Intel's Core Ultra 9 386H "Panther Lake" CPU has leaked out, showcasing strong multi-core & single-core performance versus existing chips.
Intel's Panther Lake "Core Ultra 9 386H" Stuns With Superb Single & Multi-Core Performance Against Existing Lunar Lake, Arrow Lake & Strix Lineups
We have seen various Intel Panther Lake "Core Ultra Series 3" prior to its official launch scheduled for CES 2026. The leaks cover specs, performance, and various aspects, but in regards to performance, what we've seen so far is based on engineering samples, which often do not run at the officially rated clock speeds.
But it looks like we have just gotten our first leak of a proper and close to retail sample. The numbers for the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H have been submitted to Geekbench 6 and showcase the chip running inside an Acer Predator Helios "PHN16S-I51" laptop. The laptop features 64 GB of memory, though it isn't mentioned if this is LP5X or a standard DDR5 configuration. Based on previous iterations of the Predator Helios, we believe that this would be SO-DIMM.
As for the specifications of the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, the CPU features a total of 16 cores in a 4 P-Core, 8 E-Core, and 4 LP-E core configuration. The base frequency is maintained at 2.10 GHz while the boost is maintained at 4.9 GHz. The chip was running at frequencies between 4.6-4.7 GHz across all cores, hitting almost 4.8 GHz. There's also 18 MB of L3 cache and 8 MB of L2 cache onboard the chip. The Non-X SKUs will feature just 4 Xe3 iGPU cores. This laptop likely features a discrete GPU, though Intel has said during their Tech Tour 2025 that they don't expect laptops with dGPUs for Panther Lake.
Moving on to the performance figures, the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H CPU scored 2845 points in single-core and 15,407 points in the multi-core benchmark. The following is how these numbers stack up against existing chips:
Geekbench 6 Single-Core Performance (Higher is Better)
First, looking at the single-core figures, we can see that the Panther Lake sits above all other mobile chips at the moment in its class. This is a 25W chip which maxes out at 65-80W, and seeing it faster than the i9-14900HX, Core Ultra 9 285H, and on par with the i5-14600KF is impressive considering those chips clock way above 5 GHz while the Core Ultra 9 386H is a 4.8-4.9 GHz SKU. We should see even impressive single-core results with the flagship 388H, which boosts up to 5.1 GHz.
Geekbench 6 Multi-Core Performance (Higher is Better)
The Multi-core performance is very impressive too, sitting 16% above the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and over 50% faster than the Lunar Lake 8-core parts. Once again, the Core Ultra 9 386H is faster than the Core Ultra 9 285H Arrow Lake chip, which has more P-Cores (6 vs 4) but the same 16-core count and boosts up to 5.4 GHz.
The CPU even manages to be on par with the Core i9-14900HX, a higher-clocked 24-core chip, and also shows similar performance as the Ryzen 5 9600X desktop CPU, and we can expect the flagship 388H to come close to the Strix Halo SKUs which are much higher TDP starting at 55W at base and going as high as 120W.
Overall, these are some impressive figures for Intel's Panther Lake "Core Ultra Series 3" CPUs, and the best part is that these are not even the final numbers, and not even the flagship chip. With about a month left in launch, we can expect further tuning and final BIOS/Drivers to further pump up these figures so that the final retail products perform even better.
Intel Panther Lake-H and U lineup (Preliminary)
| CPU Model | P-Cores (Cougar Cove) | E-Cores (Darkmont) | LP-E Cores (Skymont) | CPU Clocks (Max) | Xe3 iGPU Cores | iGPU Clock | TDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Ultra X9 388H | 4 | 8 | 4 | 5.1 GHz | 12 (B390) | TBD | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra X9 386H | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4.9 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra X7 368H | 4 | 8 | 4 | 5.0 GHz | 12 (B390) | TBD | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra X7 366H | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4.8 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra X7 358H | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4.8 GHz | 12 (B390) | 2500 MHz | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra X7 356H | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4.7 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 5 338H | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4.7 GHz | 10 (B370) | TBD | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 5 336H | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4.6 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (65-80W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 7 365 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4.8 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (55W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 7 355 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4.7 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (55W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 5 335 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4.6 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (55W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 5 325 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4.5 GHz | 4 | TBD | 25W (55W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 5 332 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4.4 GHz | 2 | TBD | 25W (55W Turbo) |
| Core Ultra 5 322 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4.4 GHz | 2 | TBD | 25W (55W Turbo) |
News Source: Benchleaks
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