Panther Lake really has been through the ringer, beginning life as a full top to bottom replacement for Arrow Lake before becoming a mobile-exclusive architecture á la Lunar Lake. Unfortunately, it seems that Intel is struggling to instil confidence in OEMs, with one likening the new architecture as closer to the company’s less successful Meteor Lake launch.
YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID) recently shared the latest information they have on Panther Lake, largely reaffirming previous specification leaks. However, the leaker did also provide fresh information on performance estimates as well as perceptions from partners on the architecture.
Speaking to MLID, a Major OEM allegedly said: “Panther Lake seems like another Meteor Lake situation, but maybe with the CPU not going backwards, and the iGPU keeping up with AMD.” Comparisons to Core Ultra 1 Series are anything but flattering, but these chips should at least be more compelling to some degree reading between the lines of this commentary.
Meanwhile, another OEM shared similar sentiments. It said, “despite the issues, I think Panther Lake will be capable of replacing [Lunar Lake] and [Arrow Lake], but it’s not the massive upgrade we wanted.”
Looking at the latest Panther Lake leaks, both in terms of specification and performance estimates, I understand where these OEMs are coming from. I don’t quite believe we’re staring down another Meteor Lake situation, but this certainly isn’t a seismic shift from Lunar Lake.
In terms of core configuration, we should expect top-end Panther Lake to feature four Cougar Cove P-cores, as well as eight E-cores, and four LPE-cores, both Darkmont Cove. That’s 16 cores total and the same amount of threads, as Intel is skipping support for hyperthreading once again.
These cores will reside on the CPU/SoC die, with the four LPE-cores residing on a separate block, alongside an LPDDR5X memory controller, media controllers, and display out. Importantly, Intel is backtracking on built-in RAM, which should reduce production costs at the expense of some performance.
While Intel is using 18A for Panther Lake’s CPU/SoC die, the company will leverage TSMC N6 for the PCD (Platform Controller Die) and TSMC N3 for integrated Xe3 graphics. The brand had every intention of using its own process across the board, but poor yields apparently prompted a change in direction.
It’s unclear how much of an IPC uplift Cougar Cove will offer, with Intel estimating 5-13% about a year ago according to MLID. However, Xe3 performance improvements are more confident and compelling at 15-30% at the same power.
Intel has previously claimed Panther Lake will be as efficient as Lunar Lake, the latter of which only has 30W available to it. However, MLID claims that higher-end SKUs will have access to 45W of power. This should make for welcome competition against AMD’s offerings in the mobile space.
MLID shares that Panther Lake-H is still on track to launch at the tail-end of 2025. Perhaps Intel will share more official information on the architecture alongside Arc B770? Here’s hoping. Until then, make sure you’re following Club386 on Google News for more on the latest leaks, rumours, and news.
