Lake CPUs to judge whether the gains are truly as big as they could be. Intel is also said to be working on microcode updates for Arrow Lake that should arrive this month, so these results might change even more.
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.