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Back at Intel Innovation 2023, Intel announced plans to launch its Intel Core Ultra processors in mid December. Based on the Meteor Lake architecture, the first wave of Core Ultra CPUs for laptops have now been officially announced and we have all the details on specs and features.
With Meteor Lake, Intel engineers set out to achieve a number of objectives, chasing higher efficiency, new packaging techniques for the Intel 4 Process node, greater iGPU performance and AI acceleration. The first wave of Intel Core Ultra processors offer up to 6x P-cores and up to 8x E-cores in a single package, utilising 3D Performance Hybrid Architecture with Foveros. Boost clock speeds can reach as high as 5.1GHz, while a dedicated NPU module has been put in place to boost AI workloads.
As we noted back at Intel Innovation, the company has been putting a lot of effort into improving its integrated graphics. Some of the new Core Ultra processors will ship with an Intel Arc iGPU with up to 8 Xe-cores, which as we saw in early demos, can run AAA games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider. In additional benchmarks, Intel claims that the new Arc iGPU for Core Ultra CPUs will be capable of running games like Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Final Fantasy 14, GTA 5, WoW, LoL, Overwatch 2, PUBG, Resident Evil Village, Valorant and others at native 1080p with at least medium quality settings – which is impressive for a 28W chip aimed at ultrathin laptops.
If you go a step further and enable Intel XeSS, you'll get even higher levels of performance thanks to AI upscaling techniques to save on performance. You can see in the slide above from Intel that the gains can be pretty significant in a lot of titles.
Versus the current-gen Ryzen 7 7840U, Intel claims to have leads in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads with its new Intel 4 node. In a set of benchmarks, we can see Intel's Core Ultra 7 155H taking the lead in PugetBench for Premiere Pro, PugetBench for Lightroom and UL Procyon Video Editing.
The Intel Core Ultra line-up is divided into two categories, with H-series chips offering higher power and better performance, while U-series chips are geared towards low-power devices, focusing on efficiency over performance gains. You can find the specs for all the currently launching chips in the table below:
| Processor | Cores/Threads | Intel Smart Cache | Boost Clock Speeds | Integrated Graphics | Xe Cores | Power (W) |
| Core Ultra 7 165H | 16/22 (6x P-cores/8x E-cores | 24MB | Up to 5.0GHz | Intel Arc | 8 | 28 |
| Core Ultra 7 155H | 16/22 (6x P-cores/8x E-cores | 24MB | Up to 4.8GHz | Intel Arc | 8 | 28 |
| Core Ultra 5 135H | 14/18 (4x P-cores/8x E-cores) | 18MB | Up to 4.6GHz | Intel Arc | 7 | 28 |
| Core Ultra 5 125H | 14/18 (4x P-cores/8x E-cores) | 18MB | Up to 4.5GHz | Intel Arc | 7 | 28 |
| Core Ultra 7 165U | 12/14 (2x P-cores/8x E-cores) | 12MB | Up to 4.9GHz | Intel Graphics | 4 | 15 |
| Core Ultra 7 155U | 12/14 (2x P-cores/8x E-cores) | 12MB | Up to 4.8GHz | Intel Graphics | 4 | 15 |
| Core Ultra 5 135U | 12/14 (2x P-cores/8x E-cores) | 12MB | Up to 4.4GHz | Intel Graphics | 4 | 15 |
| Core Ultra 5 125U | 12/14 (2x P-cores/8x E-cores) | 12MB | Up to 4.3GHz | Intel Graphics | 4 | 15 |
If you are looking at this list and wondering where the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is – we didn't miss it. That processor will be available in laptops starting in Q1 2024, featuring most of the same specs as the Core Ultra 7 165H, but with a higher 45W TDP and higher boost clock speeds, reaching up to 5.1GHz for the CPU and up to 2.35GHz for the Xe GPU.
The first laptops sporting Intel Core Ultra processors will be available soon from OEMs like Acer, HP, Dell, Google, Gigabyte, LG, MSI, Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft.
KitGuru Says: Are you thinking about picking up one of the first Intel Core Ultra laptops?
