Intel Lunar Lake CPUs will reportedly offer a major boost in multi-threaded performance with their new P-Core & E-Core architecture.
Intel Lunar Lake CPUs With Lion Cove P-Cores Lack Hyper-Threading Support But Deliver 50% Higher Multi-Threaded Performance Than Meteor Lake
The latest information on Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs comes from Bionic_Squash who has teased the multi-threaded performance of the upcoming low-power CPU platform. The Lunar Lake CPUs are targeted at thin and light laptops with a focus on higher performance per watt and faster AI NPU performance. The chips are expected to feature the Lion Cove P-Core, Skymont E-Core architecture, and a brand new NPU that delivers 3x the performance gain over Meteor Lake.
MTL-U (15w)-> LNL(17w)
Almost 1.5x MT perf increase (CB23, GB 5.4.5)— Bionic_Squash (@SquashBionic) March 10, 2024
17w was the original PL1 for single fan config. They have extended cTDP to 30w pretty recently due to popular demand from OEM's
— Bionic_Squash (@SquashBionic) March 10, 2024
Nope
— Bionic_Squash (@SquashBionic) March 10, 2024
Now let's talk about the performance being shared. The Lunar Lake CPU used for comparison is a 17W SKU and is said to have no hyper-threading support. For comparison, a Meteor Lake-U (15W) chip was used which features 2 P-cores, 8 E-Cores, and 2 LP-E cores for a total of 12 cores and 14 threads. Based on previous information that we have reported, Lunar Lake CPUs will come with up to 4 P-Cores and 4 E-Cores so that's 8 cores and 8 threads.
There are no specific SKU details but it is mentioned that the 17W TDP was the original PL1 spec for the single-fan configurations based on Lunar Lake CPUs. Intel is said to have extended the cTDP up to 30W following popular demand from OEMs. But here, the 17W TDP was used for comparisons.
Some of the most popular multi-threaded CPU benchmarks were used such as Cinebench 23, Geek Bench 5, and Geek Bench 4.5. It is stated that the Intel Lunar Lake CPUs reached almost 50% multi-threaded performance versus the Meteor Lake CPUs which is a huge increase despite Lunar Lake chips having almost half the number of threads. This may give us a hint of the performance packed within the new Lion Cove and Skymont cores with the former also heading to Arrow Lake CPUs for desktops and notebooks later this year.
Following are some of the features of Lunar Lake CPUs:
- Designed For Thin & Light Notebooks
- Lion Cove P-Cores & Skymont E-Cores
- Battlemage "Xe2-LPG" GPU Architecture
- 4+4 Core Configurations (MX-Series)
- Up To 64 Execution Units
- On-Package LPDDR5x Memory
- Up To 3x Faster NPU Performance Versus Meteor Lake
- Late 2024 Launch, 2025 Volume
Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs will be rolling out later this year in limited quantities with mass availability in early 2025. Besides the CPU and NPU side, the chips will be the first to incorporate the next-gen Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture on the iGPU Tile, offering a major 2x performance uplift vs the existing Xe1 "Alchemist" architecture. Intel will also talk about its future client CPU families at Computex 2024 so we might hear more about these chips in June.
Intel Mobility CPU Lineup:
| CPU Family | Panther Lake | Lunar Lake | Arrow Lake | Meteor Lake | Raptor Lake | Alder Lake |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process Node (CPU Tile) | Intel 18A | TSMC N3B | TSMC N3B | Intel 4 | Intel 7 | Intel 7 |
| Process Node (GPU Tile) | TSMC N3E / Intel 3 | TSMC N3B | TSMC 5nm | TSMC 5nm | Intel 7 | Intel 7 |
| CPU Architecture | Hybrid | Hybrid (Dual-Core) | Hybrid (Triple-Core) | Hybrid (Triple-Core) | Hybrid (Dual-Core) | Hybrid (Dual-Core) |
| P-Core Architecture | Cougar Cove | Lion Cove | Lion Cove | Redwood Cove | Raptor Cove | Golden Cove |
| E-Core Architecture | Darkmont | N/A | Skymont | Crestmont | Gracemont | Gracemont |
| LP E-Core Architecture (SOC) | Darkmont | Skymont | Crestmont | Crestmont | N/A | N/A |
| Top Configuration (Compute Tile) | 4+8 (H-Series) | 4+4 (MX Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 2+8 (U-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 2+8 (U-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 8+16 (HX-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 8+8 (HX-Series) |
| Max Cores / Threads | 16/16 | 8/8 | 14/14 | 14/20 | 14/20 | 14/20 |
| AI NPU | NPU5 (50 TOPS) | NPU4 (48 TOPS) | NPU3.5 (13 TOPS) | NPU3 (11 TOPS) | NPU2 (7 TOPS) | NPU2 (7 TOPS) |
| Planned Lineup | Core Ultra 300 | Core Ultra 200V | Core Ultra 200 | Core Ultra 100 | 14th/13th Gen | 12th Gen |
| GPU Architecture | Xe3-LPG (Battlemage) | Xe2-LPG (Battlemage) | Xe-LPG+ (Alchemist) | Xe-LPG (Alchemist) | Iris Xe (Gen 12) | Iris Xe (Gen 12) |
| Xe Cores (Max) | 12 Xe3 Cores | 8 Xe2 Cores | 8 Xe Cores | 8 Xe Cores | 96 EUs (768 Cores) | 96 EUs (768 Cores) |
| Memory Support | LPDDR5X-9600 | LPDDR5X-8533 | DDR5-5600 LPDDR5-7500 LPDDR5X-8533 | DDR5-5600 LPDDR5-7400 LPDDR5X - 7400+ | DDR5-5200 LPDDR5-5200 LPDDR5-6400 | DDR5-4800 LPDDR5-5200 LPDDR5X-4267 |
| Memory Capacity (Max) | 128 GB | 32 GB | 128 GB | 96 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB |
| Thunderbolt Support | TB5 | TB5 | TB5 | TB4 | TB4 | TB4 |
| WiFi Capability | WiFi 7 | WiFi 7 | WiFi 7 | WiFi 6E | WiFi 6E | WiFi 6E |
| TDP | 17-45W | 17-30W | TBD | 7W-45W | 15-55W | 15-55W |
| Launch | 2H 2025 | 2H 2024 | 2H 2024 | 2H 2023 | 1H 2023 | 1H 2022 |
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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