Intel's Panther Lake CPU spotted at Embedded World 2025, giving us an early look at the next-gen chip

[zohaibahd]

In brief: Embedded World 2025 wraps up today, and German media outlets captured clear images of Intel's upcoming Panther Lake processors. They are the most detailed images since Intel unveiled Panther Lake last year. The chips should be available sometime mid-year.

Intel's upcoming Panther Lake CPU has surfaced again, this time at Embedded World 2025, where German media captured clear images of both sides. These new images come courtesy of PC Games Hardware. It's not Panther Lake's first public appearance – former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger already showed it off on stage a few months back. However, it is the best look so far.

Panther Lake is the official codename for Intel's Core Ultra 300 series mobile processors. It will succeed the current Core Ultra 200 "Lunar Lake" chips as Intel's flagship CPU offering when it arrives later this year.

Panther Lake represents a significant evolution for Intel's processor lineup. The chip uses Intel's new 18A process node, which should deliver a decent performance uplift over previous generations. The CPU pairs "Cougar Cove" performance cores with "Skymont" efficiency cores that debuted in the Lunar Lake series.

However, Panther Lake's integrated Xe3 "Celestial" graphics processor is its real selling point. This third-gen Xe GPU is a big step up from the Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics found in Lunar Lake, promising up to 16 cores and 180 TOPs of AI muscle. Celestial also marks a shift in Intel's production strategy.

While the CPU cores are manufactured solely on Intel's 18A process, the graphics silicon comes from TSMC's advanced N3E node. It's an unconventional hybrid model, but it likely allows Intel to leverage TSMC's expertise in leading-edge GPU production.

Some doubts remain about whether Intel can get Panther Lake out the door this year as planned. The 18A process builds upon multiple changes to Intel's transistor architecture, which debuted with the 20A process. These include moving to RibbonFET gated-around designs and new PowerVia backside power delivery. Intel has already encountered delays in Panther Lake production, primarily due to challenges with 18A. However, analysts still expect Intel to announce the new generation sometime in mid-2025, meaning these chips should hit the shelves in January 2026, just in time for CES 2026.

Image credit: PC Games Hardware

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Intel's Panther Lake CPU spotted at Embedded World 2025, giving us an early look at the next-gen chip

 

[yRaz]

Hopefully it'll be good, but I think AMD has been keeping their prices competitive in the CPU space even without pressure from Intel. CPUs are cheap but GPUs are ungodly expensive. It used to be the other way around just like 6-7 years ago.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Well, the only place Intel still has any sort of lead over AMD is in mobile… hopefully this is decent enough for them otherwise they’ll be crushed everywhere…

 

[yRaz]

Well, the only place Intel still has any sort of lead over AMD is in mobile… hopefully this is decent enough for them otherwise they’ll be crushed everywhere…

Frankly, I see a move away from desktops and closer to mobile as APUs get better and better. With the absurd pricing of dGPUs, I think plenty of people are going to look at APUs from both AMD and Intel and just say F^$* I, it's good enough.

 

[NumberNine]

Big fat negatory on the NPU. Too much going on one chip. I want discrete, dedicated power for every component in the system.

Whatever that NPU is supposed to be doing, let it do it on its own card, pulling as much power as it needs. Unless of course... that's just what a GPU is...

 

[SRB]

Wow, this is impressive. It loos soooo much faster. Or am I missing something?

 

[daffy duck]

Honestly if the rumours saying AMD is sticking to RDNA3.5 for Medusa Point next year, Panther Lake H will kick the crap out of Medusa Point in gaming and efficiency. Lunar Lake is using half the power to roughly match 890M in gaming and Panther Lake's Xe3 iGPU will be much faster and will come with options of more cores.

 

[yRaz]

Honestly if the rumours saying AMD is sticking to RDNA3.5 for Medusa Point next year, Panther Lake H will kick the crap out of Medusa Point in gaming and efficiency. Lunar Lake is using half the power to roughly match 890M in gaming and Panther Lake's Xe3 iGPU will be much faster and will come with options of more cores.

AMD's biggest problem with their APUs is that they only stick the most powerful ones on their highest-end chips. People who want an 890M shouldn't have to pay for a 16 core mobile chip with it. For people who want mobile gaming, their 8060S+8zen5 cores should be plenty. With the 8060S(the 890M is old news) going (allegedly) toe-to-toe with the 4070m, it could be a really compelling offering. The thing is, most people aren't going to want to pay for a 16core chip just to get that graphics power. And considering it's a mobile part, the extra power consumption from the extra cores is an issue.

Like, sure, that's a lot of power in a mobile part. However, looking at the 9800X3D, no one really gives a rats *** about the extra cores. For the most part, I'm very prop AMD, but they are trying to upsell consumers and intentionally making a part that's worse for it's intended application, which is mobile gaming. All their 8core parts and above should come with the same 8060S, put the 8050S on the 6 core parts. However, IIRC, the 6 core part gets an 870M, the 8core and 12 core parts get the 8050S and only the 16 core part gets the 8060S.

Which, at that point, I hope Intel actually makes a good chip. The Arc chip on my laptop works just fine for on the road gaming. I have an 11th gen i7 in it and it says it comes with Iris XE and ARC graphics, never figured out what that meant. Either way, it's a perfectly capable gaming computer when I'm away from home and considering that I spend more time on the road these days than at home, I have a growing interest in the mobile space. When you're stuck in a hotel room, being able to log into Steam does a lot for being homesick.

 

[noblody]

Hopefully it'll be good, but I think AMD has been keeping their prices competitive in the CPU space even without pressure from Intel. CPUs are cheap but GPUs are ungodly expensive. It used to be the other way around just like 6-7 years ago.

the compute die of the ryzen 9700x is 70.6 mm². You could almost fit 4 ryzen compute dies in the space of the GB205-300-A1 of the nvidia 5070. the 9700x had a MSRP at launch of $360 compared to the $550 for the RTX 5070.
Then the gpu also has 12GB of ram, a somewhat big pcb full of components, a chunky power delivery system and a big cooler on top, a bunch of connectors, fans and the dreaded 12V-2x6 adapter. The 9700 has a small substrate and a 122 mm² io die built on the 7/6 nm node that was estimated to cost ~$30.
It seems amd could probably build 4x ryzen 9700X CPUs with the resources for a single RTX 5070. so, either the 5070 is priced too low (oh ... no) or maybe AMD enjoys big margins on the ryzen 9700x because there is little competition from intel.

 

[yRaz]

the compute die of the ryzen 9700x is 70.6 mm². You could almost fit 4 ryzen compute dies in the space of the GB205-300-A1 of the nvidia 5070. the 9700x had a MSRP at launch of $360 compared to the $550 for the RTX 5070.
Then the gpu also has 12GB of ram, a somewhat big pcb full of components, a chunky power delivery system and a big cooler on top, a bunch of connectors, fans and the dreaded 12V-2x6 adapter. The 9700 has a small substrate and a 122 mm² io die built on the 7/6 nm node that was estimated to cost ~$30.
It seems amd could probably build 4x ryzen 9700X CPUs with the resources for a single RTX 5070. so, either the 5070 is priced too low (oh ... no) or maybe AMD enjoys big margins on the ryzen 9700x because there is little competition from intel.

Don't forget, the 9700 frequently is found under MSRP whereas the 5070 basically can't ve found at all

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Honestly if the rumours saying AMD is sticking to RDNA3.5 for Medusa Point next year, Panther Lake H will kick the crap out of Medusa Point in gaming and efficiency. Lunar Lake is using half the power to roughly match 890M in gaming and Panther Lake's Xe3 iGPU will be much faster and will come with options of more cores.

Thing is, lunar lake is still difficult to find anywhere, even harder to find a good product. The majority of laptops are still normal 100 series or 200 series. That and you still have to deal with intel's drivers, which *hurk*. I dont see the 300 series being any better.