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Intel is launching its Core Ultra (Series 2) processors. The chips, better known as Lunar Lake, have to compete with AMD, especially in terms of endurance. The performance
Intel is launching its Core Ultra (Series 2) processors. The chips, better known as Lunar Lake, have to compete with AMD, especially in terms of endurance. The performance would also be top, but only at low voltages.
Intel officially announces Lunar Lake. The official name of the new chip line will be Intel Core Ultra (Series 2), with these Core Ultra 200V processors being the first family under this umbrella. Lunar Lake largely succeeds Meteor Lake, although these new chips don’t appeal to quite the same audience.
Intel Core Ultra 200V is a direct response to the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite. Intel is taking full advantage of the relationship between battery life and performance. The Core Ultra 200V chips are all economical and not too powerful, but still have to deliver good performance with little power.
To achieve this, Intel is throwing many conventions out the window. In this way, multithreading disappears completely in both the P and E cores. Expandable memory is also no longer available: Intel processes the RAM on the Lunar Lake chip. With your CPU model, you immediately decide how much RAM you want.
Additionally, Intel is integrating the latest version of its Arc GPU cores on the chips. These would be more powerful than ever before, far outperforming not only Qualcomm’s offering but also surpassing the integrated graphics capabilities of the latest AMD chips.
Finally, the NPU is getting a big upgrade. In Meteor Lake, it was relatively worthless, as the processing power wasn’t enough to run even fairly rudimentary Microsoft Copilot+ workloads locally. That’s changing now: the NPUs on board these new chips will be about as powerful as those of the competition.
RAM, GPU and, to a lesser extent, the NPU are the main differentiators of these new chips. Although Intel is launching nine new models and sticking to the 5, 7, 9 distribution, all processors have eight processing cores, with four P-cores and four E-cores.
Intel’s breakdown is more messed up than ever. The top components have, as expected, 32 GB of RAM, which is the maximum. In the middle of the lineup we find the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V with 16 GB of RAM. Below that is the Intel Core Ultra 5 238V with 32 GB of RAM. Both processors have exactly the same processing core configuration, although the clock speed is slightly higher on the Ultra 7. For office work, the Core Ultra 5 is, on paper, the more powerful of the two. However, Intel gives this chip one less graphics core, which is only relevant for certain workloads. At this quality, the CPU is downgraded from 7-Club to 5-Club.
The main point we want to make is that you can no longer really tell how well a CPU from the Lunar Lake series suits you by its name. The processing power will be relatively similar across all models, with the integrated RAM being the second important factor. The difference in NPU is not that big, let alone relevant, and the number of GPU cores is only important for those who want a thin and light business notebook but still have a clear opinion about the performance of graphics workloads. In fact, there are just too many SKUs here with too little difference.
More important than the internal differences within the Intel Core Ultra 200V series are those with its main competitor Qualcomm. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite is a thorn in Intel’s side because this ARM-based chip attacks the core of what Intel stands for. After all, Qualcomm claims that the ARM architecture is superior to x86.
Intel disagrees. The manufacturer refers to tests that were carried out on identical laptops with identical specifications, where only the CPU differs. Intel pits its Core Ultra 7 268V against the Qualcomm X1E-80-100 and uses it to conduct the Procyon Office Productivity Test. This benchmark runs natively on ARM and x86 and measures the performance of Microsoft Office. The test is therefore quite representative.
Intel determined that the notebook with its Core Ultra lasted 20.1 hours, longer than the 16.4 hours of the ARM device. In a test with Teams, the results were slightly different: the Intel laptop managed 10.7 hours, the Qualcomm laptop 12.7 hours. The test shows that both processors are equivalent and there is no actual advantage for ARM.
Performance is also said to be top-notch. Again based on its own benchmarks, Intel states that its Core Ultra 9 288V is faster than Qualcomm and AMD equivalents on the market. Please note: This chip has a higher TDP than the rest of the lineup by default. Based on Intel’s testing, we cannot determine whether the battery and efficiency claims were made using the same configuration as the performance claims.
Whether the Core Ultra 200V is actually faster and better than the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite is not really that important. As long as the performance is close enough, Intel has the advantage. The entire Windows ecosystem is already optimized for x86, while ARM often still relies on an emulator for compatibility reasons. With older hardware, an ARM laptop sometimes doesn’t even play along. Intel doesn’t have these compatibility concerns, although not all software is really optimized to make optimal use of P and E cores.
Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) 200V is a very important launch for Intel. It must show that the chip designer is able to remain competitive with the x86 architecture. However, Lunar Lake says nothing about Intel’s manufacturing capabilities. To bring these efficient chips to market, CEO Pat Gelsinger had to bypass his own factories and knock on the door of TSMC colleagues, where the processors of the state-of-the-art N3B node are installed.
Intel’s own benchmarks are impressive, but we shouldn’t trust them blindly. The Core Ultra range (Series 2) is already a bit confusing with its nine similar models, but each individual model can also have very different performance. All chips except the top model have a TDP of 17 watts, but are configurable from 8 watts to 30 watts. It goes without saying that the choice of manufacturer has an immense influence on the actual performance and efficiency.
Really performance-oriented laptop chips are also on the agenda, but these will not be based on Lunar Lake. Instead, Intel plans to introduce another architecture separately: Arrow Lake.
In any case, Intel is keeping the chip world interesting. Tests on real laptops will show whether Lunar Lake is as competitive as Intel claims.
Source: IT Daily
As an experienced journalist and author, Mary has been reporting on the latest news and trends for over 5 years. With a passion for uncovering the stories behind the headlines, Mary has earned a reputation as a trusted voice in the world of journalism. Her writing style is insightful, engaging and thought-provoking, as she takes a deep dive into the most pressing issues of our time.
