Intel's Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU: Early Benchmarks Reveal Mixed Performance Results

Intel's new Core Ultra 7 268V 'Lunar Lake' CPU tested against AMD Strix Point, Apple M3 chips

Intel's new Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU has been tested ahead of laptops hitting the market later this month, with the 8-core, 8-thread CPU tested against AMD's new Strix Point APU and Apple's new M3 processor. Inside, the new Intel Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" CPUs feature new Lion Cove P-Cores and Skymont E-Cores, with either 16GB or 32GB of on-package memory that sits next to the chip itself. In some early testing, we've got some numbers from a Vietnamese YouTuber that has tested a new Dell XPS 13 laptop with the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory, and Windows 11 Home. Cinebench R23 single-threaded performance shows that the new Intel Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" processor beating out the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU, and the Apple M3. Interestingly, the Core Ultra 7 268V processor using 15W of power, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU using 21W of power, while Apple blows them both away with the M3 using just 6W of power. This is about where the efficiency stops for the Core Ultra 7 268V, with its 15W mighty impressive against the Strix Point APU using 21W, but loses in multi-threaded as its just an 8-core, 8-thread CPU while the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is a 12-core, 24-thread CPU that has oodles more threads than the 268V chip. Intel has promised a 50% upgraded in gaming performance with its new Xe2 "Battlemage" GPU inside of the new Lunar Lake processors, where in a 3DMark TimeSpy run we see a graphics score of 3715 points, beating out the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU with 3526 points, an 8-core Arc GPU inside of an Intel Core Ultra 9 series "Meteor Lake" CPU with 3238 points, and AMD's handheld-focused Ryzen Z1 Extreme with 3017 points. Xe2 is shaping up beautifully here. Great efficiency is one thing, but not when it kills your product: case in point is the new Dell XPS 13 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU which only works on 17W mode, compared to the ASUS Vivobook S14 laptop with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU that bumps up to 55W. In gaming, the reviewer tested Far Cry 6 which was running at 50FPS+ on the Strix Point APU, while the 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU was only pushing mid-30FPS. Black Myth: Wukong is another story, with the Strix Point APU pushing out 100FPS+ while the Xe2-based Lunar Lake CPU was only hitting 50FPS or so. Lower power but still manageable performance (30FPS+) is great for handhelds, where Intel's new Core Ultra 200 series "Lunar Lake" CPUs will appear in new gaming handhelds like MSI's upcoming Claw 8, which is powered by a Lunar Lake processor.

Intel Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" Shows Impressive Single-Core Performance In Early Review

Vietnamese YouTuber benchmarks the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" chip, revealing the true potential of the 8c/8t CPU in various tests. The Intel Lunar Lake mobile chips were launched on 3rd September but the laptops based on these chips are going to debut next week on the 24th. The Lunar Lake Core Ultra 200V CPUs bring a combination of Lion Cove P-Cores and Skymont E-Cores to ensure maximum power efficiency. While we only have information on the performance and efficiency of these chips from the company itself, an early review has revealed what it will be like to use a Core Ultra 200V processor. The Vietnamese YouTube channel: ThinkView has benchmarked the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU on a Dell XPS 13 laptop against its rivals from AMD and Apple and we can see that the 268V is delivering some impressive results, which outperforms AMD chips in both numbers and power efficiency. The laptop used for the test was the Dell XPS 13 9350, featuring Core Ultra 7 268V, 32 GB LPDDR5X-8533 memory, and Windows 11 Home OS. As we can see from the table, the Intel Core Ultra 268V at 15W was dominating both the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 at 21W and Apple M3 at 6W in single-core performance numbers. The 268V is not only delivering a slightly higher score but it's doing it by being more power-efficient than the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. Still, the Apple M3 remains unbeatable in the efficiency department. However, this wasn't the case with the multi-threaded performance as the Core Ultra 268V didn't achieve a competitive score against the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme. It should be kept in mind that the Core Ultra 268V isn't aimed at delivering competitive multi-threaded performance as it's more of a power-efficient chip targeted for low to medium loads. Also, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme offer significantly more cores and threads respectively. The Z1 extreme has 16 threads while the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 has 24 threads to work with compared to just 8 on the 268V chip. In the TimeSpy graphics test, the Core Ultra 268V shines once again, scoring a good 3715 points against 3562 of the Ryzen AI 9 HX370. This shows that the Arc 140V GPU is really good against its rivals and can play most games without any problems. However, remember that the 268V runs at 17W but the laptops using Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 can be configured to a much higher TDP. This was illustrated by the reviewer as he was able to set the Vivobook S14 w/Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 at 55W while the Dell XPS 13 could only work at 17W mode, which sets back the gaming performance of the Dell XPS 13. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 was able to reach 50+ Fps in Far Cry 6 while the Core Ultar 268V remained in the mid-30s. In Black Myth: Wukong, the AMD chip was delivering 100+ FPS, and the Intel stayed at around the 50 FPS mark. This shows that even though Intel's Arc 140V is an excellent iGPU, the CPU+GPU combination is what makes or breaks the overall performance. The Lunar Lake will, therefore be excellent for handhelds such as the upcoming MSI Claw 8, which is the successor to the Claw 7, running on an Intel Meteor Lake chip. One can also expect the gaming performance to improve when official launch drivers for Core Ultra 200V's Xe2 GPUs are available. Do note that Intel has largely focused on the efficiency and battery life of the Lunar Lake-based laptops. In the review, we saw that the laptop could run up to 5.30 hours with a 55Wh battery. Although this is decent, it doesn't come up to the claims put forward by Intel in the launch. Of course, the battery life will be increased if the battery is over 70Wh. The benchmarks were done on an engineering unit and we have seen some great battery life numbers in other reports. All in all, the Lunar Lake chips look excellent for light loads, but users who are looking forward to executing intensive workloads such as 3D rendering, video editing, and gaming without any discrete GPU, will be better off with Strix Point from AMD at the moment.

Intel Lunar Lake CPU benchmarks reveal good power efficiency and GPU performance -- Core Ultra 7 268V results show regressions in multi-core performance

It was an unsurprising turn of events, with Lunar Lake's significantly lower core count and lack of Hyper-Threading. Third-party benchmarks of Intel's new Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake) CPUs are finally cropping up, giving us our first look at the processors' performance. Vietnamese tech review outlet ThinkView on YouTube benchmarked the Core Ultra 7 268V against AMD's competing Ryzen AI chips. The Lunar Lake chip was benchmarked in Cinebench R23 and 3DMark TimeSpy against the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme, AMD's handheld gaming flagship. The Cinebench results were separated into single-core and multi-core results, with the multi-core results benchmarked at four different power targets: 15W, 20W, 28W, and 38W, to test each chip's multi-core efficiency. The 268V did not fare well against its AMD competition, getting completely outpaced in the multi-core results at all four power levels. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 was roughly 57% faster at the 15W power target, 66% faster at 20W, 60% faster at 28W, and 54% faster at 38W. The Z1 extreme was 14% faster than the 268V at 15W, 46% faster at 20W, 35% faster at 28W, and 45% faster at 38W. Bear in mind that these multi-core results are rough estimates of the actual results since they were published on a difficult-to-read graph. So, take these results as general estimations of performance. The same cannot be said of the single-threaded results, both in terms of accuracy and the performance of the 268V. The Lunar Lake chip scored 2,054 points, five more than the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. Apple's M3 silicon was also benchmarked and was 10% slower than the 268V scoring 1,932 points. ThinkView also tested the 268V, HX 370, and M3 chips in terms of performance per watt to check power efficiency. In this test, the 268V scored 137 points, the HX 370 97.5 points, and the Apple M3 292 points. In other words, the 268V was 40% more efficient compared to the HX 370, but it couldn't even come close to the M3's efficiency, where the Apple chip outpaced the Lunar Lake chip by over 2x. In the graphics department, the Core Ultra 7 268V showed strong results in 3DMark's TimeSpy graphics benchmark, outpacing its AMD counterparts. The 268V scored 3,715 points, 5% higher than the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370's score of 3,526 points and 23% faster than the Z1 Extreme's score of 3,017 points. Thinkview's performance results reveal that Lunar Lake features strong graphics and single-threaded performance, as well as good single-core efficiency compared to AMD's counterparts. However, multi-threaded performance takes a big hit, with the AMD chips often being 50% faster. Intel launched Lunar Lake a few weeks ago, so the corresponding laptops should be on shelves by now.