The Core Ultra 7 265K arrived in the UK at £379.99 (€441). It now sits at £224 (€260), a drop of more than 40 per cent that shows how fast demand has evaporated. The Core Ultra 5 245K has been slashed from £289.99 (€336) to £150.32 (€174), making it a tempting pick for budget boxes when paired with an inexpensive 800-series board.

One retailer listed the Ultra 5 245K at £154.97 (€180), down from £209.99 (€244), while the Ultra 7 265K hovered around £220 (€255) after falling from £259.98 (€302). These are not gentle adjustments but full-blown clearance-rack numbers.

The trouble is simple. Arrow Lake does not deliver the performance gains buyers expect from Chipzilla. In many cases, it runs slower than the last generation, especially in games. Lower prices make the chips easier to swallow, but you do not carve discounts like this unless you are desperate to move stock.

Chipzilla might yet fix Arrow Lake’s problems with the next batch of CPUs, although whether they can claw back ground against an incoming AMD Ryzen lineup is unlikely.