At Computex 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan, Intel unveiled its next-generation Panther Lake processors. The successors to Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake, the Panther Lake CPUs (Intel Core Ultra 300 series) are slated to arrive in the PC market in early 2026. Notably, these processors are built on Intel’s important 18A process node.
According to Wccftech, the Panther Lake chipset will offer power efficiency on par with the Lunar Lake processor. Essentially, Intel has blended the high performance of the Arrow Lake H-series with the energy efficiency of Lunar Lake to create the Panther Lake chipset.
Intel showcased a Panther Lake system featuring 16 CPU cores: 4 performance (P) cores, 8 efficiency (E) cores, and 4 low-power (LP) cores. Reports indicate these cores are likely Cougar Cove, Darkmont, and possibly Skymont. On the graphics front, Intel plans to include a GPU based on the next-generation Xe3 (“Celestial”) architecture.
In the test system, the CPU runs at a base clock speed of 2.0GHz, with boosts up to 3.0GHz. Keep in mind these are evaluation units, and retail versions will likely feature higher frequencies. Overall, the Panther Lake demonstration at Computex highlights that Intel’s 18A node is healthy and ready for production.
It’ll be exciting to see how the x86-based Panther Lake stacks up against the ARM-based Snapdragon X2 Elite, whose 3rd-gen Oryon CPU promises significant gains in both performance and efficiency.
