Intel’s non-Ultra Core CPUs are new silicon this year for a change

Intel has made a significant leap forward with its latest launch of non-Ultra Core processors, marking a refreshing change from its previous offerings. The Core Ultra series has dominated the spotlight since Intel transitioned away from its traditional i3/i5/i7/i9 branding. This time, however, the company is stepping up its game with the introduction of new silicon for its non-Ultra Core Series 3 processors, codenamed 'Wildcat Lake.' Previously, Intel's non-Ultra Core chips were often overshadowed by their Ultra counterparts, primarily due to their reliance on the older Raptor Lake architecture, which had been the backbone of the 13th-generation Core family. The Raptor Lake design, while solid, was essentially a continuation of the 12th-generation technology, lacking the innovations that consumers have come to expect. With the debut of Wildcat Lake, Intel is returning to a competitive landscape where high-end and midrange processors can share advanced features despite differing performance levels. These new processors are designed with two distinct silicon tiles. The first tile is a compute unit that integrates a CPU featuring up to two Cougar Cove performance cores and four Darkmont efficiency cores. Additionally, it includes an integrated GPU that houses one or two of Intel's latest Xe3 GPU cores, alongside a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of executing up to 17 trillion operations per second. The second tile serves as a platform controller, which utilizes a non-Intel manufacturing process and provides impressive connectivity options, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0, in addition to six PCIe 4.0 lanes for expanded external connections. Moreover, the new chips support expansive memory configurations of up to 48GB of LPDDR5X-7467 or 64GB of DDR5-6400, operating at a base power level of 15W, with the potential to boost up to 35W.