Intel's first wave of Meteor Lake laptop processors has arrived, bearing the new official naming scheme—Core Ultra—that the chip giant detailed earlier this year. Made to power thin-yet-powerful laptops with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) processing, the new Core Ultra chips showcase Intel's entirely revised 3D architecture, AI integration, and a range of powerful features new to the silicon.
The company has outlined the first entries, allocated to the H series and U series, to kick off the new Core Ultra processor line. (The P series that emerged in recent years is absent.) We've looked at some of Intel's big architecture and design changes for Meteor Lake earlier this year (see our in-depth Meteor Lake explainer, and our Q&A with the head architect), but this first round of final chips gives us a clearer look at the features and performance that the new processors will deliver as we start to test them as 2024 rolls in.
Intel Unveils the H-Series and U-Series Core Ultra
Intel's Core Ultra announcement included eight new laptop CPUs, with four H-series processors and four U-series processors. While we'll go into detail on the most important changes and features coming with Core Ultra, let's start with the names and nitty-gritty specs for the new chips.
The first is the H series, which is (as is traditional for the H class) built for high-performance systems, such as gaming laptops and content-creation machines. If power is the priority, H-series chips are usually the processors used, since they provide the most muscular core configurations, a healthy balance of performance, and battery-saving efficiency.
U-series processors, on the other hand, are made for thin-and-light systems, such as ultraportable laptops and 2-in-1 convertibles. The "U" stands for ultra-low-power, and the processors, though capable, are built for lower power consumption and portability. Though not as potent as H-Series chips for tasks like gaming (almost all gaming systems use H-class CPUs), they are well-suited to all manner of productivity tasks.
All eight of these chips will make their way into new laptops soon, with some available now from manufacturers like Lenovo in its newest flagship ThinkPads and MSI in its premium business laptops, the MSI Prestige line. (Hit the links for our hands-on first experiences with these two laptop lines in their Meteor Lake livery.) We expect to see quite a few more Meteor Lake-based notebooks at CES 2024. We'll also test these as the first U-series and H-series systems come into PC Labs; before the Meteor Lake launch, we got in a few days with an Acer machine using an H-series Core Ultra 7, and you can see the results of our preliminary tests.
But new chips will require new testing perspectives, especially in the new AI world rushing up to meet us in 2024. In the meantime, here's a rundown of what's new in the world of Intel processors.
What's in a Name? Core and Core Ultra Say Bye to the 'i'
Most of the broad strokes of the Meteor Lake redesign were revealed earlier this year, as Intel announced changes to developers and manufacturers. One of the other big changes is the end of the "i" in Intel's mainline processor names. Instead of the familiar Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and so on, the Meteor Lake chips will simply be numbered. The new processors are called Core and Core Ultra, for standard and premium processors, respectively.
Interestingly enough, the new Core line will come in 3, 5, and 7 versions, while the higher-end Core Ultra line won't have a Core i3 equivalent. It will, however, include an as-yet-unannounced Core Ultra 9 version, providing a higher tier of power, equivalent to 13th Gen Core i9.
The lineup of new processors announced include both U-series and H-series processors, with the Core Ultra naming convention, using names like Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and Intel Core Ultra 7 155U. The generation number has been dropped from the chip name, but series signifiers, like H, U, and K will still be used to differentiate processors by their intended use, whether they're made for thin-and-light ultraportables, or heavy-duty workstations.
Ostensibly, this branding tweak is a simplification meant to make the new processors easier to identify and a bit easier to understand for consumers, but things may not be crystal-clear at first. Currently, the new naming scheme applies only to mobile chips meant for laptops and tablets. Desktop chips (for the moment) will actually keep the "Core i" naming pattern for now, and Meteor Lake will roll out first to laptops and mobile devices, not for desktops and system builders. And laptops with both naming schemes will persist in the market for a while.
Meteor Lake Architecture: Tiles, Stacks, and 7-Nanometer
Meteor Lake architecture is a massive change from past Intel chips. Intel has finally moved to Intel 4, a manufacturing process that includes 7-nanometer (nm) chip fabrication, but that's just one step in the evolution underway.
The move to 7nm is an important one, since it allows much more densely packed transistors to fit onto the surface of each die. Shrinking the space between transistors, as ever, allows for faster functioning and better energy efficiency, and Intel is already touting the faster performance and longer battery life of the new processors.
Intel has also shifted from the traditional monolithic chips it's known for and embraced a chiplet design that stacks modular chip components (called "tiles") onto a single chip. This multi-tile approach makes it easier to manufacture and update, since individual tiles can be quality-checked before they're used in a processor, and tiles can be redesigned as a separate package from the rest of the system-on-chip, or SoC.
This disaggregated design means that different tiles will now handle different core functions of the Meteor Lake chips. The four main tiles that make up each chip overall are the Compute Tile, the Graphics Tile, the SoC Tile, and the I/O Tile. The Compute Tile contains the high performance P-cores and efficient E-cores for processing tasks. The Graphics Tile incorporates Intel's new Arc graphics technology for improved integrated graphics performance. The SoC Tile handles connectivity and security, and it includes a dedicated AI processing unit. Finally, the I/O Tile manages all external connections.
With the new H-Series and U-Series Core Ultra chips finally arriving, we've learned of several new features coming in these processors, which, incidentally, also reboot the "generational" numbering/naming scheme traditional for the company's chips for ages. (The last generation of Intel laptop CPUs, dubbed the 13th Gen Core, is the last in that sequence. Intel isn't referring to these new chips as 14th Gen.)
For starters, the tiered approach to processing cores, with P-cores for performance and E-cores for efficiency, has been expanded. A third tier, called Low Power E-cores, is located in a portion of the SoC tile called the Low Power Island. Intel's Thread Director tool, which manages tasks across the different threads and cores of the CPU, will now run most background processes on the low-power E-cores, handling the rest in such a way as to prioritize energy efficiency while still delivering the high-end performance that's expected.
The NPU Debut: AI Comes Front and Center
The other major change coming with Meteor Lake is the addition of dedicated AI-processing silicon in Intel's first integrated AI engine, the neural processing unit (NPU). This dedicated processing engine is specifically for running local, client-side AI workloads.
By dedicating a third AI engine alongside the CPU and GPU, the NPU can be used for accelerating generative content creation, handling speech and audio processing, and optimizing high-performance, low-power processing. Called Intel AI Boost, this integrated AI engine also powers AI-enhanced features like webcam background blur and eye-tracking, working initially in environments like Windows' Studio Effects but coming to loads of other creative and productivity software via ISVs in 2024. The promise is that this will make some of the most advanced new functions of these upcoming laptops seamless and efficient.
Core Ultra CPUs, Meet Arc Graphics
One additional upgrade coming to Meteor Lake is the introduction of a new integrated GPU that features Intel's Arc graphics technology. This scaled-down version of the Arc graphics seen in Intel's own discrete GPUs is a step up from the current-gen Intel HD Graphics or even Intel Iris Xe graphics.
This move gives the new chips a larger graphics cache, ray tracing, and (as mentioned earlier) AI capabilities. In the higher-end H-series chips, this GPU will actually carry the Intel Arc branding, while the integrated graphics on the U-Series gets the same technology, but scaled down slightly for mobile use. In the U-series chips we have seen detailed so far, the scaled-down Arc is simply dubbed "Intel Graphics." (That's not to be confused with the older-generation Intel HD Graphics or Intel UHD Graphics.)
Updating Intel Evo
Finally, these new processors also come with new standards for Intel's Evo platform. The basics of fast-charging, a long-lasting battery, fast wake times, and Wi-Fi connectivity all get enhanced for the new processors.
The new standard calls for 10-plus hours of real-world battery life, along with fast charging that can provide 4 hours of use after just 30 minutes of charge time. Intel is targeting instant-on wake times of less than 1.5 seconds, and connectivity adds Wi-Fi 7 to the current best-in-class Wi-Fi 6E networking.
Memory and storage requirements stay the same, with a minimum of 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, but the slim laptops will also feature quieter performance with intelligent cooling, and AI-powered noise suppression during voice and video interactions, so you'll sound clearer to everyone else online.
Plus, Intel added its own cross-platform tools for working with other devices, like phones and tablets. Called Intel Unison, these new tools allow for cool tricks like using an iPad as a second monitor for your laptop, easy file sharing between devices, and even introducing messaging and calling that you can take on your laptop without even waking your phone.
Meteor (Lake) Incoming!
With this launch, we're already seeing announcements of new products featuring Intel Core Ultra CPUs, and will test more of the new chips as soon as we get them into the lab. For now, as mentioned earlier, you can see how the first Intel Core Ultra laptop we snagged, an Acer Swift Go 14, performs in our first tests.
We also expect to see more laptops featuring these new processors at CES 2024, the annual Las Vegas consumer electronics show in January. We're hopeful to learn even more about Core Ultra's NPU capabilities while at the show, right after AI drops on Vegas like, well, a meteor.
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