Intel this week reiterated that it cannot meet demand for all of its client and data center processors due to insufficient supply, and specifically mentioned that it could use more Core Ultra 200-series Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake wafers to increase shipments of appropriate processors. Logic tiles of both CPUs are made by TSMC, whereas packaging is performed by Intel in-house, so when placing orders with the foundry, Intel was more conservative than it should have been.

"If we had more Lunar Lake wafers, we would be selling more Lunar Lake, if we had more Arrow Lake wafers, we would be selling more Arrow Lake," said John Pitzer, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Planning and Investor Relations at Intel, at UBS Global Technology and AI Conference 2025. "I think we feel pretty good about where we are in the AI PC transition."

While the PC market is no longer growing at a high pace, demand for client systems appears to be so strong that Intel cannot meet it. One of the reasons for this is that the company outsources production of chiplets for Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake processors to TSMC, and the allocation of wafers that Intel has access to is not enough for the company to meet demand for its products.

Both Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake use TSMC's N3B (3nm-class) manufacturing technology, which is one of the most sophisticated production nodes that the foundry has. TSMC's advanced fabs tend to be fully utilized, so Intel cannot get extra capacity quickly. Therefore, while the company expects growth of Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake supply in the fourth quarter and onwards, it did not say that it would be enough to meet all of the backlog demand. The good news: Intel has enough LPDDR5X memory for its Lunar Lake CPUs that carry on-package DRAM, so the company's costs for these CPUs are not going to increase in the short term.

That said, it remains to be seen whether and when Intel hikes prices of its client CPUs over time amid insufficient supply, high DRAM prices, and DRAM shortages.

Although Intel has invested billions in equipping its fabs with the latest equipment, such as ASML's EUV lithography tools, the majority of Intel's fabs can only produce chips on its 10nm-class process technologies — such as 10nm SuperFin and Intel 7 (aka 10nm Enhanced SuperFin) — using DUV tools. As a consequence, the company cannot meet all the demand for its Xeon 6 'Granite Rapids' processors that use Intel 3 fabrication technology.

"The vast majority of our capacity today is still on Intel 7, 10nm and that is why we are tightest there," said Pitzer. "Quite frankly, if we had more Granite [Rapids] wafers, we would be selling more Granite Rapids. We feel very good about where we are in the initial phase of the Granite [Rapids] ramp, which is our latest generation server part."

This is not the first time that Intel has complained that it cannot meet demand for all of its products. At its most recent earnings call, the company said it reallocated its internal Intel 7 wafers for Xeon 6 'Granite Rapids' processors that use Intel 7-based I/O tile.

Spotted by @x86isdeadandback, the Core Ultra 7 254V is purportedly the lowest-end SKU in its category. The Core Ultra 7 254V, which Intel has yet to announce, made an appearance on the PassMark benchmark.

PassMark evaluates the overall performance of your system, and the Cotr ultra 7 254V score is relatively modest, with 17,327 points in the multi-core test. Compare that to the 256V and 258V in the same test, and you're looking at a 12.8% and 3.6% reduction in compute, respectively. That's lower than even the Core Ultra 226V, which is the lowest-end SKU in the entire Lunar Lake lineup.

Intel released its lineup of Lunar Lake mobile chips last year, focusing on efficiency rather than brute-force performance. There were a variety of SKUs targeting different price points, including four models part of the Core Ultra 7 family — essentially the "Core i7" of Lunar Lake, following Intel's rebrand. These represent the sweet spot between the most expensive flagship chips and the midrange-oriented Ultra 5 series, and today we have another one joining the family. This will mark the fifth Core Ultra 7 SKU and the tenth overall Lunar Lake chip.

Glancing at the single-core test, the 254V scored 4,089 points, which is in line with the scores of other Ultra 7 SKUs. So, even though these results did not reveal clock speeds that significantly impact evaluation, we can ascertain that this is no secret ace up Intel's sleeve; instead, it is a binned-down version of the existing 256V, meant for even cheaper laptops. However, that's not a bad thing at all.

Lunar Lake is generally a well-received platform with enough power and versatility to handle every menial task on a laptop and most resource-intensive ones as well. It can game if you want (and if you're patient), and, again, if you opt for a top-end variant, then you might not even be able to tell you have an efficiency-focused chip inside. While achieving impressive battery life, which is usually associated with only ARM-based laptops from Apple or Qualcomm. The Core Ultra 254V, if it comes out, will slot nicely as an entry-level to the high-end Lunar Lake experience.

Moreover, if we inspect these PassMark results, they also give insight into the specs of the 254V. It has eight cores—like every other Lunar Lake chip—and shares the same cache pool as other Core Ultra 7 and 9 chips, despite being positioned closer to the bottom-tier Core Ultra 5 offerings. Refer to the table below for a clearer understanding. What we didn't find out, however, was how much memory the 254V will come with. For those unaware, Lunar Lake features RAM integrated within the SoC package, rather than externally on the PCB. So far, Intel has packed 32 GB with every 2x8V chip and 16 GB with every 2x6V chip. The introduction of a new 2x4V suffix suggests a lower memory configuration, but only time will tell.

Intel has announced the unveiling of three new Intel Xeon 6 P-Core CPUs that it says are designed specifically to handle the most advanced GPU-powered AI systems. The new processors will debut in Nvidia's DGX B300 AI systems.

The new processors, replete with Intel's Performance-cores, also feature new Intel Priority Core Turbo (PCT) and Intel Speed Select Technology – Turbo Frequency, which the company claims delivers customizable CPU core frequencies to improve GPU performance for demanding AI workloads.

All three are available now, and the Intel Xeon 6776P also comes integrated in the Nvidia DGX B300, the company's latest AI-accelerated systems.

Intel says that the introduction of PCT and Intel SST-TF as a pairing marks "a significant leap forward in AI system performance." PCT should allow for the dynamic prioritization of high-priority cores, enabling higher turbo frequencies. Meanwhile, lower-priority cores operate at base frequency in parallel to optimize resource distribution. PCT can reportedly run up to eight, high-priority cores at elevated turbo frequencies, according to Intel.

Intel's Xeon 6 CPUs include up to 128 P-cores per CPU and 20% more PCIe lanes than previous-generation Xeon processors, with up to 192 PCIe lanes per 2S server. Intel also claims Xeon 6 offers 30% faster memory speeds compared to the competition (specifically the latest AMD EPYC processors), thanks to Multiplexed Rank DIMMs (MRDIMMs) and Compute Express Link, and up to 2.3x higher memory bandwidth compared to the previous generation.

Intel says its P-Core Xeon 6 processors have 2 DIMMs per channel (2DPC), and says the 2DPC configuration supports up to 8TB of system memory. It also says MRDIMMs boost bandwidth and performance, all while reducing latency. The new CPUs also feature up to 504 MB L3 cache for faster data retrieval.

Intel Xeon 6 processors also feature Intel AMX, which can offload certain tasks to the CPU. Intel confirmed AMX now features support for FP16 precision arithmetic, which enables efficient data pre-processing and critical CPU tasks in AI workloads. Alongside its three new P-Core processors, Intel has also added a B-variant 6716P-B.

Intel demoed working Panther Lake Core Ultra 300 silicon for laptops, its first chips based on its crucial 18A process node, here at Computex 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan. Unlike the first public demoes at CES 2025 that merely showed the chips powered on, Intel put Panther Lake its paces in real-time rendering and AI applications, showing that the silicon is healthy and on-track for retail availability in early 2026. Intel also shared more information about its performance and power consumtpion expectations for the new chips. 

As you can see in the image above, Intel also had a Panther Lake chip on display, enabling us to see how the CPU, GPU, I/O tile, and SoC tile are arranged on the package. These chips are thought to come with Cougar Cove P-cores and Darkmont E-cores (you can see the unconfirmed leaked specifications of some of the chip models here). 

Intel says the Panther Lake chips blend the power efficiency of Lunar Lake with the performance of Arrow Lake-H, noting that while the chips will be in production in the second half of 2025, presumably launched at CES, full retail availability will not come until early 2026. Intel did tease that the chips will come with the next-gen integrated graphics with XMX graphics, but aside from saying the iGPU performance will be closer to Lunar Lake than Arrow Lake, the company didn't elaborate. These iGPUs are thought to be based on the Xe3 architecture.

Intel ran its Panther Lake benchmarks on two Reference Validation Platforms (RVP) that you can see in the above album. These platforms are used to validate the design and emulate real-world conditions. Both RVPs were equipped with a heatsink and fan, so they were presumably operating without thermal constraints. 

Intel demoed one system running the newly-resurrected Clippy as a large language model to demonstrate that the chips are running AI workloads. The presenter used the system to write game code in Python code. Intel didn't share performance metrics from the benchmark. 

Intel also demoed a system running Da Vinci to edit and manipulate video using local AI processing to process the video, enabling fast manipulation of the video clip, such as changing backgrounds, clothing colors, and adding flying text to the clip. 

Intel also displayed a running developer kit that 300+ developers with ISVs are using to enable software support for the coming chips. Intel demoed the system being used for image editing with auto-coloring and upscaling features, powered, of course, by AI. As you can see in the album, the developer system is quite compact. Intel also had a host of laptops on display from its OEM partners. 

Intel's Panther Lake appears to be on track for its launch schedule, which bodes well for the company's immensely important 18A process node. Intel teased that the next steps are to release concrete speeds and feeds along with more information about the various chip models. We expect those to come trickling our over the next several months. 

In high-end laptops, thin is always in, but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice connectivity. Acer's new Swift Edge 14 AI, leading its ultraportable lineup ahead of Computex in Taipei, is a sleek notebook that weighs less than 1 kilogram (approximately 2.18 pounds) but still has plenty of ports.

The Swift Edge 14 AI will use Intel's "Lunar Lake" chips, ranging from a Core Ultra 5 226V up to a Core Ultra 9 288V, with up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. That's all in a chassis that's 0.65 inches thick.

It's notable that Acer isn't skimping on ports here. While many 13, 14, and even some 15-inch laptops have dropped to just a pair of USB-C ports, Acer's got two USB Type-C ports (supporting Thunderbolt 4), a pair of USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. That's a lot of connectivity on the go. We saw this with HP's OmniBook 7 Aero, but that much I/O on an ultrabook is still pretty rare these days.

Like many high-end laptops, Acer's chassis is built from a mix of magnesium and aluminum. But unlike those laptops, the company is pushing a "soft-touch" keyboard that the company says has a "unique UV-cured coating that feels like velvet and is wear- and stain-resistant." We didn't get too much time to play with this keyboard, but we're certainly hoping it stays clean in the long term, especially considering this is a white laptop.

Acer is promising up to 21 hours of battery life from the 65 WHr battery, but doesn't say how it got there. If it comes close, that would match the longest-lasting laptop we've ever tested.

Unfortunately, Acer hasn't removed the weird AI indicator light from its touchpad, which glows whenever you use the NPU or use Copilot (which uses the internet and does not run locally). It is, at best, a distraction.

Acer is also using Computex as a launch pad for its Swift Go 14 AI and Swift Go 16 AI, each with OLED displays and media controls built into the touchpad. All of these Swift laptops have 1080p webcams with IR support for Windows Hello.

North American pricing and availability haven't been revealed just yet. Acer said that this information will be announced "closer to market availability." In Europe, the Swift Edge will release in June, while Australia has a more vague "Q2" release date. The Swift Go 16 AI and Swift 14 AI will ship in July and August in Europe, respectively.

Acer is kicking off its Computex announcements with a pair of 14-inch gaming laptops. The company's two new gaming laptops, the Predator Triton 14 AI and Helios Neo 14 AI, are both being targeted at both gamers and creative professionals.

The Triton 14 AI is extremely sleek (0.68 inches at its thickest point), but to get there, Acer is using a productivity-class processor. The Intel Core Ultra 9 288V is one of Intel's "Lunar Lake" processors with integrated RAM. This chip runs between 30W at base power, which isn't as powerful as most gaming laptop processors. We saw a similar case in the Razer Blade 16, which opted for a 28W AMD Ryzen chip to enable a thinner design.

Acer is using graphene on the CPU to serve as the thermal interface material, which the company says outperforms regular thermal paste by 14.5%.

Acer is pairing Lunar Lake with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU using Nvidia's Studio drivers, which are optimized for creative applications. The system goes up to 32GB of RAM (on the CPU) and 2TB of storage.

The Triton also features a 14.5-inch, 2880 x 1800 OLED touchscreen that runs up to 120 Hz and is Calman verified.There's also a haptic touchpad built into the wrist rest, similar to the MSI Titan and Dell XPS 13, that supports a stylus, which seems limited in terms of writing.

The system looks sleek, with a sparse design and a silver hinge with diamond cut edge designed to reflect different colors from different angles. Despite the slim design, you still get some gaming accouterments, like a per-key RGB keyboard.

If you want a more traditional gaming laptop, the Helios Neo 14 AI is a bit more conventional in its components. Here, Acer is using Intel's H-series "Arrow Lake" chips, going up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, though still using up to 32GB of RAM, up to 2 TB of storage, and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU. It's also thicker than the Triton at 0.82 inches.

The Helios Neo will have two screen options. You get a 14.5-inch panel either way, but one is 2880 x 1800 at 120 Hz with a MUX switch (that typically requires rebooting the system), while a lower-res 2560 x 1600 option is faster at 165 Hz and uses Nvidia's Advanced Optimus to switch between the integrated GPU and the discrete one.

The Predator Helios Neo has a metal lid with an RGB logo that you can customize, as well as a three-zone RGB keyboard.

Of the two laptops, only the Triton is certified as a Copilot+ PC. The Lunar Lake NPU, at 48 TOPS, is far more powerful than the Arrow Lake's 13 TOPS. Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirements demand a minimum of 40 TOPS.

Acer is also using Computex to update its Predator Orion 3000 to the latest chips from Intel and Nvidia, including up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070.

The company hasn't announced North American pricing or release dates for any of these machines. Acer said it will release that information for the U.S. and Canada "closer to market availability." In Europe, the systems will launch in July, which might give us a rough window of when to expect them elsewhere.

AMD is allegedly working on an Arm-based SoC, codenamed "Sound Wave", in a bid to power Microsoft's Surface laptops next year, claims Kepler via ITHome. Moving away from traditional x86 designs, Sound Wave is reported to feature the Arm ISA and will likely leverage off-the-shelf Cortex cores. Details on exact specifications, availability, and pricing remain under wraps, so it's wise to approach this leak with caution.

Looking beyond its historical Wintel roots, Microsoft has made a clear push towards the WoA (Windows on Arm) platform. This was put into effect with the firm's partnership with Qualcomm, which yielded the Snapdragon X family. This was likely a significant catalyst that motivated Intel to engineer an efficiency-first alternative: Lunar Lake. In fact, even Nvidia is entering the WoA space with its rumored N1 family of SoCs, developed in partnership with MediaTek.

The strong success of the Nintendo Switch, powered by Nvidia hardware, underlines a lucrative market for Arm-based handhelds. These Sound Wave SoCs, if true, could be a foundation for the Steam Deck 2, but I must emphasize this is highly speculative. Microsoft's current-generation Surface Pro 11 and Surface 7 laptops are powered by chips from Qualcomm and Intel. AMD's existing gap in efficiency compared to Snapdragon X, Lunar Lake, and likely soon-to-launch N1 offerings could be bridged with these Arm-based SoCs.

Just days before Computex, the parent company of Maxsun has registered new Intel Arc B580 models with 24GB of VRAM with the EEC, via Olrak at X, further stoking existing rumors of a high-VRAM Battlemage card. Remember that EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission) submissions aren't definitive confirmations of any product. Manufacturers often register placeholder configurations to cover all future possibilities, many of which never end up seeing the light of day. Therefore, you should treat this leak with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Intel launched its Arc B580 and Arc B570 GPUs in December and January, respectively, bringing its Battlemage architecture to the desktop market just months after Lunar Lake debuted on mobile. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say these GPUs initially caused a stir in the market, offering an ample 12GB framebuffer, a capacity unheard of in the $250 GPU market. The cheapest B580s on Newegg and Best Buy are now in the $300 territory, which is a shame. That's a trend most new GPUs are facing, including AMD's RX 9000 GPUs and Nvidia's RTX 50 series.

We've been hearing rumors of a 24GB Battlemage Professional GPU since December. Recently, Sparkle accidentally alluded to the existence of an Arc B580 24GB, later retracting their comments, likely due to NDA concerns. Maxsun's parent company has registered several GPUs with the EEC, including the MAXSUN Intel Arc B580 iCraft 24G and its OC variant, matching the exact configuration Sparkle mentioned.

In a bid to improve Arrow Lake sales, Intel has significantly discounted its mainstream 20-core Core Ultra 7 265K, which is readily selling at or below $300 at various retailers, including Amazon. That's a massive 25% cut over its original $400 recommended customer price set by Intel at launch. While the slightly more affordable 14-core Core Ultra 5 245K is also selling below its MSRP at $269, the Core Ultra 7 265K is arguably the better buy.

This is likely part of a small promotional sale, which is why we're using the term discount instead of permanent price cuts. Even so, they don't appear to be regional, as reports from ComputerBase indicate similar pricing trends in Germany. Intel's candidate is a great choice for promoting Arrow Lake sales, since the Core Ultra 7 265K wields an impressive 20 (8P+12E) core / 20 thread configuration, rivaling the i7-14700K from the previous generation, while offering better efficiency.

The CPU carries 66MB of total cache (36MB L2 + 30MB L3). Sticking to JEDEC-compliant speeds, Arrow Lake at stock can handle 6400 MT/s DDR5 kits (CUDIMM), going as fast as 8000 MT/s with Intel's warrantied boost profiles. As of writing, the Core Ultra 7 265K (and its KF variant) can be purchased for $294 at Amazon. The model with the integrated GPU is a no-brainer, given that its built-in Xe-LPG (Alchemist) iGPU offers QuickSync functionality with AV1 encoding.

At its Surface event scheduled for May 6th next week, Microsoft is expected to unveil two new compact offerings under its Surface Pro and Surface Laptop families, according to WinFuture. It's important to note that these smaller variants are not a new generation, but rather expand the existing Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 product lines. Information about technical details, pricing, and availability remains in the dark, but Microsoft is expected to reveal more on Tuesday.

Microsoft offers a range of Surface devices, designed for various use cases. The Surface Pro family features 2-in-1 tablets that can function both as a tablet and a laptop with the detachable keyboard (purchased separately). The Surface Laptop series, on the other hand, sticks to the basics with a traditional clamshell laptop form factor.

Starting in June 2024, Microsoft revealed the Surface Laptop 7 (15-inch and 13.8-inch) and Surface Pro 11 (13-inch) families, initially equipped with Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X chips, for the mainstream. Variants with Intel's Lunar Lake followed, targeted towards business users.

12-inch version of the Surface Pro 11

Microsoft is reportedly extending these product lines with compact offerings, starting with a 12-inch version of the Surface Pro 11. In terms of display, we're looking at a PixelSense Flow LCD panel (likely IPS), though the refresh rate has not been specified. Under the hood, it reportedly features the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 SoC with 8 Oryon cores, along with a 45 TOPS capable Hexagon-based NPU.

The SoC is connected with 16GB of LPDDR5x memory (likely 8448 MT/s), which is non-expandable. The laptop is expected to be available in 256GB and 512GB storage capacities, supplied by a UFS-based solution, which, unlike SSDs, is not upgradable. Microsoft claims 16 hours of local video playback, but real-world usage will vary. The leaked press slides only mention two USB Type-C ports for data transfer, charging, and hooking up external displays.

13-inch version of the Surface Laptop 7

Intel just released a graphics driver update that reportedly improves FPS performance by around 10% for Intel Core 200V (Lunar Lake) chips. According to Intel Gaming Access, Intel graphics driver 32.0.101.6734 optimizes the CPU’s power management, which allows the integrated Intel Arc 140V and 130V GPUs to deliver better performance while remaining at their default power setting of 17 watts.

The company tested the update on the MSI Claw 8 AI+ with nine different titles, and the results were promising. More than just the 10% uplift in FPS, the new driver also increased the 1% lows by 25%, making for much smoother gameplay. Intel said that it set the games at 1080p Medium quality during the tests, while the handheld console was at its default 17W TDP. These are the results that the chip maker published for each game:

An update by Intel to the perfmon platform has added support for upcoming Panther Lake CPUs, listing their core architecture codenames and CPUID, via InstLatX64. This commit unofficially confirms that Panther Lake will employ Cougar Cove Performance (P) cores, while Darkmont will serve to power its Efficiency (E), and likely Low Power Efficiency (LPE) cores as well. Panther Lake is expected to launch later this year, succeeding current-generation Arrow Lake U/H offerings.

With Intel's flagship 18A in risk production, Panther Lake is scheduled for mass production later this year. Hence, it wouldn't be surprising if the bulk of Panther Lake arrives in Q1 next year, similar to how Meteor Lake rolled out. Make no mistake: Panther Lake isn't a successor to Lunar Lake, which was uniquely focused on efficiency as a one-off product, with on-package memory, limited TDP, and a power-optimized design. Current rumors indicate Panther Lake variants will sport up to 18 hybrid cores (6P+8E+4LPE) and 12 Xe cores, based on Intel's upcoming Celestial (Xe3) graphics architecture.

Intel positions Panther Lake as combining Arrow Lake's power and Lunar Lake's efficiency, but that's still a somewhat general claim. According to leaks, most Panther Lake systems will include traditional SODIMM/soldered memory, while some laptop designs might even support next-gen LPCAMM, combining fast and upgradeable RAM. Based on their TDP (rumored: up to 64W), Panther Lake chips are expected to power a wide range of devices, including entry-level laptops, handhelds, and gaming laptops. The company is even eying bringing this architecture to automobiles.

An Intel engineer has pushed an update to the lookup table for perfmon, adding Panther Lake as a supported architecture. Panther Lake has been marked with the "GenuineIntel-6-CC" identifier, assigning it to CPU Family 6, Model 204 (0xCC). In addition, the patch reports the Cougar Cove and Darkmont architectures for Panther Lake's Performance (P) and Efficiency (E) cores, respectively.

Intel on Thursday posted its financial results for the first quarter of 2025. The company's earnings were flat year-over-year; however, its losses deepened, and its gross margin declined despite lower operating expenses. While sales of the company's data center grade products demonstrated signs of growth, sales of client CPUs declined compared to the same quarter a year ago. Perhaps more importantly, Intel gave a bleak outlook for the second quarter due to macro challenges. 

In the first quarter of 2025, Intel reported flat year-over-year revenue of $12.7 billion, with a net loss of $821 million, nearly twice the amount compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company's gross margin declined to 36.9%, pressured by a product mix, startup costs for the 18A ramp-up, and uncertainties (which Intel referred to as macroeconomic headwinds).

The company's operating expenses — including research and development (R&D) as well as management, general, and administrative costs (MG&A) — declined to $4.8 billion in Q1 2025 from $5.9 billion in Q1 2024. However, despite this decline, the company's losses increased. 

"The first quarter was a step in the right direction, but there are no quick fixes as we work to get back on a path to gaining market share and driving sustainable growth," said Lip-Bu Tan, Intel CEO. "I am taking swift actions to drive better execution and operational efficiency while empowering our engineers to create great products. We are going back to basics by listening to our customers and making the changes needed to build the new Intel." 

Perhaps the most alarming sign is that Intel's Client Computing Group (CCG) revenues fell 8% year-over-year to $7.6 billion. This drop was attributed to weaker-than-expected PC demand, particularly in the consumer segment, competitive pricing, and unfavorable product mix that includes a plethora of products made by TSMC. Interestingly, many of Intel's customers favored older-generation products like Raptor Lake over newer, higher-cost platforms such as Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake. 

Despite these challenges, Intel noted demand for AI PCs from business customers, as well as enterprise fleet upgrades and Windows 10 end-of-service migrations, although this was insufficient to offset the broader softness in consumer sales. 

Intel's Data Center and AI (DCAI) business unit reported $4.1 billion in revenue in Q1 2025, achieving an 8% year-over-year increase, making it one of the few growth areas for the company. The performance was primarily driven by strong demand from hyperscalers for host CPUs in AI server deployments. However, the segment faced margin pressure due to competitive dynamics from AMD, product mix, and elevated demand for older-generation parts rather than newer offerings. 

Despite the revenue growth, Intel acknowledged macroeconomic uncertainty, potential spending pullbacks, and competition from AMD and Arm-based server solutions as risks that could affect DCAI performance in the coming quarters. The company remains focused on stabilizing market segment share and increasing average selling prices (ASPs) while preparing for the ramp of its next-generation server products. 

Intel Foundry reported $4.7 billion in revenue, reflecting a 7% year-over-year increase driven mostly by internal demand, particularly from Intel's own product groups for wafers and advanced packaging services. Despite revenue growth, the Foundry segment continued to operate at a significant loss, posting an operating loss of $2.3 billion, which remained roughly flat compared to the previous quarter. 

Intel's Lip-Bu Tan reiterated at the conference call that the company's Foundry success hinges not just on manufacturing capabilities but also on building customer trust, improving process design enablement, and supporting a broader range of customer flows. For now, the key mission of Intel Foundry is to ramp up production of Intel 18A-based Panther Lake and then Clearwater Forest processors in late 2025 – 2026 to prove that IF has a node that is competitive with TSMC's N2. 

Times are already tough for Intel, but now it turns out its new, heavily-promoted AI PC chips aren't selling as well as expected, thus creating a shortage of production capacity for its older chips. The news comes as the CEO announced looming layoffs and a poor financial report sent the company's stock tumbling.

Intel says its customers are buying less expensive previous-generation Raptor Lake chips instead of the new, and significantly more expensive, AI PC models like the Lunar Lake and Meteor Lake chips for laptops.

During the earnings call, Intel announced that it currently faces a shortage of production capacity for its 'Intel 7' process node, and the company expects this shortage to "persist for the foreseeable future." That's an unexpected shortage to have, as Intel's current-gen chips use newer process nodes from TSMC instead of Intel's older 'Intel 7' node. Intel is a master at production capacity planning, so its disclosure points to an unexpected surge in sales of the older 'Intel 7' products.

Intel explained that the shortage of its 7nm production capacity is due to an unexpected surge in demand for its "N-1 and N-2" products, a reference to its two prior-generation chip families. This trend is occurring in both the consumer and data center markets.

"What we're really seeing is much greater demand from our customers for n-1 and n-2 products so that they can continue to deliver system price points that consumers are really demanding," explained Intel's Michelle Johnston Holthaus. "As we've all talked about, the macroeconomic concerns and tariffs have everybody kind of hedging their bets and what they need to have from an inventory perspective. And Raptor Lake is a great part. Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake are great as well, but come with a much higher cost structure, not only for us, but at the system ASP price points for our OEMs as well."

Bernstein Research's Stacy Rasgon pressed Holtahaus about the implications for the company's upcoming Panther Lake chips, which are set to launch at the end of the year, especially given that the looming tariff disruptions have not yet occurred.

Holthaus said the Panther Lake launch remains on track and the company expects continued success in the commercial market, which she said typically precedes broader consumer adoption. Notably, she did not directly address the company's expected next-gen AI PC adoption for consumer laptops. Regardless, the company also continues its expansive work to promote and cultivate a growing developer ecosystem to unleash the power of its AI wares.

However, the fact is that AI still doesn't seem to have the 'killer app' that would send waves of customers to stores to purchase an expensive new laptop. Instead, most of the new features revolve around built-in features in existing applications, such as chat and productivity software, that are more nuanced and not quite flashy enough to spark a wave of adoption.

Intel has reportedly placed orders with TSMC for its bleeding-edge 2nm-class N2 process technology, according to Economic Daily News. This news comes shortly after AMD officially confirmed its Zen 6 'Venice' server chips, likely the CCDs, will be fabricated using the same node. If the report is accurate, these wafers are likely intended for Intel's Nova Lake lineup of CPUs. While this might put into question 18A's capabilities, Intel officially declared a dual-sourcing strategy for Nova Lake as early as last November.

Nova Lake serves as the successor to Arrow Lake, and is rumored to feature up to 52 hybrid cores (16P+32E+4LPE) segmented into two blocks of eight Coyote Cove P-cores, 16 Arctic Wolf E-cores, with four LPE cores likely in a separate SoC Tile. Rumor has it that Nova Lake will transition to a new LGA1954 socket, meaning existing 800-series motherboards won't be compatible.

We are seeing several architectural jumps here as the expected progression is Lion Cove (ARL/LNL), then Cougar Cove, and Coyote Cove for Performance (P) cores. Similarly, Arctic Wolf is suggested to follow Darkmont, which comes after Skymont (ARL/LNL) for Efficiency (E) cores. With 18A already in risk production, the shift to TSMC is probably driven by capacity needs, rather than performance or yield concerns.

Intel 18A should power some of Intel's most ambitious products in recent history: Clearwater Forest and Diamond Rapids (rumored), the former of which has been delayed to H1 2026 citing packaging concerns. To ease pressure on its 18A production line and prevent delays with consumer products, Intel, under interim CEO Michelle Holthaus, announced outsourcing some Nova Lake dies to partners like TSMC and Samsung.

As insinuated by leaker Kepler on X, high-end Nova Lake products will, allegedly, be built using N2 while 18A will be designated for the lower-end parts. This isn't Intel's first time partnering up with TSMC for CPU production, as the company's latest Arrow Lake CPUs (using N3B, N5P, and N6), Lunar Lake (using N3B and N6), and for GPUs Alchemist (using N6), and Battlemage(using N4) have all leveraged TSMC's process technology. This increases Intel's spending, requiring a careful balance between expediting product launches via external foundries or facing delays with its internal manufacturing.

To some extent, even Arrow Lake is dual-sourced with Arrow Lake-U (for low-power devices) using the Intel 3 process. While Arrow Lake had minimal in-house production, ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger reported that Intel will produce most of Nova Lake internally. Relying on TSMC isn't inherently bad if 18A can land a handful of external customers. Analysts have also suggested Nvidia might be eyeing Intel's nodes for its consumer GPUs in the future. Either way, Nova Lake is slated to be a 2026 product, so we're likely looking at the second half with how Intel launches usually proceed.

The GPU rumor mill has been spinning like crazy this morning. The whole thing kicked off when Sparkle's Bilibili account supposedly confirmed the existence of a 24GB variant of the Intel Arc B580 (via ITHome). A media manager also alluded to a potential release window between May and June. But this was short-lived as Sparkle has officially retracted these comments. Perhaps this is a move to manage fallout after a potential NDA breach? It's hard to say for certain, but this isn't the first time we've heard of a 24GB spinoff of Battlemage.

Intel officially introduced its Arc Battlemage GPU lineup in December of last year. From this family, the Intel Arc B570 and Arc B580 were crafted using the mid-range BMG-G21 die, featuring a 192-bit interface for six memory channels. Shipping documents have suggested the existence of alternate BMG-G31 and BMG-G10 variants, likely for the B700 and B300 families, but Intel has not made any official confirmation yet.

This slip-up seemingly corroborates existing rumor, positioning this GPU under Intel's Arc Pro family, succeeding existing Alchemist-based Flex or Pro-series options, for AI applications. From what we can gather, Intel is allegedly deploying the BMG-G21 die, the same as the B580, with 24GB of memory configured using 12x 16Gb modules in clamshell mode. That's a twofold increase in memory capacity over Intel's current Arc Pro A60 offering.

Architecturally speaking, Battlemage is one generation behind Nvidia and AMD. For tasks demanding raw compute muscle, this Arc B580 24GB, or whatever Intel ends up naming it, will probably not land blows against Nvidia's Blackwell PRO or AMD's upcoming Radeon PRO W9000 GPUs. These can, however, compete in AI training and inference, which necessitate a lot of VRAM in cases like Large Language Models (LLMs), and image/video generation models like Stable Diffusion.

The economics don't favor Intel if they were to create a higher-end GPU. At similar die sizes, Intel's PPA (Performance Per Area) and architectural shortcomings become apparent: the B580 at 272mm² (using N5) is priced at $249, while Nvidia sells its RTX 5070, which uses a 263mm² die (using N4P) at $549. While N4P wafers might be pricier than N5 (likely not double), that's still a small consideration.

Either way, Sparkle's seeming confirmation, followed by a swift retraction, suggests there's potentially more beneath the surface. If this GPU does exist, we can expect to hear more from Intel at Computex, where we might also get an early look at Panther Lake, similar to how Lunar Lake was unveiled last year.

Microsoft has announced that several Windows 11 Copilot+ AI features are graduating from Snapdragon X exclusivity to AMD Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel Core Ultra 200V PCs. On Monday it began its expanded roll-out of features like Live Captions, Cocreator, Restyle Image, and Image Creator – so they will be available on modern AMD and Intel systems, as well as PCs packing Qualcomm Snapdragon X (SDX) series processors.

One of the most welcome additions to Windows 11 for those embraced by the expanded Copilot+ feature compatibility is probably Live Captions. Microsoft says that this feature “offers real-time translations in English for audio and video content during virtual meetings, podcasts, or video playback.” This feature, which Microsoft claims can live translate from 40 languages to English, has been around a while for SDX PCs, and is “coming soon” for those with a Ryzen AI 300 or Ultra 200V PC.

Another new Copilot+ addition which Microsoft characterizes as an accessibility feature is rolling out to Qualcomm SDX machines soon. Voice Access delivers better descriptive and flexible language interaction with Windows. AMD and Intel system owners with NPUs will have to wait until “later this year” for this one, though.

Cocreator in Paint is now ready for modern AMD and Intel processor owners. Here, Microsoft’s AI can help you create imagery from prompts or analyzing and improving on your badly drawn scrawl.

With Copilot+ smarts introduced to Microsoft’s Photos app, Windows 11 users with the requisite AMD and Intel chips get two ‘AI’ features to play with. Restyle Image is an AI-driven photo-filter style feature which can make existing works look something like an oil painting, sketch, or so on. Image Creator does what it says from your simple, or complex, text prompts.

March non-security preview release update is required, for now

Microsoft says to make sure you switch on ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available’ in your updates control panel. If you are eager to try some of the features outlined above, that unfortunately means opting to install the March non-security preview release. You must also ensure the host apps (Paint, Photos etc) are up-to-date via the Microsoft Store. Remember, the expanded feature rollout availability will also vary based on your location and language selection.

Considering x86 PCs with NPU-packing processors have been available for months, Microsoft has been rather tardy in breaking its most attractive Copilot+ features out from their Qualcomm-only rut. According to our editor-in-chief, you all haven’t been missing much, though. Not long after launch, the Copilot+ features were judged to be “a bad joke.” Moreover, the much heralded Recall feature remains in (re)development after all the security and privacy concerns that were raised.

This article covers our picks for the best graphics cards for gaming in 2026. Amid the AI gold rush and consequent supply crunch for consumer silicon, no truly new gaming GPUs have been introduced in almost a year. If you haven't already upgraded your graphics card after the GeForce RTX 50-series and Radeon RX 9000-series launches in 2025, well, you're still looking at the exact same products now.

AMD did make its formerly China-only Radeon RX 9070 GRE available globally after Computex 2026, but in our review, we found that $549 product to be too expensive given the level of performance it delivers and the compromises made to hit its price point, so it isn't joining the list here. Check out that coverage for all the details.

Most of the products we recommend remain at elevated prices compared to their MSRPs, but this is just life in mid-2026.

It's admittedly cold comfort, but unless you're shopping for an RTX 5090, graphics card prices haven't risen much more than they already did earlier this year. Compared to the doubling or tripling of prices we've seen for RAM kits and SSDs in 2026 versus last year, a GPU upgrade remains a relatively affordable (and self-contained) option, either as a boost for an existing PC or part of an all-new parts list.

Even if you can’t build an all-new system, you can just put a new graphics card in an older PC and still enjoy boosts to gaming performance, image quality, or both—especially if you can upgrade your monitor at the same time.

As we discuss in further depth below, the arrival of DLSS 4.5 upscaling (for RTX 40-series and 50-series cards, at least) and expanded multipliers for Multi-Frame Generation, which now can boost frame rates by up to 5x or 6x, means that driving a high-resolution, high-refresh-rate monitor is now easier than ever if you're considering a GeForce RTX 50-series graphics card.

Read on to see our picks in today's gaming graphics card market.

Best graphics cards for gaming, at a glance

The above list shows all the latest-gen graphics cards we feel stand out in their segments. If you want to see how all of the current and prior generation GPUs stack up, check our GPU benchmarks hierarchy. We also have performance benchmarks further below.

When accounting for pricing, we perform our own research to find the midpoint of current prices for a given graphics card, rather than taking a vendor's MSRP at face value. We feel this method tends to be most representative of the price you're likely to see for products in stock.

If you can find a card for less than this midpoint, it's likely closer to (or even less than) a vendor's MSRP and a better value. Conversely, if you find one for more than this midpoint, it could be a worse value (or too close in price to a more powerful card that's a step up). Tread carefully.

The overall performance ranking incorporates 19 games from our 2026 test suite, which takes the geometric mean (i.e., equal weighting) for both rasterization and ray tracing games. Note that we are not including any upscaling or frame generation results in the table.

Raw performance may be the most important consideration for most gamers, but it's not the only metric that matters. Our subjective rankings below factor in price, power usage, and power efficiency, and features colored by our own years of experience. Others may offer a slightly different take, but all of the cards on this list are worthy of your consideration.

Upscaling and frame generation mean GPUs are more than just a chip

GPU performance goes beyond the hardware these days. Choosing a particular GPU vendor means you're buying into a complex software stack that includes upscaling, frame generation, and (more rarely) AI-powered RT denoising technologies.

In Nvidia's corner, the DLSS 4.5 upscaling model and its second-generation transformer architecture offer superior image quality to other upscaling tech (and with lower input resolutions, meaning higher potential performance), but it's more computationally expensive than past DLSS models and works best on RTX 50-series and 40-series cards.

The DLSS 4 model and its first-gen transformer architecture still work with cards going all the way back to the RTX 20-series family. Not all games implement DLSS 4 natively, but Nvidia allows you to force the usage of that model in many older titles through the Nvidia App utility, so you can practically always get the latest and greatest.

Between native support and driver overrides, DLSS is available in virtually any modern game you might want to play. Nvidia recently marked DLSS feature availability in over 1000 titles.

RTX 50-series GPUs are Nvidia's first with support for multi-frame generation (MFG), which allows Blackwell GPUs to insert anywhere from one to five AI-generated intermediate frames between each native one (for a 2x, 3x, 4x, or even 5x or 6x frame rate boost). RTX 40-series GPUs also support framegen, but only with a 2x boost.

Meanwhile, AMD's FSR 4 offers AI-enhanced upscaling with superior image quality to other FSR versions, but official support for it is limited to RX 9000-series Radeons for now. AMD will bring FSR 4 upscaling to RX 7000-series cards in July 2026 and RX 6000-series cards in early 2027.

In the meantime, AMD's FSR 3.1 and earlier upscalers still work on any GPU, but the image quality tends to be noticeably lower than both DLSS and FSR 4.

AI-enhanced FSR framegen (aka ML Frame Generation) arrived on AMD cards as part of the FSR Redstone update late last year. Like FSR 4 upscaling, ML Frame Generation is limited to Radeon RX 9000 cards, and it can be enabled in compatible games using a control panel override for titles that don't natively have it.

Legacy FSR frame gen remains available, too. Its framerate-doubling boost remains cross-compatible with GPUs from all vendors, but its image quality can't keep up with the AI-powered frame gen tech of the latest AMD and Nvidia models.

Intel XeSS upscaling can be superior to FSR 3.x, but it isn't available in as many games as FSR or DLSS. It works best on Arc GPUs, but like FSR, it's cross-compatible with a wide range of graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia if you need it.

XeSS 2 with AI-enhanced frame generation is now available in 95 games as of this writing and requires an Arc GPU. XeSS 3 brings multi frame generation to the party through both native support and a driver override in compatible titles.

All that said, we don't think you should go out of your way to buy an Intel Arc card for gaming in 2026 for reasons we'll get into later.

1. Best high-end graphics card: GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, $1099.99

If you want the best blend of high performance and cutting-edge graphics tech out there for 1440p or 4K gaming, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is it. This card comes with full support for Nvidia’s latest DLSS 4.5 upscaling and Multi Frame Generation tech, and its 16GB of VRAM gives you full freedom to enable every DLSS 4 feature.

AMD’s closest competitor, the Radeon RX 9070 XT, is way cheaper than the RTX 5070 Ti right now, but the AMD card obviously doesn’t support DLSS 4 or MFG. For the privilege of those capabilities, you'll generally need to spend a whopping 45% more cash right now for just 5% more baseline performance than AMD’s best before you start enabling all the DLSS 4 features Blackwell supports.

Is that worth it? Yes, if you can swing it. Here's why: getting the best gaming performance on modern graphics cards is as much a software problem as a hardware one. Tuning your gaming experience to taste requires access to high-quality upscaling, frame generation, and (more infrequently) an AI-powered RT denoiser like DLSS Ray Reconstruction.

Even amid its shift to AI and data center products, Nvidia ensures that its full suite of DLSS tech is adopted in virtually every new game, whereas AMD's support of FSR 4 adoption has become rather hit-or-miss.

The RTX 5070 Ti also offers superior RT performance versus the RX 9070 XT across our 2026 test suite. Beyond that baseline, Nvidia is working with developers to enable impressive path-traced effects in many of the latest AAA releases.

In our recent experience, path-traced games play best with DLSS 4.5 upscaling and MFG at your disposal, and being able to consistently rely on the availability of those features makes the extra cash for the 5070 Ti worth it.

Our recent GPU Hierarchy retesting has shown that high-end graphics cards are becoming five- to eight-year investments, and Nvidia's ongoing commitment to developer relations and new software features means that you'll enjoy a first-class gaming experience throughout the life of your 5070 Ti no matter what games you want to play on it.

Spread out over that time span, the extra cost of the RTX 5070 Ti versus the RX 9070 XT is worth it for the better experience.

What about the RTX 5080? Nvidia's second-fastest Blackwell card is anywhere from 8% to 16% faster than the 5070 Ti, with the biggest gap at 4K. Prices for the 5080 in June 2026 remain insane, however, and at the midpoint of current prices, the 5080 is 33% more expensive than the 5070 Ti.

There's no way the RTX 5080 offers anywhere close to enough value for the money to justify the step up right now unless you're looking for the fastest thing this side of a 5090 for 4K gaming.

Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti review

2. Best enthusiast value graphics card: Radeon RX 9070 XT, $759.99

The Radeon RX 9070 XT is AMD's most well-rounded graphics card in years. It delivers raw gaming performance within spitting distance of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti for far less money, making it a strong value at first glance. But that appealing price tag comes with a number of asterisks in mid-2026 that mean it's no longer our first pick for high-end PC gaming.

AMD shored up two of its greatest weaknesses against Nvidia with the RX 9070 XT's RDNA 4 architecture: RT performance and AI acceleration, both of which are closer to Nvidia's latest and greatest. And AMD did all that while keeping power efficiency right there with Nvidia, too.

The FSR 4 upscaler is a big jump in image quality over FSR 3, and FSR ML Frame Generation now offers higher-quality framegen on the RX 9070 XT than FSR 3's approach, although it's still limited to a simple doubling of frame rates versus DLSS Multi Frame Generation's versatility.

The problem for the RX 9070 XT in mid-2026 is that FSR 4.x upscaling still trails Nvidia's flagship DLSS 4.5 in image quality, and AMD isn't driving the adoption of FSR 4 features nearly as aggressively as Nvidia is for DLSS. Driver-level overrides for those features can't entirely close the gap.

Worse, you might find the RX 9070 XT entirely shut out of features that you might want to enable in certain games. For just a couple of examples, Radeon gamers can't enable path-traced effects at all in recent titles like Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem, and 007 First Light sticks you with FSR 3 upscaling that can't be overriden through a driver toggle due to the way it's implemented.

And in our latest GPU Hierarchy retesting with the RX 9070 XT, we saw major performance issues in Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced and minor visual corruptions in Stalker 2 that weren't present on GeForces or on RX 7000- or RX 6000-series cards. We don't think these issues should have slipped past any QA program, especially for such popular and high-profile games, but they sting especially hard on a current-gen product.

All that means the overall ownership experience of an RTX 5070 Ti and an RX 9070 XT is significantly different in mid-2026. We think that gamers shopping in this price class should be able to expect a consistently high level of software feature support and quality across all the games they might want to play, and Nvidia provides that assurance better than AMD does right now.

If you're willing to gamble with the availability of FSR 4 features, for RT or path-traced effects, and don't care to tune the smoothness of your gaming experience with frame generation, the RX 9070 XT's shortcomings versus the RTX 5070 Ti may be easier to overlook given the large amount of cash that will remain in your pocket.

But we also think that you should look closely at what you're giving up before reflexively choosing an RX 9070 XT over an RTX 5070 Ti, despite its strong value at a glance.

Read: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT review

3. Best midrange graphics card: GeForce RTX 5070, $659.99

Until 2026 rolled around, the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB had been our entry-to-midrange Blackwell gaming favorite. But the $579 midpoint of current pricing puts the 5060 Ti 16GB's on-shelf price above that of the RTX 5070's $549 MSRP, and the 5070 is one of the least marked-up graphics cards out there at the moment.

As a result, it's possible to find RTX 5070s for about $670, and that makes it an easy call to step up for less than $100 more than 5060 Ti 16GBs.

The RTX 5070 is about 30% faster than the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB across our 2026 test suite, and that's a huge leap that you'll easily see on the right monitor for just 15% more money.

The advent of DLSS 4.5 upscaling, which makes it possible to achieve superior delivered image quality at lower input resolutions than older DLSS versions, also takes some VRAM pressure off the RTX 5070's 12GB of GDDR7, making the deployment of RT and DLSS MFG more practical on this card than it has been in the past.

And as with the RTX 5070 Ti, the universal availability of DLSS 4.5 (both natively and through app overrides) plus MFG makes this card a fast and flexible performer across all of the games you might want to play in 2026.

Given the image quality of DLSS 4.5 and the smoothness boost of MFG, along with the higher baseline RT performance of this card versus the 9070 in our 2026 testing, we think the 5070 should be your first pick for a midrange gaming card right now.

In an ideal world, the RTX 5070 would have more VRAM to allow for unhindered exploration of everything DLSS 4 and MFG have to offer, especially at a native 4K resolution. If you're pushing those limits, we'd still recommend the Radeon RX 9070 thanks to its 16GB of VRAM.

But if you're on a 1440p monitor where VRAM is less of an issue and want DLSS 4.5 over FSR 4, as most gamers do, the RTX 5070 is still a strong performer, and you're less likely to run into its limits.

Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 review

4. An AMD midrange alternative: Radeon RX 9070, $629.99

If you primarily play raster titles at native resolution and aren't on board with upscaling or framegen, the Radeon RX 9070 remains a strong midrange alternative to the RTX 5070. It's one of the least marked-up 16GB graphics cards available even with today's AI headwinds, and in a world where MSRPs have largely been forgotten, that makes the RX 9070 a strong value.

The GeForce RTX 5070 and RX 9070 go neck-and-neck in our test suite, but the RX 9070 has 16GB of VRAM and the RTX 5070 has just 12GB. Especially if you're trying to push 4K games at native resolution, that extra VRAM matters.

But the advent of DLSS 4.5 upscaling, which provides image quality that's practically indistinguishable from native rendering even at relatively low input resolutions, means that the RTX 5070 is a more potent midrange graphics card in 2026 than it was at launch.

On top of their inherent technical superiority, you can find DLSS 4 and MFG in most every game released today, which can't be said for FSR 4.x upscaling or ML framegen. AMD's driver overrides make up some of the gap, to be sure, but not all of it.

And as with the RX 9070 XT, AMD gamers may find themselves locked out of certain features like path tracing (in major releases like Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem) or FSR overrides (in 007 First Light) entirely.

The RX 9070 is subject to the same minor image quality issues and performance hitches we saw with the RX 9070 XT, and those issues could certainly be overcome with future software updates. But we think that if you're looking for the best midrange graphics card, it should be free of those issues entirely, and so the RTX 5070 is our first pick for this price point right now.

Read: AMD Radeon RX 9070 review

5. Best enthusiast value graphics card: Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, $469.99

AMD's Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB can handle basically anything the mainstream gamer can throw at it at 1920x1080 and 2560x1440, all at a price that comes in way under the sky-high markups on the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB as of this writing.

At a midpoint of $459.99 in mid-2026, prices for the RX 9060 XT 16GB are the highest we've ever seen, dulling the 9060 XT 16GB's reputation as the value-minded builder's GPU of choice. But with no cheaper Radeons worth recommending in the lineup, what can you do?

In any case, the RX 9060 XT enjoys the much-improved ray-tracing and AI performance of the RDNA 4 architecture, both of which bring Radeons a lot closer to the latest Nvidia competition. And its 16GB of VRAM gives mainstream gamers the assurance they'll basically never find VRAM a bottleneck in modern games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.

Like the RX 9070 XT, the 9060 XT 16GB gives you access to AMD's much-improved FSR 4 upscaling tech, allowing you to boost performance with a small hit to image quality in the small but growing list of titles that support it.

Even with its new ML-powered model, FSR Frame Generation remains limited to a doubling of output frame rate at best, so it’s not a direct competitor to Nvidia’s DLSS 4 with MFG.

If you want more frames, AMD just launched the RX 9070 GRE globally for $549, and it provides a decent step up in performance for less than $100 more, especially if you're only gaming at 1080p or 1440p. But the more powerful RX 9070 can be found for just $50 more than the GRE, and then you're contemplating the even more powerful and versatile RTX 5070, too.

The RTX 5060 Ti 8GB is the RX 9060 XT 16GB's closest Nvidia competition, dollar for dollar, but we can’t recommend it at all. If you're spending over $350 on a GPU, we don't think you should have to fine-tune every setting to avoid running out of VRAM. The RX 9060 XT is easy to live with for a wide range of gamers in a wide range of titles, and that’s why it won our Editor’s Choice award.

Read: AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB review

6. The best graphics card for 1080p gaming: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, $369.99

If you want to get your game on at 1080p, we think the RTX 5060 is still your best bet in mid-2026. The midpoint of RTX 5060 prices is around $370 right now thanks to the AI crunch, but you can still find them for as little as $350 if you're willing to shop around.

The RTX 5060 has impressive baseline performance for 1080p gaming in wildly popular titles like Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2, Marvel Rivals, and Apex Legends that aren't hungry for giant pools of VRAM. And if you are trying to push higher output resolutions in demanding AAA games, the universal availability of DLSS 4.5 upscaling means that it's easy to achieve near-native image quality at lower input resolutions than before, making the RTX 5060 a more flexible performer than ever.

If you can tune your settings right, enabling DLSS 4 Multi-Frame Generation could make for an even smoother ride on this card, but we find that 8GB of VRAM isn't enough to consistently enable framegen in the titles where you'd really want it. The feature often doesn't work if you're already at the limits of the RTX 5060's memory pool (or that of any 8GB Blackwell card), since the MFG AI model needs some VRAM of its own to run.

AMD's toughest competition for the RTX 5060 is the RX 9060 XT 8GB, which also lists for $299 but is now selling for about the same $350 as you'll see RTX 5060s going for. Supply of those cards has largely dried up in mid-2026, however, and you're likely to see only a couple options for them from any e-tailer.

Despite its much-maligned 8GB of VRAM, the 9060 XT 8GB put in a strong showing in our 2026 GPU Hierarchy testing, but not consistently enough to beat out the RTX 5060 and take home our general recommendation.

When the RX 9060 XT can bring its full compute horsepower to bear in certain games, it can handily outpace the RTX 5060, so it's worth checking out results like those from our RX 9070 GRE review and seeing whether a game you love benefits from the Radeon's raw muscle.

But if you want a more consistently solid gaming experience, we'd still recommend the RTX 5060.

Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti review

7. The best graphics card, period: GeForce RTX 5090, $4299

There's nothing else like the GeForce RTX 5090. If you want to turn on every bell and whistle in modern games at 4K (or beyond), the RTX 5090's sheer shader and Tensor Core horsepower, along with support for Nvidia's DLSS 4 upscaling and multi-frame generation, lets you tune your gaming experience to perfection even on high-refresh-rate 4K displays.

If you're a hardcore PC gamer who demands only the best, the hair will stand up on the back of your neck when you watch the RTX 5090 breeze through workloads that other graphics cards leak out all their thermal gel about.

Prices for the RTX 5090 have always been elevated, but they're stratospheric in early 2026. Major e-tailers only have a few different models listed, and prices start at $3500 or so and only go up from there. Nvidia's $1999 MSRP is pure imagination in current market conditions.

At those prices, an RTX 5090 is an indulgence of the highest order, but then again, it always has been. Without a compelling AMD alternative even on the horizon, considerations of value don't really apply here. If you truly need (or want) this class of gaming or AI performance, you're going to have to pay up.

This card needs a system with a massive power supply, one of our best gaming CPUs, and a top-shelf monitor to take full advantage of its astounding capabilities, and all those spendy components add up quick. But if you have a big enough bankroll to consider shopping for a graphics card of this caliber, you probably don't need us to tell you all that.

If Nvidia and its industry partners fixed the meltdown-prone ATX12V-2x6 connector, the RTX 5090 would be as close to gaming perfection as any graphics card that's ever been made. Guess that's something to improve on the RTX 6090, if it ever arrives.

Read: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition review

8. The cheapest graphics card worth buying: GeForce RTX 5050

If you have to save every penny on a new graphics card in 2026, you're hard up for good budget options. We previously recommended Intel's Arc B570 here, but after completing our 2026 GPU Hierarchy retesting, we're bumping it in favor of the RTX 5050, which is currently selling for about $300, or about $50 more than the B570.

Here's why: we think if you're spending any amount of money on a graphics card, it should just work. You should expect consistent feature support over time in games, universal support for upscaling and (optionally) frame generation when you need them, and consistently high performance in games.

The RTX 5050 unreservedly checks all those boxes, while we couldn't even complete our testing of the Arc B570 (or B580) for our 2026 GPU Hierarchy until the literal day before this guide update goes live, due to a months-long settings lockout with UE5's Nanite and Lumen in a little title you may have heard of called Fortnite.

We can't say when a similarly major issue might occur again with the Arc B570 in any game, and so we're no longer recommending it. Unless you're willing to gamble and need to save every possible dollar on a graphics card, we think you should just save up a bit more cash and buy an RTX 5050.

The RTX 5050 isn't the fastest GPU around, to be sure, and its 8GB of VRAM is a constraint for anything beyond 1080p gaming in mid-2026. But it delivers solid enough native raster performance at 1080p, and it beats out the Arc B570 even before you enable DLSS 4.5 upscaling. And if you do want the performance boost of DLSS, you're getting access to the best and most widely adopted upscaler on the market.

On top of that, the extra $50 over the Arc B570 means that you have the full strength of Nvidia's developer relations team and software support behind you when you go to play the latest games, and we think that reliable software support makes all the difference between a GPU that's fun and affordable and one that's merely cheap.

Read: GeForce RTX 5050 review

How we test the best graphics cards

Determining pure graphics card performance is best done by eliminating all other bottlenecks — as much as possible, at least. To that end, we've selected components for our test rig , most notably AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, one of the best CPUs for gaming.

We test across the three most common gaming resolutions, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, using a mix of high and ultra settings, depending on the title. Where possible, we use 'reference' cards for all of these tests, like Nvidia's Founders Edition models and AMD's reference designs. Most midrange and lower GPUs don't get reference models, however, and in some cases we only have factory-overclocked cards for testing. We do our best to select cards that are close to the reference specs in such cases.

For each graphics card, we follow the same testing procedure. We run one pass of each benchmark to "warm up" the GPU after launching the game, then perform our actual test runs across each resolution.

We carefully review our test data and check for anomalies. For example, we always expect the RTX 5080 to be faster than the RTX 5070 Ti. If it's not, and we're not in a CPU limited situation, we'll recheck both cards to ensure that our standings our accurate. We also check and retest in cases of subtler issues, as when a transient hitch or frame-time spike causes a large dip in 1% low FPS.

Due to the length of time required for testing each GPU, updated drivers and game patches inevitably come out that can impact performance. We periodically retest a few sample cards to verify our results are still valid, and if not, we go through and retest the affected game(s) and GPU(s). We may also add games to our test suite over time, if one comes out that is popular and conducive to testing. See what makes a good game benchmark for our selection criteria.

Best graphics cards performance results

Our updated test suite of games consists of 19 games at present, eight of which have ray tracing enabled (or require RT to run at all).

We test without any upscaling or frame generation technologies enabled. We expect that most gamers will want to enable these features, but they complicate apples-to-apples comparisons between GPU vendors due to inherent differences in output image quality. To keep it simple, we present native resolution performance as a baseline.

The data in the following charts is from testing conducted during the past several months. We've tested all of the latest GPUs at every resolution and setting, even where it generally doesn't make sense (e.g. 4K with ray tracing at single digit framerates).

For each resolution and setting, the first chart shows the geometric mean (i.e. equal weighting) for all tested games. The second chart shows performance in the 11 pure raster games, and the third chart focuses in on ray tracing performance in eight games.

The charts below contain all the current Nvidia RTX 50-series and AMD RX 9000-series graphics cards. We're leaving Intel Arc cards out of the standings for now due to software compatibility issues with our test suite, and we'll include those results when those issues are corrected and we have the opportunity to retest them.

Our GPU benchmarks hierarchy contains additional data for every GPU spanning multiple generations of hardware. The charts are color coded with AMD in red, Nvidia in blue, and Intel in gray to make it easier to see what's going on.

The following charts are up to date as of June 2026.

Best Graphics Cards — 1080p

Best Graphics Cards — 1440p

Best Graphics Cards — 4K

Additional Shopping Tips

When buying a graphics card, consider the following:

• Monitor Resolution: The more pixels you're pushing, the more performance you need. You don't need a top-of-the-line GPU to game at 1080p, but you will certainly want more power at 1440p or 4K.
• PSU: Make sure that your power supply has enough juice and the right 6-, 8- and/or 16-pin connector(s). Nvidia, AMD, and Intel board partners will all make PSU recommendations alongside their products that you can use as a baseline, so if you're unsure whether your PC can provide enough power, be sure to check those spec sheets first. If you have an older PSU, be mindful that power supplies do lose capacity with time, so if you're contemplating a high-end GPU, it might be time to upgrade your GPU, too.
• Video Memory: In 2026, 8GB of VRAM is the bare minimum you'll want to play the latest games at 1080p, and it's the smallest amount of memory you'll find on a new card. Midrange cards tend to feature 12GB of VRAM, which is generally enough for raster gaming all the way out to 4K but may present limitations for RT even at 1440p. If you're planning to push a 4K display without upscaling or want to explore RT gaming without restriction, we recommend a 16GB card.
• FreeSync or G-Sync? Either variable refresh rate (VRR) technology will synchronize your GPU's frame delivery with your screen's refresh rate. Nvidia supports G-Sync and G-Sync Compatible displays (for recommendations, see our Best Gaming Monitors list). And most every G-Sync Compatible display also supports AMD FreeSync these days, so this vendor war is largely over.
• Upscaling and Frame Generation technologies: Nvidia's DLSS is in practically every game, and the latest DLSS 4.5 tech provides high-quality upscaling and frame generation (on RTX 40-series to boost performance to taste with practically no loss of image quality. AMD FSR 4 provides AI-enhanced upscaling on RX 9000-series cards, and a version compatible with RX 7000-series cards arrives in July 2026. Intel XeSS can deliver better image quality than older versions of FSR, but the core upscaler hasn't been updated in some time, and it's not as widely adopted as either DLSS or FSR, so it shouldn't influence your buying decision either way.

Finding Discounts on the Best Graphics Cards

While deep discounts are rare on graphics cards in 2026, you might find some particularly tasty deals on occasion. Check out the latest Newegg promo codes, Best Buy promo codes and Micro Center coupon codes for potential savings.

Want to comment on our best graphics picks for gaming? Let us know what you think in the Tom's Hardware Forums.

MORE: HDMI vs. DisplayPort: Which Is Better For Gaming?

MORE: GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy

Amazon has flagged Microsoft's Surface Laptop 7 as a "frequently returned item," cautioning potential buyers to check customer reviews before purchasing, Windows Central reports. The label suggests that the device has a higher return rate than similar products, though Amazon does not specify the reasons behind it.

One likely factor is the laptop’s use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform, which relies on Arm-based architecture instead of the traditional x86 processors from Intel and AMD. While Arm chips offer better power efficiency and battery life, they can introduce software compatibility issues.

Many Windows applications are still optimized for x86 processors, meaning they must rely on software emulation to run on Arm. Although Microsoft has improved emulation with Windows on Arm, specific older applications, professional software, and games may still suffer from reduced performance or fail to run altogether. This limitation has been a common criticism of Windows devices powered by Arm chips.

The situation for gaming is also not ideal. Many games refuse to even run on Windows on Arm platforms, and those that do often offer lower performance than competing x86 platforms. Also, it bears mentioning that Snapdragon's primary selling point was originally centered around far superior battery life over x86 alternatives.

Newer x86 laptops from Intel, like Lunar Lake, have dramatically improved battery life compared to prior-gen models, reducing or eliminating Snapdragon's battery life advantage while preserving full compatibility with Windows software.

The Surface Laptop 7 has a 4.2-star rating on Amazon from over 360 reviews, but 12% of those reviews are one-star. While some users report a positive experience, complaints about software compatibility, performance inconsistencies, and general usability appear to be recurring issues. These concerns may explain why the device has received the "frequently returned" warning, as buyers who expect a seamless Windows experience may be disappointed.

Microsoft is expected to address some of these concerns by offering Intel-powered versions of the Surface Laptop. Earlier this year, the company introduced the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro for business customers, powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake) processors. Similar options will likely be made available for consumer models, though no official timeline has been announced. Switching to Intel chips would remove software compatibility challenges while providing solid battery life and performance.

Potential buyers of the Snapdragon-based Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 should carefully evaluate their software needs. Ensuring that essential programs work correctly on Windows on ARM can help avoid frustration and unnecessary returns.

AMD's fire-breathing Ryzen AI Max+ 395 allegedly crushes Intel's latest efficiency-focused Lunar Lake CPUs in AI benchmarks. An AMD blog post claims the new Zen 5 + RDNA 3.5 chip is up to 12.2x faster than the Core Ultra 7 258V.

AMD benchmarked the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and Core Ultra 7 258V (with Arc 140V graphics) in a variety of large language models and LLM configurations, including DeepSeek R1 and Llama. Model sizes were restricted to 16GB to offer a fairer comparison against Lunar Lake-powered laptops with 32GB of memory (the highest memory configuration available for these devices). An Asus ROG Flow Z13 64GB was used for the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 test system, and an Asus Zenbook S14 32GB was used for the Core Ultra 7 258V test system.

In DeepSeek R1, the Ryzen chip was up to 2.1x faster (measured in tokens per second) than the Intel counterpart using Distill Qwen 1.5b, up to 2.2x faster using Distill Qwen 7b; up to 2.1x faster using Distill Llama 8b; and up to 2.2x faster using Distill Qwen 14b. In Phi 4 Mini Instruct 3.8b, the Ryzen chip was up to 2.1x faster than the Intel Lunar Lake chip; up to 2.2x faster in Phi 4 14b; and up to 2.1x faster in Llama 3.2 3b Instruct.

In the same LLM configurations but benchmarking the "time to the first token," the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 was up to 12.2x faster in DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14b. The Zen 5 chip's least-performant dominance was in Phi 4 Mini Instruct 3.8b and Llama 3.2 3b Instruct, where the AMD chip was "only" 4x faster than the Core Ultra 7 258V.

AMD showed similar dominance in AI vision models using the same "time to the first token" benchmarking technique. In IBM Granite Vision 3.2 2B, the 395 was up to 7x faster than the 258V, up to 4.6x faster in Google Gemma 3.4b, and up to 6x faster in Google Gemma 3 12b.

AMD's benchmarks show complete dominance of its Ryzen AI Max+ 395 against the Core Ultra 7 258V in AI benchmarks. This is all thanks to the Ryzen AI Max CPU's significantly more powerful integrated graphics chip (which rivals discrete graphics with its 40 RDNA 3.5 CUs), eight more CPU cores, and its significantly higher configurable TDP (rated up to 120W). Even though it consumes significantly more power than the Core Ultra 7 258V (which has a max turbo power of 37W), both chips operate in the same market, and are compatible in the same thin-and-light category of laptop PCs.

It will be interesting to see how the new AMD mobile APUs shape up against Nvidia's RTX 50-series mobile GPUs, which are reportedly facing supply chain issues, delaying their launch in upcoming RTX 50 series gaming laptops. On a pure performance level (not considering form factor), these new Nvidia-powered systems will be AMD's primary competition.

AMD is allegedly well on its way to handling discrete GPU competition, as it already advertised superior AI performance on the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 against Nvidia's RTX 4090 laptop GPU.

Every once in a while, we come across a laptop that makes us reconsider what luxury looks like. Lenovo’s 14-inch Yoga Slim 9i ($1,834.99 as tested) is the apex of class and style when it comes to Windows laptops, with a sleek glass lid and an ultra-thin profile that even smaller-screen laptops struggle to match. It also has one of the finest displays we’ve ever laid eyes on. That said, this beauty isn’t without its flaws, so be sure to weigh your options among the best ultrabooks carefully before maxing out your credit card.

Design of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

If I were to call any laptop a true luxury item, the Yoga Slim 9i would fit the bill. Its glass lid is the real showstopper, featuring a stunning blue finish that shimmers and changes hues when it catches the light. It's absolutely beautiful.

As you open the lid – easily done with one hand – you’ll see the sleek metal chassis. It’s rock solid, with no trace of flex, even when I (inadvisably) tested its strength by picking it up from one corner. The lid isn’t quite as rigid, but it’s still reassuringly stiff. The rounded, reflective chassis edges are yet another luxurious touch.

The design does have its drawbacks. The lid and chassis edges are prone to smudges and fingerprints, so keeping a microfiber cloth handy is a good idea. And while it has passed MIL-STD-810H tests for durability in extreme conditions, you’ll want to handle this with extra care to avoid any unsightly scratches.

The Yoga Slim 9i is one of the most portable 14-inch laptops, at 12.32 x 8.01 x 0.57 inches and weighing 2.76 pounds. Its exceptionally thin display bezels are partly thanks to a special webcam design that is based under the screen. You can see more on that in the webcam section, below.

The Dell XPS 13 (9350) is a bit more compact, thanks to its 13.4-inch display, measuring 11.62 x 7.84 x 0.58 inches and weighing nearly the same at 2.7 pounds. Despite having an even smaller 13-inch display, the HP Omnibook Ultra is actually larger than the Yoga, coming in at 12.41 x 8.96 x 0.65 inches and 3.47 pounds. The Apple MacBook Pro (M4, 14-inch), sits somewhere in between, with dimensions of 12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches and a weight of 3.4 pounds.

One trade-off for being this slim is the limited selection of physical connections – just two Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) ports. The Dell XPS 13 (9350) has the same problem. On the bright side, Lenovo positioned one on each edge, giving you some flexibility when plugging in the power adapter. That said, there’s no USB Type-A port, dedicated video output, or even a headphone jack. If you depend on physical connections, you’ll probably need to carry adapters or transition to Bluetooth devices.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i Specifications

Productivity Performance on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

We tested the Yoga Slim 9i with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, 32GB of RAM, Intel Arc Graphics 140V, and a 1TB SSD. The CPU is a “Lunar Lake” chip featuring four performance and four efficient cores.

The laptops we’re using in the comparison charts include the 14-inch Apple MacBook Pro (10-core M4, $1,949 as tested), the Dell XPS 13 (9350) (Core Ultra 7 258V, $1,599 as tested), and the HP Omnibook Ultra (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, $1,748 as tested). Both the Apple and HP laptops have considerably stronger processors for the price.

The Yoga Slim 9i was competitive with the XPS in the synthetic Geekbench 6 test, achieving 2,733 points in single-core and 11,038 points in multi-core, compared to the XPS’s 2,660 and 10,486 points, respectively. However, it trailed the HP, which scored 2,847 and 14,838 points. The MacBook bested them all, especially in single-core performance, with an impressive score of 3,807 points in single-core and 15,114 points in multi-core.

In our 25GB file transfer test, the Yoga Slim 9i finished last, copying at an average speed of 1,032.87 MBps. The MacBook performed slightly better at 1,167.29 MBps. The XPS showed a marked improvement with 1,533.86 MBps, while the HP led the pack with an impressive 1,708.23 MBps.

The Yoga Slim 9i continued its average performance in our Handbrake test, which transcodes a 4K video file to 1080p. It completed the task in 6 minutes and 7 seconds, outperforming the XPS, which took 8 minutes and 35 seconds. However, it fell short compared to the MacBook’s 4 minutes and 27 seconds and the HP’s 4 minutes and 18 seconds.

We stress-test ultrabooks with 10 loops of Cinebench 2024. The Yoga 9i scored 582 points on the first run and maintained consistency within five points across subsequent runs, demonstrating stable thermal performance. During the test, the P-cores operated at an average of 3.1 GHz, while the E-cores averaged 3.6 GHz. The average temperature of the processor was 60 degrees Celsius (140 Fahrenheit).

Display on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

The Yoga Slim 9i’s OLED touch display is its hallmark feature. With a 3840 x 2400 resolution (16:10 aspect ratio), it shows remarkable detail, making individual pixels indistinguishable to the human eye. Its picture quality is simply spectacular and the best I’ve seen on a laptop. Colors were incredibly vibrant in Despicable Me 2, and I was glued to BBC’s Planet Earth III for hours. The brightness is also very good; I didn’t use the laptop at maximum brightness most of the time.

The wide color space will appear to creators; the Lenovo Vantage app lets you switch between sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color spaces. Additionally, the refresh rate can be toggled between 60 Hz and 120 Hz using the Fn + R keyboard shortcut.

The display does have a couple of drawbacks, the most noticeable being its reflective surface, which can produce distracting glare from ambient light. While this wasn’t a major issue for me, I did find myself using higher screen brightness than I would have preferred to counteract the reflections.

Another issue, which I initially didn’t notice, is that the top corners of the display are rounded, like some of Microsoft's Surface devices, resulting in a small portion of the pixels being cut off. For example, the Close (X) button in application windows appears slightly trimmed at the top right. Although this doesn’t impact the laptop's overall usability, it seems to be a trade-off for achieving such a slim top display bezel.

The Yoga's brightness and color performance were on par with the OLED-equipped XPS 13, delivering 146.5% DCI-P3 color coverage and an average peak brightness of 356 nits — impressive for an OLED display. In comparison, the non-OLED models fell far behind in color reproduction. Among them, the MacBook Pro's mini-LED screen was the most vibrant, achieving 80.2% DCI-P3 coverage. While the Mac also led in brightness at 556.6 nits, it’s not directly comparable to the OLED displays.

Webcam on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

The Yoga Slim 9i introduces what Lenovo calls the CUD (Camera Under Display). When enabled, you’ll notice a circular black mark appear at the top of the screen – that’s the webcam. It’s essentially like a notch on a smartphone. This is ingenious in the sense the webcam is invisible except when it’s on; no bezel on top of the screen is needed to accommodate it.

That said, I found the webcam quality disappointing, particularly for a laptop this expensive. It displays significant grain and color distortion even under good lighting conditions. Despite a 1080p video resolution, it lacks sharpness, too. The camera also boasts a 32-megapixel photo resolution, but this felt more like a marketing gimmick; the photos showed little improvement over the video quality, and the extra resolution doesn’t do anything to help that.

One upside with the webcam is that it does have a physical kill switch on the laptop’s right edge. However, it lacks an infrared sensor, leaving the fingerprint reader as the sole biometric option.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

Although many ultraportable laptops often have shallow keyboards, the Yoga Slim 9i surprises with a healthy 1.5 mm key travel. The keys provide satisfying tactile feedback for long typing sessions. I quickly got used to it, managing 112 words per minute with perfect accuracy on my first try in the MonkeyType online typing test and 119 wpm the second time, which is my maximum speed on any laptop. I also appreciate the keys’ soft-touch coating and the two-level white backlighting that makes working in the dark no problem.

The main keyboard is laid out as expected and includes a Function Lock feature (Fn + Esc) to prioritize the F1 through F12 keys. The star key beside F12 is a customizable shortcut key, configurable through the Lenovo Vantage app. One downside, however, is the mismatched sizes of the arrow keys, which I find makes me prone to typos.

Only the right column of the keyboard is nonstandard, but in a good way. Arrayed from the top are shortcuts for performance mode (performance, balanced, or quiet), Dolby Atmos equalizer settings (e.g., movie, music, etc.), the display’s blue light filter, and one to launch the Lenovo Vantage app (described later in this review). There’s also a fingerprint reader at the bottom. The fingerprint reader isn’t the power button, which is located on the right edge.

The Yoga’s touchpad is also excellent. While it looks slightly small at 4.1 inches x 2.7 inches, it maximizes the available vertical space. My fingers glided across its surface, and the physical clicks provide direct tactile feedback without making too much noise.

Audio on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

The Yoga’s speakers sound full-bodied and are plenty loud for personal listening. The bass notes and vocals in Aurosonic’s “Moving Mountains” were engaging, and I noted the crisp sound effects and satisfying bass depth while watching Blade Runner: 2049.

The Dolby Atmos settings in the Dolby Access app aid the sound quality. Music mode is good for everything, adding extra detail, while Movie mode noticeably expands the soundstage.

As I noted, the Yoga lacks a headphone jack, so you’ll need a Bluetooth or USB Type-C device for alternative sound output, such as the best PC speakers.

Upgradeability of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

Upgrade prospects for the Yoga Slim 9i are, well, slim. The only replaceable parts are the battery and the SSD, which uses the compact M.2 2230 format, restricting compatible drives. Upgrading the memory is not possible since it is integrated into the Core Ultra 7 “Lunar Lake” processor. The Wi-Fi 7 wireless card is also soldered and not replaceable, though it shouldn’t need replacement anytime soon.

Removing the bottom panel of the Yoga Slim 9i is no simple task. In addition to four visible T5 screws, there are two hidden Philips-head screws concealed beneath the rear rubber foot. I used a plastic trim tool to carefully pry the foot loose. Lenovo used some adhesive to hold it down, but it seems unnecessary as the foot has hooks that go into the chassis. Once reattached, it felt just as stable. However, for those unfamiliar with this design, overlooking these hidden screws could lead to damage when attempting to remove the bottom panel.

When reassembling the laptop, that foot fits back in with hooks. I'm not sure it would survive a bunch of openings, but once or twice should be OK.

Battery Life on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

Our battery life test involves simulated web browsing, streaming video over Wi-Fi, and running OpenGL tests, all with the screen brightness set to 150 nits. The Yoga Slim 9i trailed the group, lasting 11 hours and 3 minutes. The only device with a shorter runtime was the OLED-equipped XPS 13, at 8 hours and 40 minutes, but the normal LCD version lasted 17 hours and 29 minutes. Meanwhile, the Omnibook Ultra (with an IPS screen) lasted 12 hours and 52 minutes, while the MacBook Pro (with a mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR screen) led with 18 hours and 31 minutes. While the Yoga’s battery life is far from unusable, it wouldn't be our top pick for maximum endurance off the plug.

Heat on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

We measure laptop surface temperatures during our Cinebench 2024 stress test. The Yoga’s touchpad registered 69 degrees F, the center of the keyboard (between the G and H keys) was 86 degrees, and the maximum temperature on the underside was 82 degrees. The laptop felt only lukewarm. Additionally, the fans operated quietly and remained unobtrusive, even in my nearly silent testing room.

Software and Warranty on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i

The familiar Lenovo Vantage app is the most important pre-installed software on the Yoga Slim 9i. Its user-friendly interface offers many useful features, such as a battery conservation mode, an overnight charging feature that adapts your habits to fully charge the battery before you need it, and a blue light filter for the display. Additionally, the app provides Dolby Atmos audio customization, system diagnostics, a security advisor, a network utility to identify secure wireless networks, system updates, and access to customer support.

A McAfee antivirus license is included, though we removed it for testing. There is also the mentioned Dolby Access app for setting Atmos equalizer settings.

Lenovo backs the Yoga Slim 9i with a one-year warranty.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i Configurations

Lenovo offers the Yoga Slim 9i in two configurations: one features a Core Ultra 7 256V processor paired with 16GB of RAM, while the other includes a Core Ultra 7 258V processor and 32GB of RAM. The two processors are identical apart from the embedded memory capacity. Both models come equipped with a 1TB SSD.

At $1,834.99, Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 9i is undeniably expensive, but it’s not unreasonable compared to similar premium laptops. For instance, the Dell XPS 9350, featuring an OLED screen, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, is listed at $1,999.99 on Dell.com as of this writing. The Apple MacBook Pro offers a comparable price point at $1,799.99, equipped with an M4 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. On the other hand, the HP Omnibook Ultra is a more budget-friendly option, priced at $1,499.99 at Best Buy, with an OLED display, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD.

Bottom Line

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i is a dazzler, blending luxurious design with a spectacular OLED display. It stands out as one of the most stylish and portable 14-inch laptops on the market. Beyond aesthetic allure, it also features a comfortable keyboard, responsive touchpad, and solid audio performance.

That said, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i has its share of limitations. Its connectivity options are minimal, offering only two USB-C ports with no additional features – not even a headphone jack. The under-display webcam, while an impressive technological achievement, delivers disappointing video quality.

Moreover, though its battery life can cover a workday, competitors like the non-OLED Dell XPS 13 (9350) and the Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4) offer even longer durations away from the plug, a trade-off for the Yoga’s gorgeous OLED display. Last, while its performance is more than sufficient for everyday tasks, the Core Ultra 7 “Lunar Lake” processor falls short when compared to more robust options like the AMD Ryzen AI-powered HP Omnibook Ultra or the M4-equipped MacBook Pro.

In the realm of premium ultrabooks, the Omnibook Ultra and the MacBook Pro remain stronger all-around choices at a comparable price, albeit with added weight and (in the case of the MacBook) the absence of an OLED display. But for those prioritizing elegance, display quality, and portability above all else, the Yoga Slim 9i is an enticing option.

Dynabook has introduced the Portégé Z40L-N, a new 14-inch Intel Lunar Lake business laptop featuring a simple user-replaceable battery, a feature that has become rare in modern laptops. The device is designed for professionals who require a durable and portable machine with long-term usability.

Weighing under 1kg (approximately 2.2lbs), the Portégé Z40L-N has a magnesium alloy chassis that meets MIL-STD-810H standards for durability. It is built to withstand drops, shocks, and environmental stress, making it suitable for mobile work environments.

The laptop runs on Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 processors, based on the Lunar Lake architecture, and includes Neural Processing Units (NPUs) for AI-based tasks. It supports Windows Copilot+ features, including Live Captions, gesture controls, and AI-assisted video call enhancements.

One of the key features of the Portégé Z40L-N is its 65Wh replaceable battery. While it may not be the largest in capacity, it addresses concerns over battery degradation, allowing users to replace the unit instead of relying on service repairs or early device replacement.

Lunar Lake laptops usually have pretty good battery life, but this "self-replacable battery" doesn't quite take us back to the era where you had snap-in battery packs that formed part of the device shell, some even offered hot-swap batteries. The Portégé's battery still looks like it is screwed in, hidden under a small detachable cover.

In contrast, Apple’s adoption of sealed batteries in laptops set a trend that other manufacturers followed, enabling slimmer designs, better efficiency, and improved battery optimization. The unibody construction integrated the battery into the device, enhancing structural integrity and extending battery life, but also preventing easy user replacement. This shift gave Apple greater control over service and repair, increasing profits, while other brands adopted similar designs to stay competitive. Although it improved aesthetics and durability, critics argue that sealed batteries reduce user flexibility and contribute to higher repair costs and environmental concerns.

As for the rest of the features, the Portégé Z40L-N features a 14-inch display with a 1920x1200 resolution and a 5-megapixel infrared camera for Windows Hello facial recognition. Additionally there is a spill-resistant keyboard, Dolby Atmos stereo speakers, and a fingerprint reader. Connectivity options include two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Wireless support includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth.

The Portégé Z40L-N will be offered in two configurations: one with an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor and 16GB of RAM, starting at $1,699, and another with a Core Ultra 7 258V processor and 32GB of RAM, starting at $2,199. Both versions offer up to 2TB of storage.

Dynabook's decision to reintroduce a user-replaceable battery sets the Portégé Z40L-N apart from many competing ultrabooks, which often use sealed designs. This move could appeal to business users looking for longevity and ease of maintenance without relying on manufacturer service centers.

Although Intel would like to reduce its use of TSMC’s manufacturing services , the company will keep ordering chips from the Taiwan-based foundry for the foreseeable future, a high-ranking executive said at a technology conference yesterday. 

Intel’s grand plan is to produce as many products as possible internally at Intel Foundry, but as this may not be the most optimal strategy, it is currently assessing what percentage of its products should be produced at TSMC. 

"I think a year ago we were talking about trying to get [usage of TSMC] to zero as quickly as possible, but that is no longer the strategy," said John Pitzer, vice president of corporate planning and investor relations at Intel, at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. "We think it is always good to have at least some of our wafers with TSMC. They are a great supplier. This creates healthy competition between them and Intel Foundry." 

Intel currently produces silicon for its flagship Core 200-series ‘Arrow Lake’ and ‘Lunar Lake’ processors for desktops and laptops at TSMC and then assembles them using its Foveros 3D advanced packaging technology at its packaging facilities in the U.S. As a result, the company has to pay TSMC a premium, which significantly hurts its gross margins. 

With its next-generation Core 300-series ‘Panther Lake’ CPUs, Intel expects to use its own manufacturing facilities, including the most advanced Fab 52 and Fab 62 in Arizona, to make the compute chiplet of the processor using the company’s 18A fabrication technology. Since the majority of manufacturing operations will be performed internally, Intel expects to enjoy higher gross margins with its next-generation products. 

However, some of Intel’s products will continue to be made at TSMC. Currently, around 30% of Intel’s products are outsourced, but the company expects this share to decrease considerably in the future. 

"Not quite sure what the right sort of [outsourced production] level is," said Pitzer. "Is it 20%? Is it 15%? We are working through that. But we will use, I think, external foundry suppliers longer under this new strategy." 

Intel is, of course, interested in producing its most advanced high-margin products, such as Xeon processors that cost thousands of dollars each, internally. In fact, the company has never outsourced these parts. And clearly it would prefer not to outsource premium high-volume CPUs for client PCs.

However, Intel may use TSMC’s services to make niche products for client computers as well as various controllers that add tremendous value to Intel’s platforms but are sold for $10–$15.

Such controllers usually rely on trailing nodes that Intel currently lacks (since Intel’s 14nm and 22nm process technologies were designed for CPUs and use proprietary IPs). So the use of TSMC and other foundries to make them is a good fit.

Significant new details of a next-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 processor for Windows PCs have been shared Germany's WinFuture (machine translation). The big news is that the new X2 chips may come to the PC market with up to 18 Oryon V3 cores, that's 50% more than the current generation Qualcomm chips for PCs. The extra, more powerful, cores will help 'Snapdragon X Elite Gen 2' chips in the high-end laptop market and in desktops, reckons the source.

This isn't the first we have heard about the generational successor to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processors for Windows-based client PCs. Last October from the same source we heard that Qualcomm had already got test silicon for the Snapdragon X2 chips, which were codenamed Project Glymur, and featured the model number SC8480XP.

Today, the deeper dive into Snapdragon X2 details also focuses on the SC8480XP. However, this time, WinFuture says it has had eyes on undisclosed import-export databases and spews forth some important tech specs.

In the intro, we mentioned that the next-gen Windows PC chips from Qualcomm might move up to 18 cores, from 12. That's not all. WinFuture has spied documents which suggest the new Qualcomm SiP (system in package) will fold in both RAM and flash storage. Specifically, the SC8480XP features 18 cores, 48GB of SK hynix RAM, and a 1TB SSD onboard.

Qualcomm comes at PCs from a different heritage to traditional players like AMD and Intel, so perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised at its different take with the SiP implementation. The source also indicates that Qualcomm is testing the next-gen processor with an all-in-one cooler and 120mm radiator. It may be trying to see what advantages a desktop could bring compared to the thermally constrained portables its chips usually find a home.

As if there weren't enough Qualcomm codenames numbers and brands mentioned already, WinFuture indicates the upcoming chips might fall under the 'Snapdragon X2 Ultra Premium' brand. A wry response to that might be – why no AI?

Lastly, remember this Snapdragon X2 information comes via an unnamed import-export database leak, so please regard it as an indicative information nugget, at best. Our next window of opportunity for some real first-hand information on Snapdragon X2 chips is very near, though. Qualcomm will have a significant presence at MWC, and this mobile trade show kicks off in Barcelona tomorrow.

Intel and Samsung Display have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop displays tailored for AI devices, such as AI PCs, reports ZDNet Korea. With this collaboration, Intel might enhance its mobile platforms with better displays tailored for capabilities of its GPUs. Samsung, on the other hand, might secure additional presence on the market of premium laptops.

Through this collaboration, Samsung Display aims to refine screens that work seamlessly with Intel's processors with AI capabilities, such as Core 200-series 'Lunar Lake' and the upcoming Core 300-series 'Panther Lake' and Core 400-series 'Nova Lake' CPUs that will hit the market in 2025 and 2026, respectively. The goal is to 'enhance computing experience,' though this is a rather vague description of the mutual work.

In fact, Intel and Samsung Display have been working with each other for years already. For example, Samsung's latest Galaxy Book 5 laptop uses Intel's Core 200-series processors as well as the company's own OLED displays.

"With the partnership with Intel, which keeps advancing the future of personal computing, we will be able to accelerate innovating next-generation display technologies," said Lee Ho-jung, Samsung Display's vice president for small and medium-sized product planning, in a statement published by Korea Times. "The partnership will usher in an unchartered territory of laptop computer user experiences and allow the two companies to lead the global AI PC market.”

Intel is by any means not new to collaborating with developers of displays. Back in the day, it worked together with Innolux and Sharp to develop low-power display technology to enhance the battery life of Intel-based notebooks. Before that, the company worked with LG to enable its WiDi wireless display technology on LG's TVs and displays. Intel and Samsung now believe that their collaborative work will push innovation forward and improve user experience with AI-integrated devices, though again, this is a very unclear description of what is to come.

Samsung Display competes fiercely against companies like BOE and LG Electronics over the premium laptop market. The collaboration with Intel will secure Samsung Display a place inside next-generation Intel Core-based laptops. Perhaps, the joint marketing campaigns will further draw attention to technologies developed by both companies and will certainly help with additional brand recognition.

Lenovo is set to unveil a series of new devices at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, with the ThinkBook Flip AI PC emerging as a standout. Renowned leaker Evan Blass has shared renders of this upcoming laptop, showcasing a unique rollable and foldable OLED display that reimagines traditional laptop design.

The ThinkBook Flip features a dual-hinge mechanism, allowing the screen to fold outward and effectively double its vertical size when fully rolled out. This design should provide users with an expanded workspace, ideal for multitasking or viewing extensive content without relying on external monitors. When the additional screen space isn't needed, the top half can be folded back, converting the device into a conventional laptop form factor. This flexibility also enables the upper portion to function as a secondary display, facilitating content sharing during presentations or collaborative sessions.

Unlike previous foldable devices such as the ThinkPad X1 Fold, which was essentially a foldable tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard, the ThinkBook Flip comes with a built-in keyboard. The device's minimalist design includes flat edges which should include essential ports like USB Type-C and USB Type-A, although it is not very clear from the leaked renders. Additionally, there is a webcam positioned within a notch at the top of the screen.

While specific hardware specifications remain undisclosed, it is expected that the ThinkBook Flip will be equipped with Intel's forthcoming Arrow Lake-H or Lunar Lake processor options. There is also speculation about potential AMD variants, possibly integrating Strix Point-based Ryzen AI 7 series chips. Essentially, it could end up being a high-performance device catering to both professional and creative users.

Lenovo has been experimenting with foldable and rollable display technologies for some time. At CES (Consumer Electronic Show) last month, the company unveiled the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, featuring a rollable display that could expand vertically with just the wave of a hand.

Notably, the leaked ThinkBook Flip AI PC aligns with previous reports, which highlighted Lenovo's plans to introduce a range of new devices at MWC 2025. Among the anticipated releases are nine new laptops and a hybrid 2D/3D 34-inch curved monitor.

The monitor, bearing Lenovo's Legion gaming brand, is expected to target professionals and gamers alike, offering a larger alternative to the existing ThinkVision 27 3D. The leaked laptops include models such as the IdeaPad Slim 3x, featuring a 15-inch screen and likely powered by a Snapdragon X chip, and the ThinkPad T14s 2-in-1, marking the first 2-in-1 form factor in Lenovo's flagship ThinkPad T-series.

Other models, like the ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 5, ThinkBook 16p Gen 5, ThinkPad T14 Gen 6, ThinkPad T16 Gen 4, ThinkPad X13 Gen 6, and the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition, are expected to offer incremental upgrades with newer chips and components. Notably, the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, a 14-inch laptop powered by a Snapdragon X chip.

Edit 2/16/2024: The list of supported processors we reference in this article is for new OEM systems. However, Microsoft also references this same list on its minimum system requirements for Windows 11 page (expanding the 'Processors/CPUs' section has a link to Microsoft's "list of approved CPUs," which is the same list as referenced below.) We are following up with Microsoft for clarification but have added mention of the OEM systems below.

Microsoft has published its latest Windows 11 processor support lists for new OEM systems. The latest version of the OS, Windows 11 version 24H2, now includes official support for some of the newest Intel chips such as Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200 parts. However, we are surprised to see that Intel's 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th Gen processors are no longer officially supported on the list for new OEM systems. The decision may be related to Intel's move of 7th-10th Gen iGPUs to a legacy support model in December.

Though Windows 11 24H2 has been pushed to consumers for several months already, Microsoft has just released the first official CPU support lists on its Hardware Developer site (the same as linked to the overall Windows 11 minimum requirements). When the first version of Windows 11 went official users were surprised to see many serviceable Intel CPUs, the 7^th Gen Kaby Lake series and older, left unsupported. Now we appear to be seeing Intel's 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th Gen processors meeting the same fate.

Cutting support for Intel processors launched as recently as 2020 (10^th Gen Comet Lake), seems rather drastic. The Core i9-10900K with 10C/20T and a boost as high as 5.3 GHz seems far too virile to be put to pasture when a Celeron 6305 2C/2T Tiger Lake chip (also launched in 2020), for example, makes the Windows 11 version 24H2 official support list.

Microsoft doesn't explain its CPU support decisions on the linked page. All it really says is that, going forward, "subsequently released and future generations of processors which meet the same principles will be considered as supported, even if not explicitly listed." Moreover, it doesn't mention the dropping of support for Intel's 8^th 9^th, and 10^th Gen processors in the preamble to the Windows 11 version 24H2 list.

Intel found holding the smoking gun?

The absence of explanation might give some hope that all the Intel 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th Gen processors missing from the support list could be some kind of clerical error. However, the dropping of support of these particular Intel CPUs tallies with Intel's moving of "7th - 10th Gen Intel Processor Graphics and related Intel Atom, Pentium, and Celeron processor graphics to a legacy software support model." Intel announced this change quite recently, in December 2024.

If this is the reason for omitting these chips from the CPU support list, we have to wonder whether an 8^th Gen chip, for example, with a modern discrete GPU will sail past any 'unsupported hardware' OS upgrade barriers.

Windows 11 version 24H2 supported AMD processors

Meanwhile, folk rocking PC systems running AMD processors will see that Ryzen 8000 chips have been added to the official Windows 11 support list (for 24H2) for the first time. We noticed that some mobile chips were misnamed, like the Ryzen 7 Pro 8945HS, which should be the Ryzen 9 Pro 8945HS. Also, the non-Pro SKU seems to be missing from the list, but these are likely oversights.

Microsoft seems slow to add explicit Ryzen 9000 and Ryzen AI mobile chip support, too. There are no signs of any Ryzen 9000 CPUs, nor popular chips like the Ryzen AI 9 370 HX on the new list. Remember though, Microsoft says that new and upcoming processors built upon previous chips "will be considered as supported, even if not explicitly listed."

Lastly, Microsoft's processor support axe has been known to sway, and even systems using CPUs outside of the official support lists can and do get Windows updates.

Hardware leaker Jaykihn has shared what's believed to be the preliminary power specifications for Intel's upcoming Panther Lake-H CPUs, which are set to be used later this year in a new slate of laptops and mobile devices, which were previously shown off at CES 2025.

The alleged preliminary spec details three variants of chips within the series, denoting performance, efficiency, and Xe3 cores. These chips are set to be based on Intel's upcoming Celestial architecture. They will likely materialize as Intel's Core Ultra 300H series, and the alleged preliminary power specifications allow some speculation about the kinds of devices the company will target.

The first variant shows off a 16-core chip with a 4+8+4 configuration. Assuming this means four performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and four GPU cores. This specific configuration will likely reside in systems alongside a dedicated GPU. PL1 (Performance Base Power - PBP) and PL2 (Maximum Turbo Power - MTP) in both baseline and performance power modes will pull 25W and 64W- respectively.

The 4+8+4 configuration has notably fewer efficiency cores than its previous-gen counterparts. The same can be said for the second variant listed, featuring a 24-core configuration split into 4+8+12. This may indicate its suitability for a higher-end device with four performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and 12 GPU cores. The PBP is listed at a baseline of 25W, with an MTP of 55W. In the 'performance' mode, this changes to 25W and 64W, respectively.

The cTDP Max headroom on both chip configurations lists higher wattages, up to 80W MTP. This might imply that both chips have some headroom built for burst-heavy tasks like rendering. However, they are also set to be more efficient than the Core Ultra 200H series, which could boost into 100W+ territory.

The final listing is for a seemingly lower-end eight-core chip with a configuration of 4+0+4. This will likely be the Core Ultra 300U chip, set to be used in entry-level devices or gaming handhelds. This configuration can run with a PBP of just 15W and an MTP of 44W under the 'baseline' power mode, while it boosts up to a similar 25W PBP and 55W MTP under the 'performance' mode.

This tells us that Intel is starting to get serious about efficiency in its mobile chips. While AMD has long held the efficiency crown for x86 mobile devices, this initial power spec may be a step in the right direction for Intel. AMD has gained ground on Intel in both the desktop and laptop CPU market, with competition fiercer than ever. Intel's Panther Lake H CPUs will be produced in volume on the company's 18A (1.8nm-class) process in 2H 2025. The products are expected to be on shelves in early 2026.

Preliminary benchmarks at PassMark put Intel's new Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 9 275HX 7% ahead of AMD's Ryzen 9 7945HX3D processor in CPU Mark. Moreover, despite a 400 MHz clock deficit, the 275HX manages to land 34% faster than last generation's i9-14900HX, with a solid 9% lead when looking at single-threaded performance. Because this test is based on only one sample of the processor, it is suggested to wait for in-depth, independent reviews before jumping to conclusions. Gaming laptops equipped with Intel's Arrow Lake-HX family are expected to launch soon, most likely hitting shelves next month with the launch of Nvidia's RTX 50 mobile series.

Arrow Lake-HX CPUs act as desktop replacements, employing an architecture similar to Core Ultra 200S chips on desktop, but in a BGA package. There are some minor differences between these CPUs and Arrow Lake-H, including the elevated TDPs and the lack of LPE cores on the SoC tile. These are Intel's highest-performing laptop chips this year, designed to be paired with a dedicated GPU, with a PBP (Processor Base Power) of 55W, going as high as 160W depending on the use case.

The Core Ultra 9 275HX in question is only second to the flagship 285HX, both offering 24 cores (8P + 16E) and 24 threads. The 275HX clocks at a maximum of 5.5 GHz on the performance cores, a 400 MHz deficit versus the last generation, and 100 MHz slower than the 285HX. Nonetheless, Intel has managed to extract somewhat decent efficiency and performance gains thanks to the newer TSMC N3B process and updated Lion Cove and Skymont architectures.

In the single-threaded benchmark at PassMark, the 275HX leads the pack; up to 16% faster than the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. This is not an exact apples-to-apples comparison as AMD's new Zen 5-based Fire Range chips are just around the corner, so we aren't sure if Intel can maintain its performance throne for long. In any case, this lead extends to 34% against the i9-14900HX in CPU Mark; PassMark's proprietary tool for estimating a CPU's performance. Despite a near 7% reduction in boost clocks, the Arrow Lake chip still lands roughly 9% ahead in terms of single-core performance.

The Core Ultra 9 285H (Arrow Lake-H based) delivered lackluster efficiency numbers in a recent user review. While this could simply boil down to the dated Meteor Lake SoC tile, which shouldn't carry over to Arrow Lake-HX, it's best to hold off until detailed reviews are available to get a clearer picture.

Given the TDP of these chips, performance will largely depend on the laptop's thermals and power delivery capability. The integrated GPU has been updated to Alchemist+ with support for XMX supporting DPAS instructions. None of Intel's Arrow Lake chips are compliant with Microsoft's CoPilot+ requirements, except for Lunar Lake. Laptops packed with Intel's Arrow Lake-HX chips are slated for a late Q3 launch, so you'll probably see a handful of these on shelves next month.

Late last year, our extensive testing showed that Intel's Lunar Lake Arc 140V integrated graphics outperformed AMD's top-end 890M integrated silicon (driver concerns and software aside) by an average of 7% over 27 tested games. Now that Intel has launched its Arrow Lake mobile parts, we've spent some time testing an Intel-provided MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo laptop running an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, to see if Intel's integrated performance edge still holds. And in a broad sense, the answer is yes. The Arc 140T iGPU in the 285H (despite being based on the older Xe+ architecture rather than the Xe2 of Lunar Lake's 140V) maintains a slight edge over AMD's 880M, which we also recently re-tested in MSI's Prestige A16 AI+ laptop for comparison. But things aren't cut and dry once you drop below 1080p.

Also, AMD still leads on drivers and software for gaming, so you might have a better overall gaming experience if you opt for AMD. And really, while most games should broadly be playable at reduced settings and sub-1080p resolutions, those at all serious about on-the-go gaming should still strongly consider stepping up to a laptop with dedicated graphics, or perhaps something built around AMD's flagship Strix Halo, which the company says offers up to 1.4x the performance of the 140V iGPU in Intel's Core Ultra 9 288V.

Below, we'll look at the specs of our two MSI Prestige test laptops. Then we'll delve into our limited gaming test results across five titles and see how the two similarly configured systems stack up in gaming, as well as in CPU performance and battery life.

Note that we also managed to re-test Lunar Lake's 140V graphics in an Asus Zenbook S14 and AMD's flagship Strix Point iGPU, the 890M, inside a Zenbook S16. These tests were run right before the deadline for this article and are in different laptop chassis, with specs that vary more than the two MSI Prestige laptops. So we aren't going to comment on these results. They're just in our charts below for context.

Gaming Tests: Intel Core Ultra 285H / Arc 140T versus AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 / Radeon 880M

Given time constraints, we couldn't test a wide swathe of games so we focused on some titles that we use for laptop testing and ordered them in the charts below based on when the games were released. As you'll see, some less-demanding titles that are several years old run pretty well even at high settings. But newer games will force you to drop below 1080p and dial down the detail. We aren't going to bother reporting performance at the laptops' native 2560x1600 resolution, because neither integrated chip got anywhere close to playability while pushing that many pixels.

This 2018 franchise title gives Intel's GPU its first win, though the results are close. The 3 FPS lead the 140T holds over AMD's 880M at 1080p is at least reasonably definitive, but stepping down to 720p for more playable frame rates, there's a single-frame difference between the two competitors. These results are an average of three runs, but that's still within general benchmark variance.

Using a 2019-era title that wasn't particularly GPU-demanding when it was new, it's not exactly a surprise that both GPUs here flirt with 30fps at 1080p in Borderlands 3, and the Intel laptop has a nearly 2 FPS edge there. But interestingly, when dropping down to 720p, the AMD silicon pulls ahead by about 6.5 FPS.

Moving forward in terms of time and difficulty, we get to Cyberpunk 2077, where we had to turn off ray tracing entirely and drop the settings down to low to stay well out of single-digit territory. This test is a mixed bag for Intel's chip, where it pulls three FPS ahead at 1080p but again falls behind by 8 FPS at 720p – which is what you'll probably want to stick to with this title if you want anything approaching smooth results on modern integrated graphics.

The 2022 strategy title, Total War: Warhammer III is one title where Intel's 140T has a clear advantage. It beats the AMD 880M in our MSI test laptop by 2 FPS at 720p and an impressive 13 FPS at 1080p.

Last up is last year's hit, Black Myth: Wukong, which wasn't exactly smooth on either iGPU, even when we dropped our typical test settings down from Cinematic to the Medium preset. Intel's silicon turned in a 7 FPS edge over AMD at 1080p, but once again, dropping the resolution down a more playable 720p saw AMD's 880M pull to just a few FPS behind Intel's result. These results show that, while Intel's integrated graphics tend to perform better overall, things are going to vary between titles, especially when gaming below 1080p.

It also shows that modern demanding games are already pushing these integrated chips to their gaming limits. You'll likely be able to play most games without dedicated graphics for now at reduced settings and resolutions. But before long, future titles may leave you wishing you'd invested in a true gaming laptop with dedicated graphics.

A quick look at CPU performance and battery life

I was curious to see whether AMD's advantage in some of our gaming tests at 720p could be an indicator that the Ryzen AI 9 365 might have an edge over the Core Ultra 9 285H on the CPU side. But that doesn't seem to be the case, as you can see below, where we compared the two MSI Prestige laptops in a few of our productivity benchmarks.

Starting with the Geekbench 6 synthetic CPU benchmark, the AMD Ryzen 9 365-based laptop is competitive in the single-core test, falling just 1.59% behind the Core Ultra 9 285H in the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo. But on the multi-core test, Intel's 16 cores and 16 threads managed to best AMD's 10 cores and 20 threads by 20.62%.

Shifting to our real-world Handbrake test, where we transcode a 4K video file to 1080p, Intel's lead is 24 seconds or just under 10%. That's a win for Intel and Arrow Lake. But keep in mind that we're comparing mid-2024 AMD silicon to an Intel chip that's arriving on the scene in February of 2025.

Battery Life

Our battery test is a mix of web browsing, video streaming, and graphical tests with the screen brightness set to 150 nits. So it's not an indication of gaming performance, but it's still a key consideration for any laptop.

Once again, the Intel-based machine is the clear leader here, offering up four extra hours of unplugged power in our test. But don't read much into those numbers as an indication of power efficiency. According to MSI's specs, the battery in the Intel-based Prestige (99.9 Whr) is 21.9% larger than the (82 Whr) battery in the AMD model. Still, the Intel laptop did get 36% longer run time, so it seems likely Intel does have some advantage in power efficiency, but we'll have to test more Arrow Lake laptops to say for sure. At this point, we're just happy to see that both options deliver over ten hours with their large 2560 x 1600 screens.

Final thoughts

After putting Intel's Core Ultra 9 285H chip and its 140T integrated graphics through our typical laptop tests compared to a similarly equipped MSI Prestige system running AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 and its 880M graphics, we are left with more or less the same conclusions we had late last year in our much more extensive laptop graphics testing.

After many years of dominance by AMD, Intel's integrated graphics are now the best in terms of raw performance overall. And thanks to its work over the past few years on dedicated cards like the Arc B580, its driver and software stack have improved greatly. But we'd still give the edge to AMD on the software side, which isn't surprising given its GPU focus since acquiring ATI way back in 2006.

And regardless of how much integrated graphics have improved in the last few years, just because you can play most modern games these days on an iGPU doesn't necessarily mean everyone will want to. As our testing shows, you'll often have to drop below 1080p resolution, even on older games at high settings. And the more demanding games that have come out in the last few years will force you to stick to low settings and 720p to keep things running above even 30 FPS. So unless you're really counting on game developers downgrading the visuals due to rising costs, you should probably still choose a laptop with dedicated graphics if you want to play the best games of 2025 and beyond.

In a flurry of tweets detailing Intel's upcoming processors, avid hardware leaker Jaykihn has shared specifications for Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake. Arriving in H2 this year, Panther Lake is the successor to Arrow Lake-H, which launched at this CES. Meanwhile, Wildcat Lake is rumored to power Intel's next-gen N-series chips, designed for lightweight laptops and mini-PCs.

Lunar Lake, crowned with the fastest integrated GPU per our testing, is a one-off design, as integrating memory directly into the CPU die has proven too costly for Intel to standardize. With no direct successor to Lunar Lake, Panther Lake follows Arrow Lake in less than one year, built using Intel's flagship 18A process technology.

Wildcat Lake has remained chiefly undercover, apart from a few design tools that surfaced at NBD. The same leaker claims it is designed for low-power and low-cost Chromebooks, mini-PCs, and embedded devices, and it succeeds the Alder Lake-N series.

There have been rumors of an 18-core counterpart of Panther Lake, though the exact specifications of these SKUs haven't been confirmed, per Jaykihn. Nonetheless, as reflected in the table below, the leaker has relayed details of three finalized Panther Lake variants. The top-end Panther Lake configuration boasts 16 CPU cores, likely based on Cougar Cove and Darkmont, alongside 12 Xe3 (Celestial) GPU cores. The second variant has fewer Xe3 cores but more PCIe 5.0 lanes, likely for a dedicated GPU. The third and last configuration features no E-cores, sticking to a 4P + 4LPE design.

Wildcat Lake seemingly only has one variation with six cores (2P + 4LPE), presumably using the exact Cougar Cove and Darkmont cores as Panther Lake. However, the Compute Tile will likely only house the two P-cores, while the LPE-cores are expected to reside in the SoC Tile. On the other hand, 40 AI TOPS could make for some fascinating use cases of these processors in edge and mobile machine learning applications.

Some SKUs may use LPCAMM, which offers fast and upgradable memory simultaneously. We don't have an expected release timeframe for Wildcat Lake, but early 2026 or even late 2025 may be potential candidates.

Intel's next-generation desktop CPU family, codenamed Nova Lake, is officially slated for a 2026 launch. Renowned leaker Jaykihn has weighed in at X, alleging Nova Lake could scale up to 52 cores.

Before you get excited, be aware that these are preliminary silicon configurations that could be canceled later. As a reminder, we saw similar rumors of a 40-core (8P + 32E) Arrow Lake chip, which likely did exist but never saw the light of day. Nonetheless, the leaker alleges Nova Lake will employ the Coyote Cove and Arctic Wolf architectures for its P-cores and E-cores, respectively.

Shipping manifests from NBD suggest that Nova Lake test chips are currently in the hands of developers, which is expected since these CPUs are set to launch next year. Intel's co-CEO, Michelle Holthaus, asserted that some parts of Nova Lake will be built at external foundries (TSMC, Samsung), though most will remain in-house.

Jaykihn has listed three Nova Lake configurations that Intel is reportedly considering at the moment: 52 cores (16P + 32E + 4LPE), 28 cores (8P + 16E + 4LPE), and 16 cores (4P + 8E + 4LPE). The initial claim portrays the 52-core SKU as a dual 8P+16E design with four LPE cores (likely on the SoC Tile).

Intel could adopt a dual-CCX-like design with a dedicated L3 cache for each 8P+16E pair, though a large, unified pool of L3 cache is also possible. The leaker suggests that the 52-core die is potentially designated for both desktops and laptops as an HX-grade SKU, but the claim isn't strongly asserted since all of this data is preliminary.

The tipster claims that Nova Lake will adopt Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores for its architecture. It is speculated that Coyote Cove is the second successor to Lion Cove (Arrow Lake/Lunar Lake), following Cougar Cove (Panther Lake). On the E-core side, Skymont is rumored to be superseded by Darkmont, followed by Arctic Wolf.

Adding to the mix, Jaykihn mentions a Nova Lake SKU with a 144MB L3 cache-equipped compute tile, suggesting its existence but not offering further details. Such exotic designs rarely see the light of day, so we highly recommend you take this leak with a grain of salt. Despite Nova Lake purportedly sticking with an off-die memory controller, rumors exist that Intel may have optimizations in place to minimize the latency penalty.

Intel's Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 7 255H appears to have been tested in PassMark, where it outperformed its Meteor Lake equivalent by 32% in single-threaded tests (via x86deadandback at X). Across a wide variety of metrics, the 255H is roughly 15% faster in CPU Mark, which is PassMark's proprietary metric for gauging a CPU's performance.

Intel revealed its Arrow Lake-H family of processors at CES, shortly followed by a user review at Bilibili, which left much to be desired from these CPUs. Dubbed Core Ultra 200H, these processors employ Intel's Arrow Lake architecture featuring Lion Cove P-cores and Skymont E-cores. What separates them from desktop chips, apart from the power envelope, is that these CPUs feature an LPE (Low Power Efficient) core cluster on the SoC Tile, a feature reused from Meteor Lake.

Unlike Lunar Lake which uses Battlemage (Xe2) graphics, Arrow Lake-H is armed with up to eight Xe-LPG+ (Alchemist+) cores with support for XMX. As the SoC Tile remains unchanged, Arrow Lake-H's NPU is capable of dishing out just 13 TOPS of INT8 performance, versus 45 TOPS on Lunar Lake. What is similar to Lunar Lake is the process node: TSMC's N3B, a step-up from Intel 4 used with Meteor Lake.

The Core Ultra 7 255H in question packs 16 cores, divided into six P-cores, eight E-cores, and two LPE-cores with 16 threads in total, as Arrow Lake lacks hyperthreading support. The Core Ultra 7 155H on the contrary is equipped with a similar layout but 22 threads. In PassMark's single-core benchmark, the 255H blazes past its predecessor, scoring 4,631 points compared to the 155H's 3,500 points for a 32% lead. This is a direct result of the updated Lion Cove P-cores and N3B process, allowing a 300 MHz bump in boost clocks. When aggregated, the CPU Mark rating puts Arrow Lake ahead by around 15%.

Relatively speaking, efficiency remains the Achilles' heel of these chips, as the 16-core Core Ultra 9 285H failed to beat the 10-core Ryzen AI 9 365 when limited to 50W of power. While Arrow Lake-H offers an updated Compute Tile and a slightly modified Graphics Tile, the SoC, and IOE Tiles are largely carried over from Meteor Lake.

It all comes down to how these laptops are priced since Strix Point devices still have an entry price of around $1,000. On that note, it is important to mention that the 15W variant of these Intel chips, Core Ultra 200U, is reported to be based on Meteor Lake with Redwood Cove+ P-cores and Crestmont+ E-cores fabbed on Intel 3, a node once reserved for Intel's server counterparts. This will allow Intel to extract higher margins with possibly lower prices for us, though we haven't exactly found affordable Arrow Lake laptops to be abundant, at least not yet.

Microsoft is releasing two new Surface Copilot+ PCs designed for business use this coming month. According to the Microsoft Devices Blog, the company will launch the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop on February 18, and both devices will have a starting MSRP of $1,499.99. Aside from sporting an Intel Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake) chip, these will also have 5G connectivity, allowing you to connect to the internet even if there’s no nearby Wi-Fi access point.

The Surface Laptop for Business is available with either a 13.8-inch or 15-inch display, giving users the ability to pick a screen that will better suit their workflow. But whatever screen size you choose, you will get a sleek and compact laptop as the 13.8-inch laptop is just 0.69 inches thick, while the larger 15-inch model is just 0.72 inches. Microsoft also boasts a battery life of up to 22 hours for local video playback and 14 hours of active web usage, although this will definitely vary depending on your environment and situation.

If you want a more versatile device, the Surface Pro for Business might be a more suitable option. It’s only available as a 13-inch tablet, although you can choose between an OLED and LCD display. Microsoft added a 1440p ultrawide front-facing camera to make video meetings much easier, and it also installed a 10-megapixel Ultra HD rear-facing camera to capture other people in the room. Also, since this device is smaller than the Surface Laptop, it has a shorter but still respectable 14-hour battery life of local video playback and up to 10 hours of active web usage.

Note that the Surface Pro for Business doesn’t come with any accessories. If you want the Surface Pro Keyboard and the Surface Slim Pen, you have to buy them separately.

However, what makes these “for Business” devices more expensive and stand out from consumer-grade laptops are their security features. Both the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro are equipped with Windows 11 Secured-core PC and Microsoft Pluton technology. You’ll also get an integrated smart card reader on the Surface Laptop for Business, while the smaller Surface Pro for Business would have to settle for NFC authentication.

These two new devices will give enterprise customers more options if they want a Surface device. Previously, if they wanted the latest model of one of these, they’d have to settle for a Snapdragon X processor. While these are great chips, they have some compatibility limitations, especially for some older legacy software that some businesses still use to this day.

Microsoft just announced that it will release NPU-optimized versions of DeepSeek-R1, allowing it to take advantage of AI-optimized hardware found in Copilot+ PCs. According to the Windows Blog, the feature will first arrive on Qualcomm Snapdragon X PCs, to be followed by Intel Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake) and other chips. The initial release will feature DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-1.5B, which an AI research team from UC Berkeley has discovered is the smallest model that delivers correct answers, but larger models featuring 7 billion and 14 billion parameters will arrive shortly thereafter.

DeepSeek’s optimizations meant that it needed 11x less compute versus its Western competitors, making it a great model to run on consumer devices. However, it also uses Windows Copilot Runtime so developers can use on-device DeepSeek APIs within their apps.

Furthermore, Microsoft claims that this NPU-optimized version of DeepSeek will deliver “very competitive time to first token and throughput rates, while minimally impacting battery life and consumption of PC resources.” This means that Copilot+ PC users can expect the power and performance of competing models like Meta’s Llama 3 and OpenAI’s o1 while ensuring that the devices it’s installed on still offer great battery life.

That said, DeepSeek’s availability on Copilot+ PCs is geared more toward programmers and developers instead of consumers. Perhaps Microsoft is using it to encourage them to build more apps that would take advantage of AI PCs as many people still don’t see the need for it and market research suggests users only purchase these devices because they’re the only available option nowadays.

Another thing that got us curious is Microsoft’s preferential treatment for Qualcomm Snapdragon X PCs at this time. While it launched the Copilot+ branding with these chips last July, the latest mainstream Intel and AMD laptops now also have built-in NPUs. AMD has even released instructions on how users can run it on Ryzen AI CPUs and Radeon GPUs, with the company even claiming that the RTX 7900 XTX runs DeepSeek better than the RTX 4090.

Whatever the case, we’re still excited about the possibilities that DeepSeek unlocks for AI. Since it’s open source, nearly anyone can download it and run it locally, allowing others to build upon the advancements and optimizations the original model has put into place.

At CES, AMD unveiled its Ryzen AI 300 flagship lineup codenamed Strix Halo with a beastly configuration of 16 cores, 40 Compute Units, and 128GB of unified memory. New first-party benchmarks assert that the top-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 - that's a mouthful - is up to 68% faster than Nvidia's RTX 4070 mobile graphics in gaming. The slides also showcase how Strix Halo holds up versus Apple's M4-series chips in productivity and even dare to mention the desktop RTX 4090.

Strix Halo is split into three dies with two CCDs offering eight cores each and a large I/O die housing the iGPU (Integrated GPU) and the NPU. The highest-end Ryzen AI Max+ 395 packs 16 cores and 32 central processor threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, accompanied by the Radeon 8060S iGPU with 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units. All the AI Max chips have a base TDP of 55W, and can be configured from 45W to 120W. Surrounding the chip is up to 128GB of unified memory, which can be allocated in varying pools (up to 96GB) to the iGPU alone.

With the specs out of the way, let's talk performance. The Nvidia comparison system is the Asus ROG Flow Z13 with the i9-13900H and the RTX 4070 mobile (65W TGP). Across a suite of 17 games at 1080p high settings, Strix Halo handily bests its Nvidia equivalent, with an up to 68% lead in Borderlands 3, per AMD. Being first-party benchmarks, we shouldn't take them at face value. It is also prudent to mention that the RTX 4070 mobile can be configured up to 115W, but a 65W variant features in this comparison, due to the Asus ROG Flow Z13 design.

In productivity tests, Blender sees the 395+ blaze past the Core Ultra 9 288V (Lunar Lake) by 302% but that isn't an apples-to-apples comparison since the latter is a 17/30W chip. Versus Apple's M4 Pro, AMD touts an 86% lead in V-Ray, dropping to 12% in Cinebench R24. Moving over to AI performance, the XDNA 2 NPU enables the Ryzen AI MAX series to dish out 50 TOPS of AI performance, exceeding the Lunar Lake and Snapdragon X Elite series by two TOPS. AMD also claims its Strix Halo APUs can deliver 2.2x more tokens per second than the RTX 4090 when running the Llama 70B LLM (Large Language Model) at 1/6th the TDP (75W).

We highly suggest you wait for independent testing before jumping the gun, like perhaps pre-ordering a Strix Halo device. These laptops are likely to target enthusiasts as suitable alternatives to dedicated GPU options. With Strix Point laptops still costing over $1,000, pricing will play a key role in determining if Strix Halo can displace dedicated mid-ranged laptop GPUs like the RTX 4070 can be found in.

Fujitsu has just released its new FMV Note U series of laptops in Japan. To propel the newly established FMV brand, it has announced what it claims to be the “world’s lightest Copilot+ PC,” with configurations weighing as little as 848g (1.87 pounds).

An Intel Lunar Lake chip powers this new 14-inch, 1,920 x 1,200-pixel screen clamshell design, the Ultra 7 258V or 256V. However, if you choose custom options in the configuration process, Fujitsu warns that the laptop will be 20g heavier…

It is interesting to see this Intel-powered 14-incher claim the world’s lightest Copilot+ PC crown just a couple of weeks after Asus claimed the same thing with its Zenbook A14, launched at CES 2025. However, the 980g Asus machine that has just been knocked off its perch is Arm-powered, employing one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors.

Focusing back on Fujitsu, despite its lightweight, the company insists it offers “the most robust design.” The FMV Note U has passed MIL-810H standard testing. It should withstand many day-to-day stresses, strains, and impacts, including being dropped from a desk, vibration, pressure, humidity, extremes of temperature, high altitudes, and so on. Fujitsu also proudly claims the laptop is built in Japan.

Despite its extremely light design, Fujitsu includes a decent selection of ports. To the left, we see two Thunderbolt 4 ports, charging and activity LEDs, a USB-A port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. To the right is a microSD slot, another USB-A port, an HDMI port, and an Ethernet jack. There’s also Wi-Fi 7.

Inside this maximum 17.3mm thick laptop is the aforementioned Lunar Lake processor from Intel, supported by 16GB or 32GB of RAM, plus a 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB SSD. In addition to the great portability derived from the light weight of this machine, Fujitsu claims a battery runtime of up to 36 hours. Sometimes, the battery charger might also weigh you down, but in this case, Fujitsu supplies an Anker Nano II 65W and cable when you buy direct. This is a very compact GaN charger and weighs just 112g.

Of course, Fujitsu emphasizes the new FMV Note U's AI prowess, with the processor delivering 47 TOPS. The embedded NPU accelerates apps for noise cancellation, live captions, image creation, Microsoft Recall (preview), makeup testing, and more.

The new FMV series laptops appear to be available in Japan, but we don’t know their pricing or worldwide availability.

Intel's Arrow Lake-H has been put through its paces by hardware sleuth Golden Pig Upgrade Pack in his latest review at Bilibili. The tested models include the 16-core Core Ultra 9 285H and the 14-core Core Ultra 5 225H, though most of the spotlight is on the flagship variant.

Arrow Lake-H differs slightly from its desktop counterpart because it brings back LPE cores. Since Intel didn't offer much clarification, we aren't sure whether these cores are based on Skymont or Crestmont. In the latter case, Arrow Lake-H likely reuses the SoC Tile from Meteor Lake-H, but let's not jump to conclusions. The P and E cores employ the Lion Cove and Skymont architectures, respectively, cutting off Hyper-Threading.

The Core Ultra 9 285H offers 16 cores (six P-cores + eight E-cores + two LPE-cores) and 16 threads with a turbo clock of 5.4 GHz. The more mainstream-oriented 225H drops to 14 cores (four P-cores + eight E-cores + two LPE-cores), featuring a still-impressive 4.9 GHz turbo frequency. These processors have been compared against the Ryzen AI 9 365 packed with 10 cores (four Zen 5 + six Zen 5c) / 20 threads, and the high-end Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 leading the pack with 12 cores (four Zen 5 + eight Zen 5c) and 24 threads.

The shared images suggest this review was conducted on Lenovo's most recent IdeaPad series outfitted with Arrow Lake. Jumping into the benchmarks, the Core Ultra 9 285H surges ahead of the Cinebench R23 and R24 competition. In the single-core test, the 285H leads its predecessor by 13% with an impressive 26% uplift moving over to multi-core performance. However, all that glitters is not gold, and glancing at the efficiency slide doesn't paint a rosy picture for the 285H.

Limited to just 50W of power, Intel's Arrow Lake-H flagship fails to overtake the Ryzen AI 9 365 and considerably trails the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. This is quite interesting as desktop Arrow Lake was much faster than Zen 5 in power-limited scenarios. The lackluster efficiency display could be attributed to the testing conditions or the supposedly older SoC Tile, but that's just a guess.

Arrow Lake-H's integrated GPU (iGPU) is based on a modified version of Alchemist with XMX cores. With that in mind, Intel has significantly improved 3DMark's testing suite. The most considerable uplift comes in ray tracing, where Arrow Lake leads Meteor Lake by almost 88%.

The same cannot be said for games where AMD's Radeon 880M is consistently ahead, and by some margin. Here, Alchemist+ yields little to no benefit over standard Alchemist. Funnily enough, Xe2 on Lunar Lake is the polar opposite as it struggles in synthetics but has managed to solidify its position as the fastest gaming iGPU, beating even the Radeon 890M.

After the switch to a disaggregated design, Intel will probably be leveraging the same CPU Tile from the desktop for Arrow Lake-H on mobile. This was an interesting faceoff, but it raises several questions, especially regarding efficiency. Intel didn't specifically discuss Arrow Lake-H's architecture at its keynote, so we can only guess now.

Asus just launched its next-generation NUC PCs, offering users everything from pure performance, aesthetics, and speed to a system primarily focused on efficiency. These new mini-PCs are the NUC 14 Pro AI+, NUC 15 Pro, NUC 15 Pro+, 2025 ROG NUC, and NUC 14 Essential, ensuring the company has an NUC device for every user.

The NUC 14 Pro AI+ is slightly improving on the NUC 14 Pro AI Asus launched in early September. Like the earlier version, this device has a Lunar Lake Intel Core Ultra Series 2 CPU with Intel Arc integrated graphics, delivering an overall performance of 120 TOPs. It sports two Thunderbolt 4 ports, 2,5G Ethernet, HDMI, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.2, and four USB Type-A ports, ensuring you’ll never run out of connectivity options to attach whatever you need to your PC.

However, the NUC 14 Pro AI+ stands out from the competition because of its multi-color e-ink display on top of the case. This allows you to display whatever image or icon you want, even when the device is turned off. It also has an ARGB ring around the top edge of the case to highlight your aesthetics better.

But if you need performance over looks, the Asus NUC 15 Pro and NUC 15 Pro+ will deliver with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265H and Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processors, respectively. These Arrow Lake chips are Intel’s mobile versions of its latest desktop chips, giving you the horsepower you need for whatever you’re doing while still ensuring a small and portable package. Aside from their numerous ports, including two HDMI 2.1 and two Thunderbolt 4 ports for four 4K displays, Asus gave these NUCs tool-free access, allowing users to maintain and upgrade these devices easily.

One weakness many mini-PCs have is the lack of a discrete GPU, and the ROG NUC fixed this by adding an Nvidia laptop GPU to deliver the needed graphical power. Asus upgraded the ROG NUC by giving it the latest performance parts: up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and an RTX 50-series laptop GPU, giving it overall 200+ TOPS of performance. And despite its small size of just three liters, it runs quietly, even when pushed to its limits, because of its three fans and dual vapor chamber cooling solution.

Finally, not everyone needs this power and performance, so Asus released the NUC 14 Essential. This device uses Intel’s most efficient N-series chips, which could go as low as 6W. This means it has very little power draw and requires much less cooling, allowing Asus to fit all of it in a case that could go as small as 135 x 115 x 36 mm—about the size of a case fan. Still, you get the full Windows 11 OS and a plethora of ports—to USB Type-Cs, five USB Type-As, and a 2.5G Ethernet port. It also has Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 for wireless connectivity.

These new devices prove that the NUC is not dead yet. Despite their small sizes, you can get the right NUC for your needs, no matter how efficient or powerful you need it to be.

Intel's CES 2025 exhibition features a stack of computers from the near future; six Panther Lake and Xe3-based systems. The next-generation CPU architecture and next-next-gen Xe3 GPU cores based on the Celestial architecture arrived at the show with little fanfare, receiving little mention in Intel's CES press release or keynote address.

The ODM systems run on early 12-core Panther Lake CPUs, and contain 12 Xe-core internal GPUs on the Xe3 (codenamed Celestial) architecture. The demo PCs also contain an NPU, though the specs of the NPU are unknown beyond their shared 18GB of memory with the internal GPU. The demo PCs all run on 32GB of RAM.

The functionality of the CES demo units is fairly low beyond exploring Task Manager. Graphics drivers are early enough in development that the PCs at idle only display still images. Intel shared that the PCs are running on A0 silicon (the first-ever revision of the silicon), making the 24 hours of uptime listed on one unit's Task Manager all the more impressive.

Three mini dev kits, two in a NUC-like form factor, and the other sporting a wide mini-LED display, bear the Intel logo. The ODM laptops come from Wistron, Pegatron, and Compal, all notable Taiwanese ODM manufacturers with close ties to Intel OEM partners.

Panther Lake, the next-generation of mobile CPUs from Intel, was the focus of Intel's closing statements at its CES-opening keynote address. Panther Lake is built on Intel's 18A process, a process node which is proving to become a sink-or-swim performer for Intel. The demo PCs are proof of Intel's claims that it has begun sampling Panther Lake to its OEM/ODM partners. As a successor to Lunar Lake, Panther Lake will be a notebook-first family set to begin mass-production in 2H 2025.

18A, Intel's name for its upcoming 1.8nm process, is effectively Intel's make-or-break product for 2025. Intel Foundry is working with outside customers interested in using the 18A process, hoping for a competitive edge over TSMC's 2nm and 3nm nodes. Panther Lake is set to be manufactured 70% in-house, which should result in higher profits for a struggling Intel.

Much less is known about Xe3 Celestial, Intel's successor to the Battlemage Xe2 family which is still in its own release cycle. Tom Peterson of Intel recently confirmed that Celestial is only waiting on software optimization (read: drivers) before being 100% for launch, and in fact that its successor, Xe4 "Druid", is now under construction. Celestial is planned to launch alongside Panther Lake, though with Battlemage still yet to fully release, it is a bit futile to guess at anything more specific for Xe3 at this point.

Panther Lake and Xe3 are planned to hit the market in the first half of 2026, with these demo PCs seeming to be a good sign of forward momentum in this direction. For more news from Intel, its competitors in AMD and Nvidia, and the rest of the tech industry, be sure to keep following our CES 2025 coverage.

One of the interesting things that Intel shared in its CES 2025 press release is the fact that the company is sending samples of its 'lead 18A product' — the codenamed Panther Lake processor for client computers — to its customers among PC makers. The company stressed that the CPUs will be mass-produced on the Intel 18A process technology in the second half of this year, which is good news for the company.

"Intel is only going to continue bolstering its AI PC product portfolio in 2025 and beyond as we sample our lead Intel 18A product to customers now ahead of volume production in the second half of 2025," a statement by Intel reads.

Intel's Panther Lake is an essential processor for Intel as it will be 70% manufactured in-house, which means significantly lower costs and substantially higher profit margins. Leaked specifications indicate that Panther Lake will feature between eight and 16 cores in various configurations, depending on positioning. The CPU is expected to be a notebook-first product to succeed both Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake laptop processors. Yet, what will succeed Arrow Lake-S CPUs for desktops remains to be seen.

One of the important aspects of Intel's Panther Lake is that it will be produced on the company's 18A process technology (1.8nm-class), a make-or-break production node. The 18A process is Intel's first (technically, second, but 20A has essentially been canceled) process technology, which uses RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors and has a backside power delivery option called PowerVia.

The backside power delivery network is particularly important for large and power-hungry data center-class processors, so whether it will be used for Panther Lake CPUs designed for client PCs with a processor base power (PBP) rating of 45W is unclear. Intel is also prepping its data center-oriented codenamed Clearwater Forest processor on 18A technology. This CPU will consume hundreds of watts of power and take advantage of PowerVia's backside power delivery network. Intel says that Clearwater Forest can already boot operating systems, though it is unclear when this CPU is set to enter volume production.

Another crucial factor is that Intel's 18A will be the company's first node used by external Intel Foundry customers. Therefore, Panther Lake's on-track production in the year's second half highlights the health of the fabrication technology.

The manufacturing process has garnered significant interest from IF customers (according to Intel) because it is considered more competitive than TSMC's 3nm and 2nm-class technologies slated for release between 2024 and 2025, at least in terms of some parameters. Intel anticipates that its first external customer will finalize the 18A design in the first half of 2025.

Assuming the design is free of bugs and defects, it will enter high-volume production in the first half of 2026. This timeline positions Intel's 18A slightly behind TSMC's N2 technology (a 2nm-class process) on the foundry market. TSMC's N2 is scheduled for high-volume manufacturing in the second half 2025. Still, since Intel will produce its Panther Lake on 18A in the second half of this year, this fabrication technology will technically hit the market ahead of TSMC's N2.

Intel launched its Arrow Lake mobile product stack here at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, announcing five new Core Ultra 200H series processors for mainstream high-performance thin-and-lights, and six new Core Ultra 200HX series models for laptops. The 200H series slots in as the mainstream performance-focused portion of the company’s Core Ultra 200 series, while the 200HX models serve as desktop/workstation replacements for enthusiasts by employing the same silicon the company uses for its desktop PC processors. Intel’s previously launched Core Ultra 200V Lunar Lake processors will continue to serve as the battery life champs for Intel’s laptop silicon. However, neither of the new processor families meet the minimum AI performance requirements from the NPU to meet Microsoft’s certification for CoPilot+ PCs, leaving Lunar Lake as the company’s only CoPilot+ capable platform.

Intel’s launch comes as the company looks to staunch laptop market share losses to AMD, not to mention fending off the Arm-powered newcomers from Qualcomm, Apple, and soon, presumably, Nvidia. To solidify its position, the company has launched an extensive range of 200V, 200HX, 200U, and a dual-pronged 200H series that will power the company’s laptop portfolio into next year.

The entire Intel Core Ultra 200 series is a complicated affair with multiple different tiers and architectures, here’s a breakdown:

• Intel Core Ultra 200H: Arrow Lake mobile for mainstream segment (launching today)
• Intel Core 200H: Raptor Lake (no ‘Ultra’ in the name, launching today)
• Intel Core Ultra 200HX: Arrow Lake mobile for enthusiast/commercial (launching today)
• Intel Core Ultra 200V: Lunar Lake for low power segment (already launched)
• Intel Core Ultra 200U: Reportedly Meteor Lake Refresh*
• Intel Core Ultra 200S: Arrow Lake for desktop PCs (K-series already launched, non-K models launching today)

The Core Ultra 200H series processors with integrated graphics will launch in early Q1, and the Core Ultra 200HX series systems with discrete graphics will follow in late Q1 due to the

release timing of a new family of discrete GPUs. Intel will also launch its VPro Lunar Lake models in early Q1.

We have plenty of information to chew over below, but Intel hasn’t provided the deep-dive details of the designs or benchmarks yet. We’re attending Intel’s technical sessions later today and will update this article as needed. We also have Intel’s full product briefs with all the platform connectivity details in the final picture album in the article.

Intel Core Ultra 200H series specifications

Intel’s Core Ultra 200H series processors slot in as the mainstream mobile workhorses of the Arrow Lake family for thin-and-light laptops. The processors feature the Lion Cove P-core microarchitecture and employ Skymont for the E-cores (deep dive here). Intel claims the 200H series delivers up to 15% more performance in both single- and multi-threaded workloads over the prior-gen Meteor Lake Core Ultra 100H processors. The chips also come with Intel’s Arc GPU (with XMX) armed with eight Xe LPG+ cores for all but the lowest-end model, which has seven Xe cores. Intel says the LPG+ graphics deliver up to 15% higher performance in graphics workloads over the prior gen.

As expected, these AI-centric processors also have an in-built NPU that delivers up to 11 TOPS of performance in AI workloads, which is lower than the minimum requirement to meet Microsoft’s CoPilot+ PC spec of 40+ TOPS. That means the Intel Lunar Lake laptops remain the only CoPilot+ capable laptops in Intel’s lineup. However, the total system does have plenty of AI horsepower in aggregate, with up to 77 TOPS from the GPU contributing to a total of up to 99 platform TOPS of performance (the CPU delivers 11 TOPS).

Notably, Intel silently launched its lower-tier Raptor Lake Core 200H series processors last month. You can read the details here, but these processors come with an older architecture that isn’t as performant or power efficient as the Arrow Lake processors, yet they also fly under the same 200H series branding, but without the ‘Ultra’ moniker. These processors also all have a ‘0’ as the third digit (e.g., 270H, 250H) that indicates they use the older design, while the Arrow Lake processors have a ‘5’ (e.g., 285H, 265H). Intel’s 200U series processors reportedly feature the Meteor Lake Refresh architecture, but the company didn’t cover those processors in its press briefing.

The 200H series processors replace the outgoing Meteor Lake family. The flagship Core Ultra 9 258H wields the same number of cores – six P-cores, eight e-cores, and two low-power E-cores – as its predecessor, but it sports 16 threads, which is less than the 24 threads present on the prior-gen model. That change is due to Intel’s removal of hyperthreading from its P-cores, but the newer architecture helps offset the decreased number of threads. The 258H has a 5.4 GHz turbo boost, a 300 MHz improvement over the prior gen, and that trend carries over to the rest of the lineup, too. The power-sipping LPE-cores that debuted with Meteor Lake have also returned, but Intel hasn’t shared any clock rate details for the smaller cores yet.

The 258H processor comes with a 45W Processor Base Power (PBP) and a Maximum Turbo Power (MTP) of either 60W (28W cTDP) or 115W (45W cTDP), which varies based on the OEM configuration. The remainder of the lineup has a 28W PBP, but they also have the option of the two higher cTDP configurations. This gives OEMs the choice to use a lower 60W MTP threshold for all the processors, whereas the Meteor Lake lineup had a fixed 115W MTP.

The full lineup now supports faster memory with up to DDR5-6400 and LPDDR5x-8400 speeds, along with support for the new CAMM2 modules. However, the maximum amount of supported memory has dropped from 192GB to 96GB, though that is hardly a concern in laptops.

Intel Core Ultra 200 HX series specifications

The Core Ultra 200HX series drops in as desktop ‘replacements’ by utilizing the same chip design as Intel’s Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200S series processors, so the architectural aspects are largely identical to the Arrow Lake desktop chips. As such, they leverage the Lion Cove P-core and Skymont E-core microarchitectures. The 200HX chips are forged into a smaller BGA package to fit into a laptop, but the lower power and thermal thresholds found in laptops reduces the amount of horsepower available.

Regardless, these processors represent the highest performance you can get in a laptop from Team Blue, and they’re overclockable. The 200HX chips are meant to be paired with discrete GPUs for gaming, but Intel hasn’t shared benchmarks yet due to the timing of the next-gen dGPU launches.

The flagship Core Ultra 9 285HX has eight P-cores and 16 E-cores, with the P-cores peaking at a 5.4 GHz boost clock and the E-cores stretching up to 2.8 GHz. Intel says the processors provide up to a 5% increase in single-thread and 20% increase in multi-threaded performance over the prior-gen Raptor Lake Refresh models. Overall, the peak P-core and E-Core clock rates have decreased by 300 MHz and 1.3 GHz, respectively. The processors have a 55W PBP, the same as last gen, but stretch up to 160W under heavy load, a minor generation increase of 3W, so the lower clock rates aren’t the result of lower overall power thresholds.

As with the 200H series processors, the 200HX chips don’t meet Microsoft’s minimum requirement of 40+ TOPS from the NPU - the NPU engine peaks at 13.1 TOPS. The systems deliver a total of 36 TOPS with the combined grunt power of the CPU, GPU and NPU, though. The chips also support integrated Thunderbolt 4 (Thunderbolt 5 is supported with a discrete chip), Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.1. The chips also have the same improvements to memory speeds as seen with the H-series models.

Intel’s extensive portfolio of new laptop chips cover the entire spectrum of the laptop market, but the company hasn’t yet shared the architectural details of its high-volume 200H series parts. We’re attending Intel’s sessions today and will update this article with new information as necessary.

Seven new PCI IDs have been added to the Linux kernel, depicting upcoming processors from Intel (via Tomasz Gawroński). The image suggests preliminary enablement for Panther Lake, Wildcat Lake, Nova Lake, and Razer Lake CPUs is underway. This leak does not necessarily indicate that all these processors will be released. However, the consistency of family codenames with previous leaks suggests they could see the light of day.

The shared snippet details code allows the Linux kernel to recognize and work with these new CPUs. PCI IDs or Peripheral Component Interconnect IDs are unique codes used to identify devices connected to a system. The listed processors include several shorthands: LNL: Lunar Lake, PTL: Panther Lake, NVL: Nova Lake, WCL: Wildcat Lake, and RZL: Razer Lake. Suffixes appended after the dash depict the market segment or specific features: P: Performance (Mobile), H: Highest performance (Mobile), S: Desktop, M: Thin and lightweight (Mobile).

We have Panther Lake in P and H variants, with varying TDPs, samples of which are reportedly already powered on at eight customers. Previous leaks suggest a low-power U-version as well. Similarly, PTL-H is rumored to offer up to 16 cores and a 12 Xe3-core-based iGPU (Integrated GPU). Next up is Nova Lake, said to be Intel's next major desktop release and expected to launch by 2026-27. Moving on, the suffix-less Wildcat Lake is rumored to succeed current-gen Alder Lake-N and Twin Lake CPUs for mini-PCs and low-power systems.

Last on the list is the rumored Razer Lake, following Nova Lake in Intel's product stack. RZL-M, likely the successor to Lunar Lake, has been identified, but interestingly, there's no mention of RZL-S for desktop. Since Intel rejected an on-package memory approach for future CPUs, Razer Lake-M might adopt a different strategy. Of course, this list is incomplete, and expect a barrage of changes as final specifications are hammered out.

The CPUs are years away, except for Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake. Panther Lake, fabricated on the bleeding-edge Intel 18A node, will launch this year and may be announced at Computex one year after Lunar Lake.

Lenovo’s ThinkPads are known for their superior build quality, industry-leading keyboards, unique TrackPoint nubs and excellent performance and battery life. The X1 Carbon has long been the flagship ThinkPad, thanks to its light weight, plethora of ports, and luxurious carbon fiber / magnesium chassis.

The 13th generation Carbon – dubbed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) Aura Edition – shaves the already-low weight down by an impressive 0.25 pounds to just 2.17 pounds while leaving in place everything that makes this series great. Designed to compete with the best ultraportable laptops, it also upgdates to an Intel “Lunar Lake” Core Ultra processor, which allows for longer battery life but limits its RAM to 32GB. This is also one of a few “Aura Edition” laptops, which means that it has a handful of harmless, but not particularly exciting software features that Lenovo developed in collaboration with Intel.

At $2,013 to start (and as configured), the X1 Carbon (Gen 13) Aura Edition demands a premium price. But it also delivers a no-compromise productivity experience in a very svelte chassis.

Design of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) brings the typical ThinkPad aesthetic, with “eclipse” black, soft-touch material – mostly recycled carbon fiber and magnesium – used throughout the shell. A bright red status light adorns the ThinkPad logo on the lid, and there are touches of red on the inside – the TrackPoint pointing stick, the red stripes on the TrackPoint buttons, and the red dot in the ThinkPad logo on the deck. This is not an original look but it is a classy one, particularly when you feel the soft-touch material.

At 12.31 x 8.45 x 0.56 inches (312.8 x 214.75 x 8.08-14.37 mm) and 2.17 pounds (986g), the X1 Carbon (Gen 13) is very thin and light. Its dimensions are about the same as the Gen 12 model that preceded it, but it’s a full 0.25 pounds lighter. By comparison, the Dell XPS 13 (0.58 inches thick, 2.7 pounds) and ThinkPad T14s (0.67 inches thick, 2.72 pounds) are both larger.

Considering its svelte form factor, the X1 Carbon (Gen 13) has room for all the ports you might need, including two USB Type-A ports, two Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a full-size HDMI port. The power button is located on the right side so you can easily power on the laptop, even if the lid is closed and it’s docked.

As usual, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) is designed to withstand some abuse. According to Lenovo, it is tested against 12 MIL-STD durability tests, including those for extreme vibrations, humidity, sand / dust, and mechanical shock.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) Specs

Performance of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

With its Intel “Lunar Lake” Core Ultra 7 258V CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a PCIe Gen 5 SSD, the X1 Carbon is ideal for productivity work and ready for heavy multitasking. Even with more than 50 Edge tabs open and a 4K video streaming, the system was smooth and stable.

On Geekbench 6, a synthetic test that measures processing performance, the X1 Carbon scored a strong 2,762 single-core / 11,131 multicore. Those scores slightly edge out the Dell XPS 13 (9350), which we tested with the same Ultra 7 258V processor, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, which had a Core Ultra 7 256V CPU, and the ThinkPad T14s (Gen 6) with its Qualcomm X Elite Snapdragon processor – though the T14s does better on the multi-core test. Last year’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12) and its Core Ultra 7 155H CPU was neck and neck, beating the newer model on multi-core. This isn’t surprising considering the 155H actually has 16 cores to the 258V’s 8 cores, and it also supports hyperthreading.

The speedy processor allowed the X1 Carbon to transcode a 4K video to 1080p in just 7 minutes and 36 seconds, using Handbrake. The XPS 13 took about a minute longer, but the Yoga Slim 7i was actually about a minute faster while the T14s and its Qualcomm processor ruled the roost at 5:34.

The 512GB PCIe Gen 5 drive in our system copied 25GB of files (reading and writing at once) at a rate of 1,944 MBps, which bested all of its competitors by at least a few hundred MBps. The T14s was way behind at just 1,069 MBps, while the other models hovered around 1,500 to 1,600 MBps.

To see how the ThinkPad X1 Carbon performs on long-running tasks, we ran Cinebench 2024 ten times in a row, a process which took a couple of hours. During the run, the laptop averaged a score of 497.8, with a high of 523 on the first run and a low of 491 on the last two runs. Overall, it was pretty consistent. The average clock speed during the run was 2.63 GHz for the performance cores and 3.06 GHz for the efficiency cores. The average CPU package temperature was 74 degrees Celsius.

Display of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13

The X1 Carbon Gen 13 only only offers one panel option: a 2880 x 1800 non-touch OLED display that runs at 120 Hz. In our tests, this panel offered good color, sharp images and strong brightness, though some competitors were a little bit brighter and more colorful. Lenovo’s own Slim 7i ruled the roost in our screen testing.

When I fired up a 4K, 60 fps video of a Costa Rican jungle, the greens in trees and on a snake stood out as did fine details such as the hairs on a sloth or the ridges on a lizard’s skin. The red in a parrot’s feathers was pleasing, but wasn’t quite as vibrant as I’ve seen on some other colorful displays. Colors didn’t fade, even at 90 degrees to the left or right.

The X1 Carbon’s screen hit 379 nits of brightness on our light meter, which was within a few points of the Dell XPS 13 (9350) and last year’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12), which we also tested with an OLED panel. However, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition again was a much-brighter 487 nits while the ThinkPad T14s’s panel hit 452 nits.

The 13th Gen X1 Carbon’s screen reproduced 82.4 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 116 percent of the narrower sRGB gamut. Those numbers compare favorably to the XPS 13’s IPS display, but fall short of the Yoga Slim 7i’s impressive 108.5 / 153 percent marks.

Keyboard, Touchpad, and TrackPoint on ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

As we’ve come to expect from prior models, the keyboard on the X1 Carbon (Gen 13) offers nothing short of a spectacular typing experience. The keys have a snappy feel, a relatively deep 1.5mm of travel, and a gentle curve on the caps that makes feeling your way around a snap for touch typists. I particularly like the soft-touch material on the palm rest, which made my wrists feel really comfortable while I held the laptop on my lap.

Using the 10FastFingers typing test, I scored 100 words per minute, which is within my normal range, with about a 4 percent error rate. This generation of X1 Carbon is the first to come with a dedicated Copilot key. If you’d rather use that key for something else – launching a favorite program, for example – you can reassign it in Windows Settings.

Like most ThinkPads, the X1 Carbon comes with two pointing devices: a red TrackPoint pointing stick and a 4.7 x 2-inch glass touchpad. I’m partial to the TrackPoint because it allows me to navigate around the desktop with great accuracy while never having to move my hands off of the home row.

I should note that, as on the 12th gen model and some other ThinkPads, you get a Quick Menu if you double tap on the nub. This menu allows you to adjust the brightness, change the battery charging threshold, select an audio playback device, or enable voice typing, among other things. I wish there was a way to configure the double tap to launch an app or a macro, because these quick settings aren’t that exciting.

If, for some reason, you don’t like nubs (and you really should reconsider if you don’t), there’s the touchpad. In my tests, this pad offered accurate navigation around the desktop and responded immediately to multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipe.

Audio on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

The sound output on the X1 Carbon is very loud, but can also be quite tinny. When I listened to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” at maximum volume, the rock classic filled my dining room, but the drums and guitars were painfully distorted. Even at lower volumes, the speakers, which are hidden below the keyboard, outputted an ugly stew of harsh percussion. The Dolby Atmos software allowed me to choose between Music, Voice, Gaming and Dynamic profiles, and I found the Dynamic profile was best.

Upgradeability of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

Like other ThinkPad X1 Carbon models, the Gen 13 is upgradeable in only one way: You can swap out the SSD with any M.2 2280 PCIe SSD of your choice, with up to Gen 5 speeds. Considering how much money Lenovo charges for storage – there’s a $500 premium to go from 500GB to 1TB or $700 to go to 2TB – you might want to buy the X1 Carbon with just a 512GB SSD and then add your own 1TB or 2TB aftermarket drive.

To get to the inside of the X1 Carbon, just unscrewed four captive Philips head screws and then pry off the bottom panel. The panel came off fairly easily, but you have to be gentle and make sure you don’t break it when trying to get it to pop out or pop back in. The 2280-sized SSD is located underneath a metal heatsink on the left side of the system.

Battery Life of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) lasted a solid 11 hours and 28 minutes on our battery test, which involves surfing the web at 150 nits of brightness. That’s enough to get you through a typical workday, though you can expect your real-world results to vary if you turn your brightness up or do heavy multitasking. Last year’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12), which has the same 57 Whr battery and we tested with the same OLED panel, lasted two hours less on a charge, so this is a definite improvement.

However, the Dell XPS 13, which we tested with the same CPU but an IPS display that operates at 1920 x 1200, lasted 17 hours and 29 minutes on a charge. The ThinkPad T14s and its Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor lasted an epic 21 hours and 3 minutes on a charge while the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i, which also has a Lunar Lake processor (an Ultra 7 256V), endured for 14 hours and 8 minutes.

Heat on ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) stayed cool throughout anecdotal testing, but when I hit it with a heavy load, the keyboard got a bit toasty. After I ran our Cinebench Stress test (under maximum performance mode) for 15 minutes, the middle of the keyboard hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit. To be fair, it wasn’t painfully hot to the touch, but it was noticeably warm. At the same time, the touchpad registered a cool 86 degrees, and the hottest spot, the middle bottom, hit 115 degrees. Under normal conditions, you probably won’t push the heat this high.

Webcam on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

The laptop’s 1080p webcam captured sharp, relatively color-accurate images in my tests. When I shot an image of myself with natural light coming through the window, the dark blue in my shirt came through correctly, and fine details such as the hairs in my beard were clearly visible.

The colors and sharpness weren’t quite as good when I shot images under the harsh, fluorescent lights of my office, but they were acceptable. Even with all the lights off and just ambient light from my monitors glowing off of my face, the image quality was decent.

Smart Modes, Software, and Warranty on the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

As its name suggests, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) Aura Edition, is part of Lenovo’s “Aura Edition” program, which means that it has a few “smart features” that aren’t particularly unique or exciting, but hey, you get them. These features aren’t enabled by default, but hitting F8 brings up a menu where you can toggle them on or off.

Attention Mode brings up a timer that’s supposed to help you focus on tasks for a set amount of minutes (20 minutes by default) until you give yourself a break. It also has a to-do list you can update. The whole thing reminded me of a Pomodoro timer, which is something you can find elsewhere. Or you can just use free Chrome extensions like StayFocusd that block websites you might be tempted to visit.

Collaboration Mode has a low-light video enhancer for better conferencing, but lots of video software has image enhancement built in. Shield Mode is supposed to use the webcam to warn you when someone is looking over your shoulder or blur your screen so they won’t see your work, but I was unable to make this happen by having someone lurk behind me. Wellness Mode is supposed to remind you to sit up straight and not slouch, but you could always find a mother or school marm to scold you for your posture instead.

Then there’s Smart Share, which is actually just Intel Unison, which allows you to sync your phone – Android or iPhone – with the PC so you can download photos from your handset directly to your hard drive, send text messages, or make calls. Intel Unison is available as a free download and works on other laptops as well, but the extra special feature for Aura Edition laptops is that you can – on some phones – tap your handset against the screen bezel to initiate photo sharing. Unfortunately, this didn’t work with my Google Pixel 8a, but it’s also unnecessary as you can use the app on mobile or on the PC to share files without banging your expensive handset into your expensive laptop’s bezel. Incidentally, Windows has Microsoft’s PhoneLink built-in and it does all of the same things as Intel Unison, though the file sharing on Unison is better.

Finally, there’s Smart Care, which is a panel that lives in the Lenovo Commercial Vantage app and gives you shortcuts to all of the various support options you get. So there’s a button that sends you to file a ticket or schedule a call with a support agent, and another that takes you to a knowledge base where you can find your own solution and another for conducting a support call or chat.

Speaking of Lenovo Commercial Vantage, that’s the primary utility app on all ThinkPads, including this one. Vantage allows you to control some device settings such as the Microphone volume and the power profile, but for most things, it just links you to Windows 11’s own Settings menu. A couple of unique things you can do in Vantage include setting what the F12 key does – open an app, visit a website, etc – or swapping the Fn and CTRL keys. Vantage also runs hardware scans, displays your battery health and checks for driver updates.

There’s also a Dolby Atmos app that allows you to change your sound profile. I found that, once again, the Dynamic profile gives the best mix of volume and richness so I’d stick with that.

Other than that, the laptop is blissfully free from preloaded software, except for all the usual cruft that comes with every Windows 11 PC. That includes Microsoft Clipchamp and the XBox app, but thankfully no annoying, free-to-play games like Candy Crush.

Lenovo backs the X1 Carbon (Gen 13) with a standard one-year warranty on parts and labor. You can pay extra to extend that warranty up to five years or add other services such as accidental damage protection.

Configurations of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13)

At least for now, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) is available in just three configurations, which are identical but for their storage capacities. Our configuration, which has an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2.8K OLED non-touch display, Windows 11 Pro and a 512GB SSD, is available on CDW for $2,013. On Lenovo.com, there’s a $2,519 configuration which is identical but has a 1TB SSD, and a $2,719 config that has a 2TB SSD. You’re paying hundreds for just a little more storage.

While it’s always possible that Lenovo could come offer different configurations of the X1 Carbon (Gen 13), it’s not going to have any with 64GB of RAM, as was available on the Gen 12 model. Unfortunately, Intel “Lunar Lake” CPUs come with the RAM built onto the CPU package, so OEMs don’t have the option to offer more than the chipmaker builds in. Since Intel only makes Lunar Lake chips with 16 or 32GB of RAM, those who want more are out of luck. It’s worth noting that the Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered ThinkPad T14s is available with up to 64GB of RAM.

Bottom Line

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 13) Aura Edition is an excellent productivity laptop that’s so light you’ll barely notice its weight in your bag. Even when I picked up a 12th Gen X1 Carbon that I had on hand, the difference between the two was very noticeable. The new model feels more like a manilla folder in the hand than a powerful PC laptop.

Despite that light weight, you still get a snappy, best-in-class keyboard with deep travel, all the ports you need, strong performance, extreme durability, and all-day battery life. When it comes to endurance, Lenovo gives you a solid typical day’s worth, but competitors such as the Dell XPS 13 or Lenovo’s own ThinkPad T14s do last longer. And the OLED screen on the X1 Carbon (Gen 13), while vibrant, doesn’t pop as much as the one on the company’s own Yoga Slim 7i laptop. However, none of these laptops puts all of these pieces together in such a compact package.

The fact that this is an “Aura Edition” laptop should really have no bearing on your decision of whether to buy it or not. The added software features offer fun parlor tricks like the ability to tap your phone (depending on model) on the bezel to transfer files or a built-in mother who nags you not to slouch. But they don’t move the needle on value.

If you’re looking for excellent productivity in a paper-light chassis, the X1 Carbon (Gen 13) is hard to beat. Its main competition at the time of publication is the 12th Gen X1 Carbon which is available with less RAM and a lesser screen for less money (starting at $1,396 right now). The older model has shorter battery life with the same OLED screen, but probably would get similar or longer endurance if you buy it with an IPS panel (which is not an option for the 13th Gen model). You can also custom configure the 12th Gen model to have 64GB of RAM, while the 13th Gen SKUs top out at 32GB. However, we expect the 13th Gen model to eventually go down in price.

Overall, if you’re looking for the best mix of productivity, portability, and performance, the X1 Carbon (Gen 13) Aura Edition is a fantastic choice. You’ll feel its impact on your wallet, but not on your back.

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LG has revealed four new laptops representing its Gram series in 2025. Leading the pack are the trio of LG Gram Pro models with high-resolution screens, Intel's latest laptop processors, and leading thin-and-light qualities—despite their overall size (16- and 17-inch displays). These are all heralded as offering 'Hybrid AI' thanks to both on-device AI (NPU acceleration) and cloud AI services. LG also shared the details of a new entry-level LG Gram Book, based around an Intel Core i5 chip and reduced specs.

The new LG Gram Pro family includes three variations: the Gram Pro 2-in-1 with a 16-inch 1,600p display (and a 1,800p OLED option) and the LG Gram Pro 16-inch and 17-inch models (both 1,600p). All the displays thus far have a max brightness of 400 nits, which isn't great for outdoor work, but they still outshine the new LG Gram Book, which has a lowly 15.6-inch FHD display and a rather dim max brightness of 300 nits.

If you like 2-in-1 portables, LG hopes you are attracted by the new LG Gram Pro 2-in-1 (16T90TP). As mentioned, it is based on a 16-inch display, which is quite big for a convertible. Even so, it lives up to its moniker by weighing a respectable 3.08 pounds (1,399g). This device comes as standard with a stylus and is apparently in line to win a CES 2025 innovation award.

The two new LG Gram Pro models might be preferable if you don't care much about tablet-style interaction with your laptop. The larger 17-inch device (model 17Z90TR) features a choice of Intel Arrow Lake CPU and even packs a dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 (6GB) GPU, so it could be used for enjoying eSports and older titles on the go.

On gaming, all the Gram Pro laptops have 31-144Hz VRR screens (OLED is 48-120Hz). Meanwhile, the Gram Book gets the short straw again with a 60Hz fixed refresh display.

Going down a size to the LG Gram Pro 16 (model 16Z90TS), you save quite a bit of weight and size. Accepting one inch less screen diagonal means you can drop from 3.26 pounds (1,479g) to 2.73 pounds (1,239g) and from 379.4 x 265.4 x 14.4~15.8mm to 357.7 x 251.6 x 12.4 ~ 12.8mm. There is no dedicated GPU with this 16-inch model, though you will rely wholly on Arc graphics for GPU acceleration.

The full specs for the quartet of LG Gram 2025 laptops are tabulated above. However, it isn't 100% clear which models will get which processor options. LG says that the 17-inch Gram Pro has Arrow Lake (Core Ultra H) options, but we aren't sure whether the two 16-inchers rely on Lunar Lake (Core Ultra V) chips.

The new LG Gram Book for 2025 feels like a distant relation, though, with its Core i5, mediocre screen specs, and heavier and thicker than its larger-screened siblings. It would be significantly cheaper to attract those drawn towards an LG Gram.

We don't have the pricing and availability information for the new LG Gram series yet, but we should find out soon at CES 2025.

An unreleased 16-core offering from AMD based on Zen 5 has surfaced on Geekbench. The CPU was equipped on the Asus ROG Strix G16, presumably the upcoming 2025 edition. Hardware leaker Olrak suggests that this leaked processor is part of AMD's flagship Fire Range lineup for high-end gaming laptops.

Since we don't have much to back this information up apart from an OPN code, it's best to approach this leak skeptically. The leaked processor, reportedly boasting 16 cores, was tested as an Engineering Sample under the OPN Code "100-000001028-42_Y". This code should help us identify this processor should it surface in upcoming leaks. Nonetheless, there isn't much we can conclude about the performance, as the CPU was tested in Geekbench AI.

Typically, mobile processors from AMD and Intel, such as Strix Point and Lunar Lake, are variants of the same architecture used on their desktop chips, optimized for the smaller form factor and tighter power budget. At the very high end, a few "HX" models from either brand employ desktop silicon. Dragon Range (Ryzen 7045HX) last generation was the epitome of a desktop replacement, departing from AMD's typical monolithic approach with mobile chips. Still, it lagged in battery life, and that's expected due to the CPU's MCM design.

The Geekbench test lists the alleged Fire Range CPU with 16 cores and 32 threads based on Zen 5, clocked at a base frequency of 2.5 GHz. Provided AMD doesn't alter its naming scheme, this SKU should be the Ryzen 9 9955HX, but we could be wrong. The Asus ROG Strix G16, codenamed "G614FH," is outfitted with this unreleased Fire Range CPU featuring 32GB of DDR5 memory, which should be plentiful for games and productivity workloads. It'll be interesting to see how this processor holds up against Intel's Arrow Lake-HX chips.

Last month, we covered a leak that examined AMD's mobile portfolio for 2025. Assuming the leak is correct, Fire Range CPUs should feature pin-to-pin compatibility with the FL1 socket, simplifying integration with existing designs. The leak also claims that AMD will introduce X3D variants of its Fire Range processors, similar to the last generation.

Fire Range should support faster DDR5-5600 memory (SODIMM), per the tipster, netting a slight bump in performance in tandem with the newer architecture. Expect more details from AMD at its CES keynote next month.