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Intel might just take the leadership crown from AMD with its next-gen Clearwater Forest and Panther Lake CPUs. Intel's Clearwater Forest will compete with AMD's server-class CPU market, while its Panther Lake CPUs will target the consumer market share. Now, more details regarding the latter have been leaked again.
We have additional information regarding the CPU architecture, integrated GPU, and more. This article will provide everything you need to know about Panther Lake and whether it can help Intel take the performance crown once again.
Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinions.
Intel Panther Lake laptop CPU details
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Panther Lake is a new groundbreaking architecture that Intel believes will help it get back to leading the pack once again. The tech company may have designed the new architecture for both desktops and laptops, but recent leaks suggest it could be only for laptops.
Intel designs different letters for various classes of processors. For instance, the S-series of chips are usually for desktops, while mobile processors are available in the U or H-series category. So far, all leaks are for the Panther Lake U and H-series laptop CPUs with no desktop S-series CPUs in sight.
Even Moore's Law is Dead, a leaker who got the RDNA2 leaks, believes that the desktop version of this architecture is effectively canceled.
Intel's Panther Lake architecture will bring new core architecture, integrated GPU, a newer process node, and much more, so desktop users and hardcore gamers will surely appreciate a desktop launch. Here's everything the leaks have suggested till now.
Intel confirms the Intel 18A process for Panther Lake
Intel confirmed in its Q1 2024 earnings call that the new Panther Lake CPUs would be manufactured on an advanced 18A node, an improved version of the Intel 20A node. The latter is already bringing in the RibbonFET transistor design, and PowerVIA, a new type of power delivery system. Apart from these, the new 18A node is expected to bring further improvements.
PowerVia, also known as Backside power delivery, fundamentally changes how power is delivered to transistors. Currently, all modern CPU architectures are designed by stacking one layer on top of the other, and tiny wires are sent through all the layers and transistors via the interconnect, the front side. This is how CPUs are designed traditionally.
However, with the new PowerVia design, Intel will connect the wires from the backside, which brings decent savings on the interconnect space. This will help with thermals and voltage delivery, which is expected to result in higher power efficiency.
New CPU core architecture leaked for Panther Lake
Moore's Law is Dead leaked the core codenames of Panther Lake in his June 2023 video on YouTube. According to him, the P-cores will be based on the new Cougar Cove architecture, while its E-cores will remain on the Skymount architecture that will debut on the Arrow Lake first. The core names Cougar Cove and Skymont have also been confirmed by an ITHome post.
A decent performance boost is expected from the new architecture as a result of the combination of the new P-core CPU architecture, 18A process node, and PowerVia power delivery system.
New Arc Celestial GPU leaked for Panther Lake
Recently, Panther Lake leaks appeared on a new post on ITHome, which had interesting details about the integrated GPU. According to the leaks, a Panther Lake CPU engineering sample A0 tapped out along with its B0 revision.
The new leak also suggests that the integrated GPU architecture will be based on Intel's Celestial Xe3 architecture. This graphics architecture is the successor of the upcoming Battlemage GPU architecture.
Is this Intel's Ryzen moment?
Intel is targeting a 2025 release for the Panther Lake CPUs. However, the company has had a hard time releasing products on time in the past. Intel's last architecture, Meteor Lake, was launched in December 2023, but it was a paper launch at best. The actual availability of laptops was delayed until 2024.
Now, a new leak from Moore's Law is Dead suggests even Arrow Lake laptops could be delayed to 2025, so chances are that Panther Lake could also be delayed to 2026. If the tech company manages to launch Panther Lake by 2025, it does have a chance to take the performance crown from AMD, at least in some of the benchmarks.
I believe Panther Lake could be Intel's Ryzen moment, at least in the laptop segment, but only if it can launch the CPU in time. However, if there's another delay, AMD may bring out a far better architecture, and then Panther Lake may not be as exciting at launch as Intel would hope.
