Intel claims that the new generation Core Ultra notebook chip surpasses the competition's flagship X Elite chip from Qualcomm in aspects such as CPU, GPU, AI, etc.; The first batch of notebooks equipped with the Ultra 200V chip will go online on September 24th.
Recently embroiled in the controversial "shrinking cylinder" issue,$Intel (INTC.US)$it unfortunately coincided with the day of a significant drop in the US chip sector, as they unveiled their latest generation Core Ultra notebook chip.
In simple terms, Intel has introduced a batch of thin and light notebook chips aimed at competing with Qualcomm and AMD in the AI PC market. In addition to various parameters and benchmark scores, the core advantage is the support for the traditional x86 architecture (Note: Qualcomm Snapdragon X series is an ARM architecture chip).
Fully surpass Qualcomm's competing products?
Intel released the Ultra 200V series chips early Wednesday morning, with a total of 9 models. However, unlike the i5 and i7 products that we were familiar with in previous years, this batch of chips all have 8 cores (4 performance cores + 4 efficiency cores). The main differences in the product line parameters lie in the slight differences in CPU maximum turbo frequency, GPU core count, and NPU engine count.
This generation of chips also has a significant feature - the memory is directly integrated into the chip, so consumers only have two choices: 16GB and 32GB. Intel also discontinued Hyper-Threading technology in this generation of products, so these chips are all "8 cores 8 threads".
In the three-digit product names, the first "2" represents the second-generation Core Ultra chip, the second digit represents the level of processor frequency, and the third digit only has "6" and "8", corresponding to two levels of memory.
Intel stated that the first batch of laptops with the Ultra 200V chips will be launched on September 24th. Throughout the entire press conference, Intel repeatedly emphasized that their chips perform better than competitors, especially Qualcomm.
As the flagship product in this batch of chips, the Ultra 9 288V can compete evenly with Apple's M3 in terms of multi-threaded performance/power consumption curve. And under the same performance, it has a 40% lower power consumption than Qualcomm's flagship chip, the X1E-80-100.
Of course, from the chart provided by Intel, it is not difficult to see that the performance data of the 8-thread Ultra 9 288V will still be inferior to the previous generation Intel chips with 14 or 22 threads under high power conditions, as well as AMD's HX 370 with 12 cores and 24 threads. Therefore, a more accurate positioning for this chip should be "the king of low-power domain".
In terms of graphics capabilities, Intel emphasizes that its own chips have a frame rate that is 68% higher than Qualcomm's flagship AI PC chips under 1080p medium settings, especially for dozens of games that cannot run on Qualcomm chips. Of course, whether gaming on a thin and light laptop worth thousands of yuan is a 'pseudo-demand' depends on the attitude of consumers.
Intel claims that with the use of XeSS super-resolution technology, the frame rate for running 'Cyberpunk 2077' can reach 45fps.
In terms of AI performance comparison, Intel also claims to be superior to Qualcomm's competing products.
You might want to wait for some reviews before making a purchase.
Considering that the first batch of Dell and Asus laptops with new chips will soon enter the public review phase, waiting for reviews is the most common advice for consumers who are interested in upgrading to an 'AI PC' this fall.
Tech media The Verge also mentioned that when testing new laptops from Qualcomm and AMD earlier this year, they found that the actual products of these manufacturers were not as perfect as advertised – for example, AMD's chip did not live up to its 'surpassing Apple' slogan, and Qualcomm's chip performed well in terms of battery life but quickly showed unsuitability for gaming. The biggest question for Intel's new chips is whether these laptops can maintain high-performance running when unplugged.
Intel also revealed that real-time captioning and other Microsoft Copilot Plus AI features will not be included at launch, but these features will be released as free updates starting in November.
At the same time, for consumers who are not satisfied with 8-core chips, there were rumors earlier that Intel will release the next generation Arrow Lake chips in October, suitable for users needing more memory, cores, and thread counts.
Editor/ping