Intel's keeping the rumor mill busy according to a report from WCCFTech. This week, details leaked about the Core Ultra 5 234V, supposedly the first glimpse of Intel's upcoming Lunar Lake CPU.
Here's what we’ve heard so far, the next-level Intel Core Ultra could come with an 8-core engineering sample with a mix of high-performance Lion Cove cores and low-power Skymont cores, designed for thin and light laptops that pack a punch. Think productivity powerhouse on the go. Plus, it's got an undisclosed Battlemage iGPU on board for some built-in graphics muscle.
Here's what we know so far about Intel Lunar Lake.
Intel Lunar Lake: Possible release date
Don't expect these CPUs to hit shelves extremely soon – rumors suggest a limited launch later this year, with wider availability in 2025. This would mirror what we saw with Meteor Lake arriving in a handful of laptops at the end of 2023, so it's not completely unprecedented.
Intel Lunar Lake: Features
Here's a look at some of the features that we can expect to see in Intel Lunar Lake:
- Designed with thin and light notebooks in mind. Perfect for portability without sacrificing performance.
- They will feature Lion Cove P-Cores & Skymont E-Cores. A combo of powerful cores for demanding tasks and efficient cores for everyday use, maximizing battery life.
- Next-level Battlemage "Xe2-LPG" GPU Architecture. Expect improved graphics capabilities for everyday tasks and even some light gaming.
- We should see up to 64 Execution Units. Translates to smoother visuals and better graphics performance.
- We should see 4+4 Core Configurations. This 8-core setup is likely just the tip of the iceberg, with more options potentially on the horizon.
- On-Package LPDDR5x Memory for faster data transfer speeds for a more responsive experience.
- We could get up to 3x faster NPU performance versus Meteor Lake. A significant boost for AI tasks like photo editing and video encoding.
Intel Corporation Lunar Lake Client Platform/LNL-M LP5Detected 3100.000 MHz processorIntel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 5 234V 2.10GHz (family: 0x6, model: 0xbd, stepping: 0x1)cores per package: 8threads per package: 8https://t.co/eDZ71yTO2oApril 4, 2024
Outlook
This is shaping up to be a highly competitive year for laptop chip makers, if Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips deliver on their promise, it's easy to understand why Intel would perhaps press to get its next-gen out sooner.
Meanwhile, whispers suggest Intel's working on discrete Battlemage "Xe2" GPUs too. These could offer next-gen features like improved ray tracing and some fancy AI-powered rendering tech. But again, that's a story for another day.
For now, the Lunar Lake leak gives us a taste of what Intel's cooking up. Stay tuned for more info as it surfaces!
