Intel Panther Lake “Core Ultra Series 3” Brought To Life on 18A Technology, Officially Launched In Several Next-Gen Laptops

Intel has officially launched its next-generation Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs, codenamed Panther Lake, based on its 18A technology.

Intel's First 18A Product Is Officially Launched, Meet The Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs

As expected, Intel has finally launched its Panther Lake CPUs. These will be part of the "Core Ultra Series 3" lineup and feature brand new technologies such as new P-Cores, E-Cores, GPU Cores, and NPU/IPU. All of these combined in a multi-tile solution would deliver a great experience, not just limited to AI PC laptops, but for all kinds of devices.

During the Tech Tour 2025, Intel confirmed that it will officially launch Panther Lake "Core Ultra Series 3" CPUs at CES 2026.

Today, Intel showcased many performance figures for its Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs. First up, we have the ST performance where Panther Lake CPUs offer up to 40% lower power at similar performance.

The next comparison is made in Cinebench 2024's MT test, where the flagship Core Ultra X9 388H offers a 60% uplift in MT capabilities at the same power while also staying ahead of AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPUs.

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For graphics, Intel claims that the Arc B390 iGPU powered by Xe3 graphics architecture delivers a 82% gain in performance versus AMD's Radeon 890M iGPU across a wide list of games at 1080p resolution. The iGPU is also the first on the market to feature Multi-Frame Generation support, along with various other features.

And its not just laptops or Mini PCs, Panther Lake is also coming to gaming handhelds from several Intel partners.

Intel's Panther Lake CPUs will be segmented into three different die configurations, with two of these offering diverse compute tile configurations. These include:

• Panther Lake 8C = 4 P-Cores + 0 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores + 4 Xe3 Cores
• Panther Lake 16C = 4 P-Cores + 8 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores + 4 Xe3 Cores
• Panther Lake 16C = 4 P-Cores + 8 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores + 12 Xe3 Cores

Each Intel Core Ultra Series 3 or Core Ultra 300 SKU will be derived from these three dies. So as you can see, Panther Lake gives Intel a lot of flexibility versus Lunar Lake and even Arrow Lake. The entry-level die with 4 P-Cores and 4 LP-E Cores is what will be replacing the Lunar Lake family, while the higher-end dies with 16 cores will be replacing Arrow Lake-H.

Intel Panther Lake "8 Core"

So, looking deeply into the three configurations, let's talk about the entry-level Panther Lake 8C die first. This chip features 8 cores in a 4 P-Core and 4 LP-E core configuration. The compute tile features the xPU too, with IPU 7.5, NPU5, and Xe Media/Display Engines. The memory subsystem for this die offers up to 6800 MT/s LPDDR5x and up to 6400 MT/s DDR5 support, along with 8 MB of memory-side cache. There is 12 MB of L2 cache for the P-Cores and 4 MB of L2 cache for the single Darkmont cluster. The compute tile is fabricated on the 18A process node.

This die will pack up to 4 Xe cores and 4 RT units based on the new Xe3 graphics architecture, and the specific graphics tile will be fabricated on the Intel 3 process technology. The platform controller tile is fabricated on TSMC's N6 process node and features up to 12 PCIe lanes (8x Gen4 + 4x Gen5), 4 TB 4.0 ports, 2 USB 3.2 ports, 8 USB 2.0 ports, Intel Wi-Fi 7 (R2) support, and Intel Bluetooth Core 6.0 support.

Intel Panther Lake "16 Core"

The Intel Panther Lake 16C die adds more cores to the mix with 16 cores on the compute tile featuring 4 P-Cores, 8 E-Cores, and 4 LP-E cores. That gives us 12 MB of L2 cache for the P-Cores, and 12 MB of L2 cache for the E-Cores in three clusters.

The maximum memory support is also upgraded to 8533 MT/s LPDDR5X and 7200 MT/s DDR5. The Platform Controller Tile features up to 20 PCIe lanes with 12 Gen5 on this SKU. The graphics tile retains the 4 Xe cores based on the Xe3 architecture, which is based on Intel's own "Intel 3" process node.

Intel Panther Lake "16 Core 12 Xe"

The flagship die is the Panther Lake 16C 12Xe, which, as the name suggests, retains the same compute tile as the Panther Lake 16C die but upgrades memory support to LPDDR5X-9600. The 9600 MT/s speeds or 150+ GB/s bandwidth and LPDDR5x standard are crucial for the bigger graphics tile, which now features 12 Xe cores and 12 RT units based on the Xe3 architecture.

The GPU tile is once again fabricated on TSMC's N3E process technology & the platform controller tile goes back to the 12 PCIe lane configuration of the 8C die.

We have already published various deep dives into the technologies powering Panther Lake "Core Ultra Series 3" CPUs, which you can check out below:

• Panther Lake Architecture Deep-Dive
• Xe3 Graphics Architecture Deep-Dive
• XeSS 3 With MFG For Panther Lake & Game Performance
• Hands-On With Intel 18A-Powered Panther Lake

With the power efficiency of Lunar Lake, performance of Arrow Lake, and boosted graphics and NPU capabilities, Intel's Panther Lake "Core Ultra Series 3" CPUs are all set to become a fantastic PC solution for a wide range of audiences.

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Intel Core Ultra Series 3 CPU Lineup Specs (Official):

CPU Model	P-Cores (Cougar Cove)	E-Cores (Darkmont)	LP-E Cores (Skymont)	CPU Clocks (Max)	Xe3 iGPU Cores	TDP (Base / MTP)
Core Ultra X9 388H	4	8	4	5.1 GHz	12 @ 2.50 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra 9 386H	4	8	4	4.9 GHz	4 @ 2.50 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra X7 368H	4	8	4	5.0 GHz	12 @ 2.50 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra 7 366H	4	8	4	4.8 GHz	4 @ 2.50 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra 7 365	4	0	4	4.8 GHz	4 @ 2.50 GHz	25-55W
Core Ultra X7 358H	4	8	4	4.8 GHz	12 @ 2.50 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra 7 356H	4	8	4	4.7 GHz	4 @ 2.45 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra 7 355H	4	0	4	4.7 GHz	4 @ 2.50 GHz	25-55W
Core Ultra 5 338H	4	4	4	4.7 GHz	10 @ 2.40 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra 5 336H	4	4	4	4.6 GHz	4 @ 2.30 GHz	25-80W
Core Ultra 5 335	4	0	4	4.6 GHz	4 @ 2.45 GHz	25-55W
Core Ultra 5 332	2	0	4	4.4 GHz	2 @ 2.30 GHz	25-55W
Core Ultra 5 325	4	0	4	4.5 GHz	4 @ 2.45 GHz	25-55W
Core Ultra 5 322	2	0	4	4.4 GHz	2 @ 2.30 GHz	25-55W

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