Intel is preparing to pounce with its upcoming Panther Lake series of processors and will officially launch at CES 2026. These Intel Core Ultra 3 processors are a part of the 18A, which is hoped to assist in getting the chip manufacturer back on its feet following years of fiscal challenges and missteps. With improved CPU and GPU performance, increased AI support and features, and Xe3 graphics, Panther Lake could be the predator Intel needs to begin its climb back up. Intel has already begun shipping Panther Lake to OEMs who will start selling products in 2026.
While some will call this launch a refresh, there is a bit more to it than that. This 18A product will arrive in two variants aimed at high-end usage scenarios and efficiency models designed for mobile and lower power solutions. Both will see the introduction of the low-power efficiency cores alongside performance and efficient cores. The high-end versions will feature 16 cores made up of 4 performance, 8 efficient, and 4 low-power efficient cores, whereas the efficient models are comprised of either 2 to 4 performance cores paired with 4 low-powered efficient cores. Intel further improves upon the previous Nova Lake generation with Xe3 graphics featuring 12 execution units (shader blocks) that could see reasonable 1080p gaming performance.
Panther Lake Family Specifications (via Igor’s Lab):
| Model | Cores (P E LPE) | Max clock | Xe3 cores | Target group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Ultra X9 388H | 4 8 4 | 5.1 GHz | 12 | Enthusiasts, Gaming |
| Core Ultra X7 368H | 4 8 4 | 5.0 GHz | 12 | High-end notebooks |
| Core Ultra X5 338H | 4 4 4 | 4.7 GHz | 10 | Upper class, creative |
| Core Ultra 9 386H | 4 8 4 | 4.9 GHz | 4 | High-end with dGPU |
| Core Ultra 7 366H | 4 8 4 | 4.8 GHz | 4 | Premium Allround |
| Core Ultra 5 336H | 4 4 4 | 4.6 GHz | 4 | Mainstream Performance |
| Core Ultra 7 365 | 4 0 4 | 4.8 GHz | 4 | Efficiency Standalone |
| Core Ultra 3 322 | 2 0 4 | 4.4 GHz | 2 | Entry-level, Office |
Discussion (12 replies)
Join Discussion →Not going to lie I have my fingers crossed for Intel. Lots of intelligent people over there who've been denied a chance to shine. Like when Mopar released the engineers to make the fun cars they wanted to make for a while.... Intel needs a solid resurgence.
I agree. I've been pissed at them for over a decade for some fairly half-arsed desktop releases, but I'm hoping lessons have been learned and the folks that are there now will have a true chance at succeeding. I'm still very skeptical but hoping for the best.
Ugh, more crap from Intel, this time even worse cuz it has THREE different kinds of cores.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-arc-b390-panther-lake-igpu-shows-promising-results-in-alleged-3dmark-tests[/URL]
Yeah the 3-core type strategy has me a little concerned, but between what's in my laptop and the ones I picked for our office, I've witnessed some impressive things with its predecessors. Still not as good as an X3D chip, but not horrible either. I still miss the older, more traditional architectures, but they might be onto something that can compete with ARM while keeping x86 alive.
Power efficiency does seem a good place for Intel to focus. Outside of server farms no one seems to consider cost of use - or perhaps I am just a penny pincher?
Intel needs to focus on IPC and memory performance. Give us a desktop design that can run two or four channel depending on mother board slot use. Folks that love memory speed for their stuff will be all about a consumer CPU that is speed comparative, winning in IPC and having true 4 channel memory bandwidth will rock the market for consumer grade tech.
But it will be a small set of super fast CPUs with some mid to lower tier CPUs in the mix. And it will perform alright...
They need to rule the roost in a big way for a part of the market then grow that. Just like AMD did.
Recently bought a laptop with a Core Ultra 275HX paired with the mobile RTX 5090 (aka RTX 5080 w/ 24 GB) and very, very, impressed with it so far. However, I of course, did some research beforehand and folks were complaining that the memory was not running at advertised speeds. Wasn't overly concerned and ordered it anyway. Turns out that these mobile CPUs, and their motherboards, have some very interesting configuration issues which affect ram speeds. In my case while the memory is rated at 5600 MT/s, and the CPU supports it, there's fine print involved that manufacturers are not providing. In essence whether installed memory is in a one or two bank configuration. The Core Ultra 200's only support max ram speeds in a single bank setup. My laptop has four slots, two bank and while I tried reinstalling the sticks on one it wouldn't boot so had to stick with the default which downgrades to 4800 MT/s. What's worse, for those who populate all four slots it'll go down to 4400 MT/s.
Anyone curious, here's a link to what I got and yes I know I'm insane and will be paying this off until summer (got it for ~$1,500 off during BF though) but I'm still incredibly happy with it.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DYJK9JNG/?tag=thefpsreview-20[/URL]
Oh daaaaaaang, woooow, whaaaat thaaa fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck?!
That's a powerful box. But for a laptop.... I wouldn't want an 18 inch especially if I travelled in airports with it regularly. Other than tat... VERY nice.
Now if it's more of a luggable than a laptop and you don't travel with it often... cool. The LED lights across the bottom are kinda... over the top for me. j
Travel with it will be minimal. Mainly for when I want to hang outside under our gazebo (a Lowes kit we got ~2020) or when my back/legs are hurting and I want to lay on the couch or in bed, hence the screen size and occasional trips to visit the folks.
Sort of keeping on topic, though, I've been very impressed with the 13900HX in my previous laptop and the 275HX in this one. I think Intel is on the right track with products such as these in the mobile sector. I admit if I could've afforded the AMD X3D models, I would've gotten one but between costs and 4K screen, they were not a good fit for me. Meanwhile, both of these Intel processors have shown me that Intel is on to something. I used to look the other way with the 275/285 in regard to all the OEM desktop builds but now I'd happily recommend them to anyone who doesn't absolutely want a 9800X3D/9950X3D.
Side note for those wondering, as we know game engines will try to use whatever VRAM is available and I've already seen games using 16-18+ GB at 2560x1600 with this desktop RTX 5080 24 GB variant when using all the fancy RT/DLAA/MFG 3x features at max settings. One of the reasons I wanted this particular laptop model (ASUS also has a similar but mroe expensive version as well) is the 1440p/5090 mobile combo. Sure it can do some 4K but at 1440p it can fly w/o have to use max power and at 18" the PPI is sharp. Using balanced mode the total TDP is ~250W, CPU hanging ~80W clocking in between 3GHz-5Ghz and GPU ~130W at between 2200 MHz - 2700 MHz with mem at 28 GHz. FPS varies but anywhere from 80 -120 (HZD Remastered, Cyberbunk, RE Village - image quality set to 2.0, TW3 RTX w/ Halk Hogan pack) to over 240 (Hogwarts)
I guess I'm in-between. I don't like using laptops with screens smaller than 17". My current laptop has a 17" screen. I rarely need to travel by air, but I take my laptop a lot of places. I bring it with me when I chill at friends' houses, when I visit local family, or when make service calls to clients' homes. But at home I barely touch it. If I use it at home it's usually to do software maintenance on it, or cuz my main PC is down (and now I have a secondary desktop available for use as well). Although I should point out that my laptop is not very gaming capable, with just an old weak Intel iGPU. I would probably get a lot more use outta it if I could run modern games on it. Gaming laptops are some heavy suckaz though.