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“The most efficient x86 processor ever” – with this strong statement Intel advertises its Core Ultra 200V mobile processor. The announcement also makes it clear how much pressure the previous top dog in the notebook market is under: Since the middle of the year, Qualcomm has entered the stage and, with the help of Microsoft, created the AI notebook category from the ground up – including the new marketing label Copilot+.
The biggest improvement brought by Snapdragon notebooks should also be possible with the Core Ultra 200V, namely significantly longer battery life. And Intel’s newcomer is also said to be at the forefront when it comes to computing power: Benchmark results published by Intel – independent tests have not yet been possible – show one platform and the other slightly ahead in terms of CPU performance. It should be mentioned that the Core Ultra 200V has only eight cores (four performance and four efficiency cores) without Hyper-Threading. Intel revealed technical details about it a few months ago.
In the wild, you’re likely to find far more variation and range than the performance and runtime differences shown by Intel, as these considerations in general conditions are rarely comparable 1:1: It always depends on how a notebook manufacturer’s cooling system is designed and what other components are in the system. The screen is a critical component, especially in battery life.
Runtime promise: According to Intel, the upcoming Dell
(Image: Intel)
Salty fingers
However, Intel is also deliberately rubbing salt in the wounds of the competition. In gaming benchmarks, Intel not only emphasized higher graphics performance, but also said that you can run very few games on Snapdragon notebooks. And even with traditional apps, there are many examples of applications for which you still need an x86 CPU.
What Intel, in turn, is silent about: the new AI functions that Microsoft plans for integrated AI units (neural processing units, NPUs) and integrates into Windows 11 24H2 which currently runs exclusively on Snapdragon chips. So the traditional x86 world (in addition to the Core Ultra 200V, AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 is also affected) will have to wait until software support arrives. Microsoft has not yet given a specific date for when this will happen; according to Intel the necessary update will arrive in November. Either way: we are talking about Microsoft, Intel’s most important software partner ever. For years, the compound term Wintel stood for an unwavering collaboration that is now showing clear cracks.
Fast Cores: The new P cores with Lion’s Cove architecture should give a nice boost in performance under single-thread loads.
(Image: Intel)
The question of price
Another catch: While the Core Ultra 200V undoubtedly offers full x86 compatibility and a copilot-capable NPU, and Intel’s performance promises certainly aren’t entirely blue, this collection of desirable features costs money.
This is not because Intel would rather have a gold-plated assembly, but because the Core Ultra 200V is technically an oddity. It has an independent design including integrated RAM. Interested buyers are indirectly affected by this: notebook manufacturers have to design dedicated motherboards, which is expensive, and development costs are of course passed on to customers.
Intel is celebrating the fact that Qualcomm still has something to catch up with its graphics drivers when it comes to supporting common PC games.
(Image: Intel)
Other companies including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI and Samsung are bringing notebooks to market with Core Ultra 200V. At the time of going to press we did not have all prices, models and device types, but among the known information there was no device that had the starting price of a Qualcomm-equipped notebook (RRP 1200 euros). Available from 1000 euros) has made the cut – and it stops at just over 3000 euros.
Variants
At the start of the Core Ultra 200V family, Intel is selling nine processor models, although they differ in small details such as clock frequencies. They are all octahedral. In addition, the field has practically doubled because models with 16 and 32 GB of integrated RAM have their own model numbers.
The Core Ultra 200V launched in nine different variants.
(Image: Intel)
In addition to the lower clock speed, Intel is cutting down on the GPU in the Ultra 5 models (7 instead of 8 cores), but also on the NPU: it has only 5 blocks instead of 6, which is exactly enough for the copilot requirement of 40 TOPS. Higher processor models offer 47 or 48 TOPS – the difference indicates a slightly different clock speed.
Except for the Core Ultra 9 288V, which should run with a nominal 30 watts, all the newcomers are specified with 17 watts. Even though they can consume up to 37 watts in boost, this is a significantly lower waste heat limit than the Core Ultra 100 (Meteor Lake) and before. Apart from the Core 9 models, Intel’s newcomers can also run at just 8 watts, which will allow for passively cooled (and therefore consistently silent) notebooks.
It is still unclear whether these will actually happen. However, Intel announced that notebooks with Core Ultra 200V, which have the in-house marketing label Evo, should operate particularly quietly. The presence of the fan does not mean that it will actually be loud; instead, OEMs are asked to optimize the cooling system to a lower noise level.
According to Intel, notebooks with Core Ultra 200V can now be pre-ordered. Deliveries are scheduled to begin on September 24.
(mu)
