Just when one problem ends for chip stock Intel (INTC), another begins. The latest problem reveals that Intel’s chip instability problems may not be over yet, and the Arrow Lake set may be next to fall victim.
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The Arrow Lake lineup, specifically the Core Ultra 200-S, may have instability issues similar to those seen with the Raptor Lake lineup just a few weeks ago. While the issue is not yet confirmed, the early reports suggest that Arrow Lake processors, which will be going live in days, are running into crashes as well as having some unusual benchmark test results.
Reports suggest that benchmark testing is seeing wild swings in performance, with some tests giving back 10% differences from one test to another. Some of the benchmark testing makes Arrow Lake look downright golden, while other tests do much less to help its image. And with some tests showing the Arrow Lake processor pulling as much as 370 watts, that may be a problem for a processor often cited for its efficiency.
Troubles Elsewhere
While the benchmark testing has been a bit of a mixed bag, one issue seems to be cropping up that will likely hurt Intel going further: gaming performance. It turns out, according to some leaked reports, that the Core Ultra 9 285K is behind two different AMD (AMD) Ryzen chips as well as the earlier Intel release of the Core i9-14900K.
But there is something larger at work here, as word from Intel says that the Arrow Lake is not suffering so much from poor design as from bad software. This would make a certain kind of sense, as software was part of the root cause of the Raptor Lake instabilities. However, only time will tell just how this all breaks down, and official confirmation of some of these issues would help.
Is Intel a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on INTC stock based on one Buy, 26 Holds and seven Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 36.1% loss in its share price over the past year, the average INTC price target of $25.34 per share implies 16.43% upside potential.
