Intel refreshes non-Ultra Core CPUs with new silicon for the first time

For the first time in a while, the benefits of new Intel tech will trickle down.

Intel's Core Series 3 silicon, codenamed Wildcat Lake. Credit: Intel

Intel’s Core Ultra laptop CPUs have been its flagships ever since it retired the older generational branding scheme and the i3/i5/i7/i9 branding a few years back. The Core Ultra Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 processors been the ones with the newer CPU and GPU designs, and newer manufacturing technology.

Intel has also offered non-Ultra Core CPUs, but these have never been particularly interesting, mostly because both the Series 1 and Series 2 chips were based on Intel’s old Raptor Lake architecture. Raptor Lake was the code name for 2023’s 13th-generation Core family, and most versions of Raptor Lake were the same silicon used for 2022’s 12th-generation Core CPUs.

But the naming and renaming of Raptor Lake apparently couldn’t last forever. Intel’s new, non-Ultra Core Series 3 processors are new silicon, a return to the days when you could expect high-end and midrange Intel chips to include many of the same advancements despite their performance differences.

“Wildcat Lake” shares some things in common with Panther Lake, but it’s a slower and simpler design. Credit: Intel

These new chips are codenamed “Wildcat Lake,” and while there are some commonalities with the Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs (aka Panther Lake), the non-Ultra CPUs use a simpler design with much less computing power.

Each chip uses two silicon tiles: a compute tile that includes a CPU with up to two Cougar Cove P-cores and four Darkmont E-cores; an integrated GPU with one or two of Intel’s latest-generation Xe3 GPU cores; and (usually) an NPU capable of up to 17 trillion operations per second (TOPS). A separate platform controller tile built on an unspecified non-Intel process provides up to two Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, and six PCIe 4.0 lanes for external connectivity. All of the chips support up to 48GB of LPDDR5X-7467, or up to 64GB of DDR5-6400, and use a base power level of 15 W and maximum boost power level of 35 W.

With those kinds of specs, none of these chips is going to break any records. But the compute tile is made with the same Intel 18A manufacturing process as Panther Lake, which, combined with their relatively modest performance, should be a healthy step up in battery life from what was possible with older 12th-generation Core/13th-generation Core/Core Series 1/Core Series 2 silicon. Intel claims up to 12.5 hours of office productivity, up to 18 hours of 1080p Netflix streaming, and up to 9.6 hours of Zoom usage (ugh) on a pre-production system with a 59 WHr battery installed.

The only potential bad news—and that heavily depends on your perspective—is that the new chips’ built-in NPU falls far short of the 40 TOPS that Microsoft requires for PCs to earn the Copilot+ PC label and the handful of on-device AI and machine learning features exclusive to Copilot+ PCs. There are a few of these we’d consider essential—Windows Recall comes with inherent security and privacy risks, webcam Studio Effects partly duplicate functionality that’s already built into most videoconferencing apps, and I have found Click to Do mostly superfluous. But if you were hoping to get any of those features, Core Series 3 PCs won’t have them.

Intel says the Core Series 3 chips will appear starting today, and that “over 70 designs from leading partners… will launch in the coming months.”