Arrow Lake CPUs get Intel APO support for improved gaming performance — Intel APO game library also expands with 12 new titles

Intel says its top-tier processors in the recently launched Intel Core Ultra 200S CPUs (codenamed Arrow Lake) are verified to work with Intel Application Optimization (APO). This software ensures that your computer’s hardware resources are appropriately allocated to the current app and could improve gaming performance by up to 31%.

You can use APO with 12th Generation and newer desktop and laptop processors, as long as they have at least six P-Cores. However, you can only use the app in advanced mode if you don’t own an APO-verified chip. With the latest Core Ultra 200S chips launch, Intel APO supports four generations of Intel processors. The following SKUs have been added to this list:

• Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
• Intel Core Ultra 7 265K
• Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF

APO will benefit gamers who upgrade to the new Core Ultra 200S processors to extract some extra gaming performance from their systems. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K/KF isn't on the compatibility list, but you can still use APO, provided you put it in advanced mode.

More games get APO support

In addition to adding the latest Arrow Lake chips to the verified list, Intel added 12 new game titles that could benefit from APO’s performance boost. This increases the total list from 14 to 26, allowing more users to enjoy better frame rates through optimization.

Only Metro Exodus and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege initially worked with APO. However, Intel added twelve new titles in March of this year, including Dirt 5, Dreams Three Kingdoms 2, F1 22, Final Fantasy XIV, Guardians of the Galaxy, Red Dead Redemption 2, Serious Sam 4, Strange Brigade, Watch Dogs: Legion, World of Tanks, World of Warcraft, and World War Z.

The latest game titles to get APO support are Company of Heroes 3, Counter-Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Dota 2, Fortnite, Naraka: Bladepoint, Riftbreaker, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Total War: PHARAOH, Total War: THREE KINGDOMS, and Total War: WARHAMMER 3.

Although some of the titles that Team Blue added to APO are pretty old by this time, they’re still relatively popular, and some of them are even often used for gaming benchmarks, like Counter-Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, to see how a particular system performs.

The Intel APO app is a nifty piece of software that allows you to get the most out of your Intel processor. While app and hardware support may be pretty limited initially, we’re glad that Intel keeps the ball rolling by adding more popular titles and supporting newer processors. We wish it would thoroughly verify more chips from the lower-end SKUs, as this app could make a bigger difference in the gaming experience.