Intel demos Panther Lake chips, promises Arrow Lake performance with Lunar Lake efficiency

[DragonSlayer101]

The big picture: Intel unveiled its next-generation Core Ultra 300 "Panther Lake" laptop processors on the opening day of Computex 2025. Built on the company's 18A process node, the chips use a five-tile design that includes Cougar Cove performance cores, Darkmont and Skymont efficient cores, and an Xe3 Celestial integrated GPU.

Intel did not share performance benchmarks for the new chips but claimed they will deliver Arrow Lake-level performance with Lunar Lake-level efficiency. The company also confirmed that the processors will include next-gen XMX integrated graphics matching the performance of Lunar Lake's GPU.

The exhibition included a Panther Lake laptop running DaVinci Resolve, showcasing on-device AI video processing. The laptop processor had 16 cores, though Intel withheld detailed specifications. Online speculation suggests a configuration of four performance cores, eight efficient cores, and four low-power efficient cores.

The demo CPU featured a 2.0GHz base clock, 3.0GHz boost clock, 1.6MB of L1 cache, 24MB of L2 cache, and 18MB of L3 cache. Both the laptop and processor were engineering samples, with retail units expected to enter production in the second half of 2025 ahead of an early 2026 OEM launch.

Another showcase at the event featured Microsoft's new AI-powered Clippy assistant, highlighting Panther Lake's AI processing capabilities. In the presentation, an Intel representative used Clippy to generate game code in Python. However, Intel did not provide benchmark data to illustrate the chip's performance.

The Panther Lake chips at the event ran on Reference Validation Platforms – Intel's term for custom boards used to validate new processor microarchitectures. The company also displayed a development kit similar to the one shown alongside Lunar Lake last year.

Previous leaks suggested that Panther Lake would include at least four SKUs. The flagship model features four P-cores, eight E-cores, four LP-E cores, and 12 Xe3 integrated GPU cores. It has a 45W PL1 rating and an 80W PL2 ceiling. The entry-level chip keeps four performance and four low-power efficiency cores but drops the standard efficiency cores, with a 15W PL1 and 54W PL2 rating.

Image source: Tom's Hardware, PC World

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Intel demos Panther Lake chips, promises Arrow Lake performance with Lunar Lake efficiency

 

[letsgoiowa]

Only matching the performance of previous generations? AMD keeps pulling further and further ahead. It reminds me of when this situation was reversed in the early 2010's.

 

[yRaz]

Only matching the performance of previous generations? AMD keeps pulling further and further ahead. It reminds me of when this situation was reversed in the early 2010's.

Idk, im pretty happy where performance is at right now, im more interested in better battery life and efficiency. It'd also be nice if costs came down a bit. The high end stuff, as cool as it is, is very hard to justify against used server hardware. Ive got 11 systems in my homelab and I paid pennies on the dollar for them compared to new hardware.

 

[Puiu]

Idk, im pretty happy where performance is at right now, im more interested in better battery life and efficiency. It'd also be nice if costs came down a bit. The high end stuff, as cool as it is, is very hard to justify against used server hardware. Ive got 11 systems in my homelab and I paid pennies on the dollar for them compared to new hardware.

More performance is never a bad thing as long as power draw is kept in check.

 

[GhostLegion]

Idk, im pretty happy where performance is at right now, im more interested in better battery life and efficiency. It'd also be nice if costs came down a bit. The high end stuff, as cool as it is, is very hard to justify against used server hardware. Ive got 11 systems in my homelab and I paid pennies on the dollar for them compared to new hardware.

Same man, not on the number of systems but performance especially on desktop is pretty ok right now. The power consumption of modern systems and the heat they put out is out of control. Honestly, mini pc’s are pretty interesting and heat output is critical. Imagine throwing a 14900K or whatever and having it only consume 75-100W at most for what we would say is peak performance today. Same for performance on battery. Everyone no matter what can appreciate more battery. Not everyone needs more performance.

 

[passwordistaco]

Imagine throwing a 14900K or whatever and having it only consume 75-100W at most for what we would say is peak performance today.

I just built that system recently, with a 9800X3D.

 

[SRB]

Same man, not on the number of systems but performance especially on desktop is pretty ok right now. The power consumption of modern systems and the heat they put out is out of control. Honestly, mini pc’s are pretty interesting and heat output is critical. Imagine throwing a 14900K or whatever and having it only consume 75-100W at most for what we would say is peak performance today. Same for performance on battery. Everyone no matter what can appreciate more battery. Not everyone needs more performance.

The only problem with that was to get the 14900k to run with the 7800X3D, you had to throw 5-600 watts at it. Arrow Lake has lower power draw, but it also came with lower performance. Intel is managing expectation pretty low.