Intel’s Panther Lake chips offer impressive performance that challenges Apple’s M5, showcasing significant advancements in efficiency and power.
City: Intel’s launch of the Panther Lake chips is a game changer. For years, Intel’s laptop chips made only small updates, but not this time. The Panther Lake chips are here, and they are special.
These chips, called Intel Core Ultra Series 3, were announced almost five years ago. Intel’s CEO at that time, Pat Gelsinger, said this tech was key to the company’s comeback. I tested laptops with these new chips, and I was really surprised by how well they performed. This might be the win Intel has been waiting for.
For the Core Ultra Series 3 to be a success, Intel needed to keep their promises. They aimed to match the battery life and efficiency of the older Lunar Lake chips while boosting performance. This was a big challenge, but they also claimed that their stronger chips for gaming would improve both performance and battery life.
I tried out two models from the new Intel Core Ultra Series 3. The Core Ultra X7 358H was in the MSI Prestige 14 Flip, and the Core Ultra X9 388H was in a Lenovo IdeaPad. Both are 16-core chips with four performance cores and eight efficiency cores.
Interestingly, the X9 has two less performance cores than the Core Ultra 9 285H, which can be confusing. The MSI Prestige 14 Flip actually used a different chip in the past, so it’s harder to compare directly. Here are some results from my testing.
The Core Ultra 7 258V was tested in another laptop of similar size. The results showed a big 52 percent boost in multi-core CPU performance and a 54 percent increase in GPU performance, easily beating the M4 MacBook Air.
However, Intel still struggles with single-core performance against Apple. They are not as quick as the M4 Pro or M4 Max, which lead in almost every measure. The difference is smaller between the X9 and M4 Pro, just 14 percent. Plus, Apple’s M5 Pro and M5 Max are coming soon, so there might be more competition ahead.
The graphics are impressive, especially on the X9 chip. The “X” branding seems worth it this time. Both the X7 and X9 chips have a powerful B390 GPU. The X7 and X9 include 12 Xe cores; the only difference is their clock speed. Intel says that Panther Lake graphics are 77 percent faster than the old Lunar Lake models. I didn’t see as much of a jump, but it is tricky to compare different laptops.