Intel Reveals Overview of Next-Generation Laptop Processor "Panther Lake," Enhancing CPU Performance with New Process Technology

On October 9, 2025 (U.S. time), Intel unveiled the details of its next-generation System-on-a-Chip (SoC) for laptops, code-named Panther Lake.

Panther Lake package — the semiconductor dies are notably elongated horizontally Image Gallery No.002 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

It is the successor to Intel’s current-generation thin laptop SoC series, Core Ultra 200V (code-named Lunar Lake).

Summary slide highlighting Panther Lake’s key features Image Gallery No.003 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

As the successor to Lunar Lake, Panther Lake is unlikely to be used in desktop PCs or high-performance gaming laptops at this time. It remains uncertain whether it will become a widely adopted CPU among gamers.
However, Intel appears to be aiming to merge aspects of both Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake — its upcoming desktop/high-performance laptop processor (code-named Arrow Lake).
Intel has even stated that “Panther Lake is a product combining the best features of both Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake,” making it an important indicator for future Intel product direction.

Let’s briefly summarize the architecture overview of Panther Lake, as disclosed by Intel. Note that details such as product lineup, release dates, and pricing have not yet been revealed.

Adopts a tile-based design merging Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake

Like its predecessors Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake, Panther Lake uses Intel’s proprietary 3D stacking packaging technology, Foveros, to construct processors from multiple silicon dies (Intel refers to these as “tiles”).

However, the functional distribution across tiles in current-generation Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake has been significantly different. For example, Arrow Lake’s tiles include:

• Compute tile: P-core and E-core CPU cores
• GPU tile: GPU core based on Intel Xe2 architecture
• SoC tile: Memory controller, NPU (Neural Processing Unit), Xe Display Engine, etc.
• I/O tile: PCIe, Thunderbolt controllers, etc.
• Base tile: Foundation layer supporting the above tiles

In contrast, Lunar Lake consists of:

• Compute tile: P-core, LP E-core, NPU, GPU
• Platform Controller tile: All functions equivalent to a southbridge
• LPDDR5X SDRAM: Implemented on the Base tile in Lunar Lake
• Base tile: Foundation layer

The following slide illustrates how Panther Lake integrates these elements.

Panther Lake’s tile configuration Image Gallery No.004 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

In Panther Lake, the GPU previously integrated into the Compute tile in Lunar Lake is now separated and implemented as a dedicated GPU tile — similar to Arrow Lake. Meanwhile, a Platform Controller tile with the same name as Lunar Lake’s persists.
Additionally, Panther Lake no longer integrates main memory on-package; instead, it reverts to connecting external DRAM chips via standard memory buses.

Note: The Filler tiles shown in the diagram are dummy dies used to fill gaps and have no functional role.

While this layout appears closer to Arrow Lake at first glance, the functions integrated into each tile differ significantly in Panther Lake.
Intel has released details on an 8-core model and two types of 16-core models, so let’s examine them individually via slides.

Mid-range 8-core version of Panther Lake — similar to Lunar Lake generation, with Compute tile containing P-core + LP E-core Image Gallery No.005 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

High-performance laptop version of Panther Lake — 16-core model, Compute tile includes E-core Image Gallery No.006 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

16-core CPU + 12-core Xe3 version of Panther Lake with enhanced GPU performance Image Gallery No.007 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

As shown in the slides, Panther Lake’s Compute tile includes high-performance P-cores and low-power LP E-cores. The 16-core variant also incorporates additional E-cores.
The CPU core architecture uses “Cougar Cove” for P-cores and “Darkmont” for E-cores and LP E-cores — both being improved versions of Arrow Lake/Lunar Lake’s Lion Cove and Skymont, respectively.

Besides the CPU cores, the Compute tile integrates an enhanced image processing engine (Image Processing Unit or IPU), AI-processing unit (NPU), memory controller, and a new 8MB “Memory-side cache.”

In essence, the Compute tile integrates all computational units except GPU and peripheral circuits related to memory — this is how it should be understood.

A notable change: The memory controller has now moved into the Compute tile. In Arrow Lake, it resided in a separate SoC tile. This prior arrangement often caused higher latency during memory access, limiting gaming performance.
Panther Lake addresses this by relocating the memory controller closer to the CPU core within the Compute tile, aiming to reduce memory access delay.

The supported memory type varies per model. The high-GPU-performance 16-core CPU + 12-core Xe3 variant supports LPDDR5X-9600 SDRAM.
While Panther Lake’s total memory bus bandwidth has not been disclosed, LPDDR5X-9600 surpasses Apple’s M4 Max SoC (which uses LPDDR5X-8533), potentially exceeding the 546 GB/s peak memory bandwidth of MacBook Pro models with M4 chips.

Another highlight: The introduction of a Memory-side cache. Positioned below L3 cache, it functions as a kind of fourth-level cache. Intel claims this helps hide latency in I/O and memory access while reducing access frequency — contributing to improved power efficiency.

The Compute tile’s Image Processing Unit (IPU) has been refreshed to the 7.5th generation. It enables AI-based tone mapping and noise reduction, and supports hardware-accelerated “staggered HDR” at 4K resolution.
※ A technique that captures multiple frames with varying exposure and combines them into an HDR image.

Summary slide of IPU’s functions in its 7.5th generation Image Gallery No.009 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Meanwhile, the NPU has been upgraded to its 5th generation — “NPU 5” — with a maximum performance of 50 TOPS.
Although Lunar Lake’s NPU 4 offered 48 TOPS, this represents only modest improvement. However, despite enhancements such as support for FP8 precision and other optimizations, the size of the die has been reduced by nearly half.

Block diagram comparison: NPU 4 (left) vs. NPU 5 (right). Intel claims a reduction in die area by over 40% while improving efficiency Image Gallery No.010 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Summary slide on NPU 5 Image Gallery No.011 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Another key point: The Compute tile is manufactured using Intel’s next-generation semiconductor process, “Intel 18A.”
Intel 18A marks the company’s first adoption of High Numerical Aperture (High NA) EUV lithography. Alongside this, transistor structure has transitioned to “Ribbon FET,” and power delivery uses a dedicated layer called “PowerVia” — making it an extremely advanced process technology across the entire semiconductor industry.

With PowerVia implementation, chip density increases by 10%, while voltage drop (IR Drop) is reduced by 30% Image Gallery No.012 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

With both Ribbon FET and PowerVia, Intel claims that for the same performance level, power consumption is reduced by 25%, while chip density increases to 1.3 times Image Gallery No.013 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Intel 18A is a pivotal process for Intel’s future. Investors are closely watching whether it can be manufactured reliably — and Panther Lake’s availability will likely hinge on this.

Darkmont cores achieve Raptor Cove-level performance with lower power consumption

As previously mentioned, the 16-core variant of Panther Lake employs three types of CPU cores: P-cores, E-cores, and LP E-cores. Compared to its predecessor Lunar Lake, which omitted E-cores, this marks a revival of E-cores.

Slide comparing CPU core configurations across generations Image Gallery No.014 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

While E-cores are typically associated with low power consumption, in Panther Lake they are primarily used to enhance multi-threading performance. Low-load processes remain assigned to LP E-cores — a clear role division.
Thus, unlike Arrow Lake’s E-cores, the E-cores in Panther Lake occupy a more central role.

The “Performance Cluster,” which integrates P-cores and E-cores, forms a cluster with shared L3 cache. In contrast, LP E-cores reside in an “Efficiency cluster” without shared L3 cache — a key difference.

Block diagram of Compute tile in Panther Lake: the LP E-core located slightly below center is integrated into a different cluster from P-cores and E-cores, and connects to memory differently Image Gallery No.015 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Given that LP E-cores are isolated from the shared L3 cache, they can be considered a CPU core focused entirely on power efficiency.
However, their L2 cache capacity has doubled compared to Lunar Lake’s LP E-core.

Slide showing cache hierarchy for P-core, E-core, and LP E-core Image Gallery No.016 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

The Thread Director — a system that allocates threads to CPU cores in coordination with the OS scheduler — has also been significantly expanded in Panther Lake.
In Panther Lake, Thread Director first prioritizes assigning processes to LP E-cores. Once their load increases, it dynamically distributes tasks to E-cores and P-cores within the Performance Cluster based on workload. This behavior resembles that of Lunar Lake.

Slide comparing Thread Director operation across generations Image Gallery No.017 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Intel claims that the Darkmont-generation CPU cores used in E-cores and LP E-cores achieve performance equivalent to Intel’s Raptor Cove P-core (from 13th-gen Core processors launched in 2022), but at a lower power consumption.
In other words, Panther Lake delivers performance comparable to a high-performance core from three years ago — now available within an E-core.

Slide summarizing improvements in Darkmont Image Gallery No.018 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Meanwhile, the P-core using Cougar Cove architecture is highlighted for being optimized specifically for Intel 18A — achieving extremely high throughput in single-threaded workloads.

Slide summarizing improvements in Cougar Cove Image Gallery No.019 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Thanks to these core enhancements, Panther Lake reportedly achieves a 40% reduction in power consumption for the same single-threaded performance compared to previous generations, or a 10% performance increase under the same power budget.

Comparison of single-threaded performance between Panther Lake and prior generation Image Gallery No.020 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

For multi-threaded workloads, it achieves a 50% reduction in power consumption at the same performance level, or a 30% improvement under identical power constraints — with E-core addition significantly enhancing multi-threading efficiency.

Comparison of multi-threaded performance between Panther Lake and prior generation Image Gallery No.021 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Intel Xe GPU reaches third generation; Multi-frame generation feature introduced

The GPU in the GPU tile uses Intel’s third-generation Xe architecture: Xe3.

Evolution of Xe architecture — Panther Lake’s GPU is at the same generational level as Intel Arc B-series Image Gallery No.022 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

The Xe Core in the GPU consists of eight 512-bit SIMD engines (“XVE”) and eight 2048-bit compute units (“XMX”), maintaining a similar scale to the previous-generation Xe2.
However, L1 cache capacity has increased from 192KB to 256KB, and improvements in XVE efficiency have resulted in a 50% performance gain under identical power consumption compared to Lunar Lake’s GPU.

Slide summarizing improvements in Xe3 Image Gallery No.023 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

Achieved 50% performance improvement over Lunar Lake under same power Image Gallery No.024 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

One interesting point: Xe3 features “enhanced fixed functions” — a response to Intel’s past criticism of poor performance in games using DirectX 11 and earlier APIs. These weaknesses appear to have been addressed with new improvements.

In Panther Lake, the standard configuration includes four Xe3 cores; higher-end models feature twelve Xe3 cores. This scale rivals standalone GPUs like Intel Arc A-series — promising respectable gaming capabilities.

Block diagram of 12-core Xe3 model Image Gallery No.025 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

As previously noted, the 12-core Xe3 model supports high-bandwidth LPDDR5X-9600 memory — making it comparable to AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ series. Depending on price and performance, this could even appear in portable gaming PCs — a promising prospect for gadget-loving gamers.

Additionally, Intel has announced upcoming integration of an AI-based multi-frame generation technology called XeSS-MFG. This is especially beneficial for integrated GPUs, so it warrants anticipation.

Introducing XeSS-MFG into the Xe3 architecture Image Gallery No.026 thumbnail / Intel reveals overview of next-gen laptop processor “Panther Lake,” enhancing CPU performance with new process technology

In summary, the main features and highlights of Panther Lake have been briefly outlined. Although primarily targeted at thin laptops, even the 12-core Xe3 model is expected to significantly enhance gaming performance in lightweight notebooks and portable gaming PCs — making its official product launch highly anticipated.

Intel Official Website