Intel has announced the upcoming launch of its first Core Ultra Series 3 laptop processors, set to formally debut later this month. Announced during the company's keynote at CES, these processors are codenamed Panther Lake and are primarily aimed at high-end ultraportable PCs. Significantly, the Core Ultra 3 chips will be the first to utilize Intel’s 18A manufacturing process, a strategic move by the company to align its chip manufacturing technologies more closely with that of Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC).
The initial launch will feature 14 chips across five product families, and Intel has indicated that these will be incorporated into 'over 200' potential PC designs. The first processors from this lineup are expected to be available by January 27th, with additional versions slated for release throughout the first half of the year.
Among the new offerings, the Core Ultra X9 and Core Ultra X7 processors boast Intel’s latest CPU and GPU architectures. These models integrate a fully-enabled 12-core Intel Arc B390 GPU and accommodate slightly faster LPDDR5x-9600 memory. Meanwhile, the Core Ultra 9 and 7 processors will offer similar technologies but feature only four GPU cores and support either LPDDR5x-8533 or DDR5-7200 DIMMs. They also offer 20 PCI Express lanes, compared to the 12 in the X9 and X7 models, optimizing them for use with dedicated GPUs.
The Core Ultra 5 chips are generally lower-end models with fewer CPU cores, sporting either 4- or 2-core GPUs. However, one unique outlier is the Core Ultra 5 338H, which surprisingly packs 12 CPU cores and a 10-core Intel Arc B370 GPU.
As a refresher, the Panther Lake series marks a notable shift from Intel's previous Lunar Lake design, which was sold under the Core Ultra 200V brand. Lunar Lake relied predominantly on external chiplets and featured on-package RAM. The transition was part of Intel's strategy to enhance power saving and extend battery life by dropping features like Hyperthreading from the P-cores.
While the Core Ultra 3 chips reverse some of Lunar Lake’s changes, Intel has assured that it still uses Lunar Lake's power efficiency as a baseline, aiming to bolster performance without compromising battery life.