Today, Intel launched the Core Ultra 200V series processors codenamed Lunar Lake. The company is overhauling its mobile lineup starting from scratch in the making of its new mobile processor. Intel has long-time competitor AMD and mobile smartphone/PC chip maker Qualcomm in its sites. In a twist, Qualcomm has reportedly approached Intel for a potential takeover as reported by the Wall Street Journal last Friday.
Artificial Intelligence
Like many OEM laptop makers, Intel is aggressively pushing artificial intelligence (AI) onboard their Windows mobile PC to compliment Internet based AI services like ChatGPT. The company uses AI in all aspects of the PC, from prolonging battery life, running creative apps, even blurring webcam backgrounds. AI on PC can run without an internet connection so it’s like having your own ChatGPT on your PC.
For example, you can search for an image or document already on your computer by describing its contents. AI on PC gives full control of your laptop with a quick search.
According to Intel, its 200V processors will deliver up to 50 percent lower package-power and up to 120 total platform TOPS (tera operations per second, a measurement for AI processes) across its core CPU, GPU and AI NPU (Neural Processing Unit). Intel claims that its NPU is 4x more powerful than the previous generation and runs AI workloads while also being energy efficient. Further, the company says the new processors offer up to 80 percent peak performance improvement and up to 20 hours of battery life. Of course, performance depends on personal user preferences too.
What Can the Onboard NPU Do?
High-quality images can be generated with text in several seconds, 4x faster than Intel’s Meteor Lake processor. In games, a PC using the Core Ultra 200V series processor can boost frames per second (fps) performance and improve gaming experiences by using AI to create high-quality, upscaled images. So a game running at a 720p resolution can be upscaled with AI to 1080p and still run at its desired frames per second without the need of a pricey battery-hungry graphics card. Consumers can have more affordable gaming PCs as the game or graphics card won’t need to carry the load. Onboard AI can automatically detect video scene changes for easier and faster video editing. Rewording a document is also possible with onboard AI, again without an Internet connection. Intel says the Core Ultra series has more AI applications and AI-based features running than any other processor vendor. As of last month, there are now over 100 applications providing more than 300 different user-facing features.
Graphics
The Core Ultra 200V also debuts Intel’s new Xe2 graphics microarchitecture, delivering 30 percent average performance improvement. The GPU now has eight new 2nd X-cores, support for up to three 4K monitors, eight enhanced ray tracing units, and the new X Matrix Extensions AI engines with up to 67 TOPS to power creative applications and boost gaming performance.
New Processor Packaging
Hyper-Threading the company’s longtime performance staple is gone with fewer but faster cores, a faster Arc GPU and more powerful NPU in addition to memory in one package called system-on-chip (SoC) commonly referred to as a “computer on a chip”. All these components have traditionally been spread out on the PC motherboard. This saves space, more efficient communication between these components with less latency, keeping Intel’s laser focus on using less power.
Power Efficiency
Intel claims it can match or exceed Qualcomm’s Arm based mobile Snapdragon processor in power efficiency at around the same power. It can also achieve similar performance to its previous generation at around half the power. The company is now touting better battery life not just against competitor AMD but also against Qualcomm’s Arm processor, that cannot run all Windows apps.
Battery Life
Intel’s markedly improved battery life means running your laptop for longer with equal or faster performance. Using the UL Procyon Office Productivity One Hour Battery Consumption benchmark on an ASUS 2024 Zenbook S 14 with consumed only 6% of battery, amounting to more than 16 hours of battery life.
Is Intel on the Right Track?
The Intel Core Ultra 200V processor series is Intel’s compromise to bring smart, light, fast and powerful enough computing to most folks who still want a work and home laptop. Sure, more cores and memory handling in mobiles is still around for power users, but Intel has managed to meet competitor chip makers head-on. In my initial benchmarking this 2nd Gen NPU equipped processor was better or equal in a variety of benchmarking simulating games and productivity to Intel’s previous similar processor with noticeably improved battery life, graphics and AI functionality.
“That’s sort of an industry-wide observation when I say that this year has been very productive and exciting for consumers. More specifically to Intel, we have a lot to think about and handle” said Robert Hallock, Vice President and General Manager, Client AI and Technical Marketing. “AI is driving never-before-seen new features/capabilities that demand entirely new architectures and accelerators. That’s a lot of “new” in one cycle, and it’s wild to think about how much goes into a modern CPU versus the single-core CPU-only processors of old.”
My Experience with Intel’s Onboard NPU on an Intel Core Ultra 7 Equipped Laptop
The 14-inch, slim (1cm thin) ASUS 2024 Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA) with a stunning 3K OLED screen and aluminum-ceramic lid that Intel arranged for me to try prior to launch, impressed with AI assisted features, like setting different levels of background defocus on the webcam. It also kept me centred in the screen with Automatic-Framing even if I veered off axis and the Eye Contact Correction feature kept my stare into the lens, even if my sight veered off, was freaky but looked natural. The noise cancellation capability eliminated background noise for voices and when multiple folks are on the same meeting, the noise cancellation automatically adjusts volume for different distances stemming from the different environments from the attendees location. Its NPU produced eye-popping AI Image-Generation on the UL Procyon benchmarking suite.
More than 20 laptop manufacturers will feature the Intel Ultra 200V processor in more than 80 laptop models. Intel’s market capitalization went below $100 billion for the first time since 2012 after a poor quarterly reporting in August, which has pushed the company’s stock below Intel’s book value. While it is far from a certainty that Intel will become a takeover target by Qualcomm or any other buyer, the release of the Core Ultra 200V series processors certainly shows that Intel remains focused on the future and American-based chips remain competitive in the global semi-conductor market.