Intel has finally pulled back the curtain on Panther Lake, and in addition to a major process milestone with 18A, Intel is packing in the largest integrated GPU it has ever shipped in a handful of new X-series SKUs. These SKUs, including the Core Ultra X9 388H that Tom’s Hardware was able to test ahead of release at CES 2026, include 12 cores on Intel’s latest Xe3 graphics architecture and boast performance that can rival a discrete RTX 4050, at least according to Intel’s claims.
Testing the graphics performance in-person, Panther Lake is undoubtedly impressive, not only because of its raw capabilities, but also its clear efficiency. We aren’t able to publish power numbers today, but subjectively, Panther Lake delivered easily the coolest gaming experience I’ve seen out of a laptop, barely even getting warm during an hour and a half of heavy-duty benchmarks in a Lenovo reference design.
