Panther Lake is back in the news, and more specifically the Core Ultra 9X 388H and its substantial graphics. Initial tests point to a significant performance boost over Luna Lake and Arc 140V. We’re talking about more than 30% gains on 3DMark. A welcome jump that will support performance on tasks executed on the iGPU or video games.
Panther Lake: a 33% more powerful iGPU than Lunar Lake
Initial readings by Laptop Review Club seem to indicate a solid improvement in the performance of the graphics part of these CPUs. Indeed, the latter generates a score of 6233 pts on Time Spy with LPDDR5X memory running at 8533 MT/s. When the memory runs faster, at 9600 MT/s, the score rises to 6300 pts. In contrast, Lunar Lake scored 4721 pts on the same test.
In addition, this Core Ultra X9 388H offers a solid configuration with 4 P-Core, 8 E-Core and 4 LPE Core. The graphics section features 12 Xe3 cores.
But that’s not all, as efficiency is said to have improved significantly. Panther Lake uses the 18A blueprint process. This promises improved density and greater efficiency. This is all to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the figures announced by Intel point to a gain of 40% over Arrow Lake-H and 50% over Lunar Lake. Note that we’re talking about performance/consumption ratios here.
Of course, cooling plays a vital role in performance. Indeed, the better the CPU is cooled, the better the frequencies reached and, consequently, the overall performance level will be pulled up. It’s important to mention this, since we’re dealing with laptop CPUs, and obviously CPUs designed for ultrabooks– slim, lightweight machines that promote mobility!