September 4th, 2024

Intel Core Ultra 200V Series Lunar Lake Launched

Intel launched its Core Ultra 200V Series processors, Lunar Lake, featuring on-package memory, a 4+4 core configuration, improved AI performance, and enhanced gaming capabilities, while facing competition from Qualcomm and AMD.

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Intel Core Ultra 200V Series Lunar Lake Launched

Intel has officially launched its Core Ultra 200V Series processors, known as Lunar Lake, which represents a significant redesign in its mobile CPU lineup. Key changes include the integration of memory on-package, the removal of Hyper-Threading, and a reduction in core counts. The new architecture features a faster GPU and NPU aimed at enhancing AI performance, while also focusing on lower power consumption. Intel claims that the Lunar Lake processors can match or exceed Qualcomm's power efficiency and outperform both Qualcomm and AMD in battery life. The new design includes a 4 performance core and 4 efficient core configuration, resulting in fewer threads compared to previous generations. The E-cores have been upgraded to Skymont, promising a 68% performance increase over the prior generation. Additionally, the Xe2 graphics engine has been enhanced, providing improved gaming performance. However, the maximum memory capacity is capped at 32GB, which may limit its appeal for users requiring higher memory configurations. Overall, the Lunar Lake series aims to restore Intel's competitive edge in the mobile CPU market, particularly against Qualcomm, while still facing challenges from AMD.

- Intel's Core Ultra 200V Series features significant architectural changes, including on-package memory and the removal of Hyper-Threading.

- The new processors focus on lower power consumption and improved battery life, claiming to outperform Qualcomm and AMD.

- The architecture includes a 4+4 core configuration, resulting in fewer threads than previous generations.

- Enhanced Xe2 graphics aim to improve gaming performance, while the maximum memory capacity is limited to 32GB.

- The launch positions Intel to regain competitiveness in the mobile CPU market, particularly against Qualcomm.

Link Icon 5 comments
By @sparky_ - 3 months
Rather embarrassingly, these chips are actually produced by TSMC :-)

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2355435/intels-lunar-lake-is...

By @jauntywundrkind - 3 months
I'm hella excited for this part.

On package ram allows for some absurdly small designs, with a lot less heartache to get there (since there aren't a bunch of incredibly high speed delicate lanes to route away from the core).

Mandatory 2 (third optional) Thunderbolt ports is so excellent and offering. Gobs of bandwidth available to users, in all kinds of forms, is neat. Plus they have Thunderbolt Share, which while yes seems like an over glorified USB-IP implementation is going to be excellent for unlocking consumers to be able to hack and play with their computers.

It's a bit sad the disaggregated future promises by Meteor Lake isn't working out, that there needs to be one huge Compute Tile like this. The Platform Chip really is back to being a fairly uninteresting south-bridge like part.

The performance numbers look great. It's excellent seeing Intel having some really strong chip engineering chips like this. Hopefully 18A and beyond can be a viable home for some of these excellent cores or derivatives.

By @multimoon - 3 months
Intels downfall is something that I would’ve never predicted a decade ago, and would’ve actively bet against ever happening.

I think it should be a case study in business classes in the future for how you don’t waste such a dominate market position should you have one.

By @nolist_policy - 3 months
> Intel also says it now is beating not just AMD but also Qualcomm in battery life. This is a disaster for Qualcomm as power efficiency has been the main selling point of its parts over Intel and AMD. It needs to show it can win because if you have used a Snapdragon X Elite device, there are still things that do not run on Arm.

Good to know that there's a viable Snapdragon equivalent for Chromebooks now. Remember, for whatever reason Qualcomm made an exclusive deal with Microsoft.