The latest Intel Panther Lake CPU leak details next-gen Core Ultra 300 range with high-performance graphics restricted to a new 'X' model line

A new leak detailing what appears to be the full next-gen Intel Panther Lake mobile CPU range has emerged. The big news is a top tier of Intel Core Ultra X 300 chips to sit above the regular Core Ultra 300 series. It is only these "X" branded chips that will reportedly get Panther Lake's most powerful Xe3 integrated graphics.

The full-spec Panther Lake models, therefore, will reportedly be configured with four Performance cores and eight Efficient cores in the CPU chiplet. They will be complemented by a further four Efficient cores in the so-called low-power island on the SoC die for a grand total of 16 CPU cores.

According to this new leak, this new upper tier of Panther Lake chips will be branded Intel Core Ultra X300. So, by way of example, the top chip is said to be the Intel Core Ultra 9 X388H.

Arguably the most exciting element of the new chip for PC gaming, however, is the new Xe3-spec iGPU, also known as Celestial. The new "X" branded models reportedly get 12 graphics cores. That's a significant upgrade from Intel's current most powerful integrated graphics in its Lunar Lake laptop chips. They have eight graphics cores based on the older Xe2 architecture, otherwise codenamed Battlemage.

Just the upgrade from eight to 12 iGPU cores is a 50% boost. But Celestial is expected to be more performant per iGPU core than Battlemage. So, the overall performance uptick could be very substantial indeed. As things stand, Lunar Lake's Battlemage iGPU is pretty competitive with AMD's competing Strix Point APU.

All of which means, Panther Lake could very well be the fastest laptop and handheld chip when it arrives. Well, that's if you exclude AMD's monstrous Strix Halo APU, which is very expensive and power hungry, and is really designed for running AI applications locally and content creation, not gaming.

There are said to be four CPU models in the new "X" range. Three have the same CPU core and iGPU configuration, while an entry-level Core Ultra 5 model is downgraded to a 12-core CPU with four P cores, four E cores and four LPE cores, plus 10 rather than 12 iGPU cores.

Below these "X" chips will sit two further ranges of Panther Lake CPUs. The first is what you might call a mainstream Panther Lake range with the same CPU core configurations as the "X" range but just four Xe3 iGPU cores.

Then there's the ultra low-power "U" range which gets a CPU with four P cores and four LPE cores, but no E cores. Those chips also make do with just four Xe3 iGPU cores. Of course, Panther Lake will be the first chip to use Intel's new 18A node, albeit it's not yet clear whether all models will use 18A, or just selected variants.

Ultimately, it's those new "X" models with the 12-core iGPU we want to get our hands on. They're a really exciting prospect as potential handheld gaming chips. 50%-plus more gaming performance in a handheld could be very sweet indeed. Intel says Panther Lake will be in mass production later this year, but we're not expecting to be able to buy laptops and handhelds with the new chip until at least early 2026.

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