Intel has officially admitted what many enthusiasts already knew: the Arrow Lake CPUs were not a strong offering for the high-end desktop market. Speaking at the Deutsche Bank 2025 Technology Conference, Intel CFO David Zinsner acknowledged that the company “fumbled the football” on desktop performance, especially for gamers and power users who saw AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series – with its potent 3D V-Cache chips – take the spotlight.
Arrow Lake not only fell short compared to Intel’s own previous generations in gaming benchmarks, but also ceded valuable ground to AMD, which capitalized with aggressive pricing and performance gains. 
For many buyers, Intel’s traditional strength in desktop gaming just wasn’t enough this round.
Looking forward, however, Intel is betting big on Nova Lake. Scheduled for 2026, Nova Lake is described as a more complete family of CPUs that will directly address the shortcomings of Arrow Lake. The new chips will span desktop and laptop markets, aiming to go head-to-head with AMD’s Zen 6 processors. According to Zinsner, Nova Lake is designed to strengthen Intel’s presence in the premium desktop tier, an area where the company’s performance-per-dollar metrics have slipped.
Beyond desktops, Intel’s roadmap for servers is also shifting. Diamond Rapids will introduce long-awaited Multi-Threading support, a reversal from the non-SMT strategy once floated under ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger. Still, Zinsner admitted Diamond Rapids won’t be the full answer to AMD’s dominant EPYC line. Instead, Intel is setting its hopes on Coral Rapids, expected around 2027–2028, which he called the company’s “real opportunity” to mount a serious comeback in servers.
Meanwhile, Intel is pressing ahead with multiple launches: Panther Lake and Nova Lake on the client side, and Clearwater Forest and Diamond Rapids on the server side, all leveraging its 18A process node (with Nova Lake mixing Intel and TSMC tech). For enthusiasts burned by Arrow Lake’s underwhelming debut, the message is clear: hold on, Nova Lake is where Intel plans to prove itself again.