Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake & Arrow Lake "Core Ultra 200" CPUs are expected to hit retail shelves in September & October, respectively.
Intel Lunar Lake "Core Ultra 200V" Laptops Target Holiday Season, Arrow Lake "Core Ultra 200" Desktop CPUs Arriving In October
The report comes from Benchlife who were provided an update based on the recent reports from DigiTimes who reported that Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs had been delayed. Intel stated that the chips have not been delayed and the first systems are on track to ship in Q3 2024, targeting the holiday season time frame.
As per the original plan, the Intel Lunar Lake "Core Ultra 200V" CPUs which are designed for the thin & light notebook segment, will hit retail in September. The formal launch of the new chips is expected between 17th-24th September and the first products will hit retail shelves by the 25th of the same month. This is around the same time as Intel's Innovation "On" 2024 event which takes place on the 24th of September.
Intel’s upcoming client processor (code-named Lunar Lake) has not been delayed. As disclosed earlier, Lunar Lake-based systems will start shipping in Q3 for the Holiday season.
Intel To Benchlife
In the AI PC race, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform has been the first to secure the Microsoft Copilot+ PC certification while AMD is expected to be the next with its Strix Point "Ryzen AI 300" APUs hitting retail in various laptop designs by July 2024. Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs will come two months after AMD and three months after Qualcomm. Microsoft has already stated that both of these platforms will receive the Copilot+ feature update after release and won't ship with these features at launch like the Qualcomm-based devices.
Besides Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs, there's also talk about Intel's Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPU plans. Benchlife states that Arrow Lake-S CPUs and the respective Z890 motherboards will hit retail in October 2024 which is something that we had confirmed earlier too. Furthermore, the Non-K "Core Ultra 200" Desktop CPUs along with the B860 and H810 motherboards will arrive around CES 2025. The report also talks about Lunar Lake commercial offerings arriving in January 2025. The schedule is as below (not official):
- Lunar Lake Official Launch - 17-24th September
- Lunar Lake Retail Launch - 25th September
- Arrow Lake-S Official Launch - 25th September
- Arrow Lake-S Retail Launch - October 2024
- Arrow Lake-S Non-K Launch - January 2025
So what we can say is that the next few months are going to be very crowded for the CPU market with lots of innovative platforms and chip offerings by the two big x86 firms. Intel's Lunar Lake will compete against Strix Point while Arrow Lake will compete against Granite Ridge so expect a very heated holiday season this time around.
Intel Mobility CPU Lineup:
| CPU Family | Panther Lake | Lunar Lake | Arrow Lake | Meteor Lake | Raptor Lake | Alder Lake |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process Node (CPU Tile) | Intel 18A | TSMC N3B | Intel 20A TSMC N3B | Intel 4 | Intel 7 | Intel 7 |
| Process Node (GPU Tile) | TSMC 3/2nm? | TSMC N3B? | TSMC N4? | TSMC 5nm | Intel 7 | Intel 7 |
| CPU Architecture | Hybrid | Hybrid | Hybrid (Four-Core) | Hybrid (Triple-Core) | Hybrid (Dual-Core) | Hybrid (Dual-Core) |
| P-Core Architecture | Cougar Cove | Lion Cove | Lion Cove | Redwood Cove | Raptor Cove | Golden Cove |
| E-Core Architecture | Skymont? | N/A | Skymont | Crestmont | Gracemont | Gracemont |
| LP E-Core Architecture (SOC) | Skymont? | Skymont | Crestmont | Crestmont | N/A | N/A |
| Top Configuration | TBD | 4+4 (MX Series) | TBD | 6+8 (H-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 8+16 (HX-Series) | 6+8 (H-Series) 8+8 (HX-Series) |
| Max Cores / Threads | TBD | 8/8? | TBD | 14/20 | 14/20 | 14/20 |
| Planned Lineup | H/P/U Series | V-Series | H/P/U Series | H/P/U Series | H/P/U Series | H/P/U Series |
| GPU Architecture | Xe3-LPG (Celestial) | Xe2-LPG (Battlemage) | Xe-LPG (Alchemist) | Xe-LPG (Alchemist) | Iris Xe (Gen 12) | Iris Xe (Gen 12) |
| GPU Execution Units | TBD | 64 EUs | 192 EUs | 128 EUs (1024 Cores) | 96 EUs (768 Cores) | 96 EUs (768 Cores) |
| Memory Support | TBD | LPDDR5X-8533 | TBD | DDR5-5600 LPDDR5-7400 LPDDR5X - 7400+ | DDR5-5200 LPDDR5-5200 LPDDR5-6400 | DDR5-4800 LPDDR5-5200 LPDDR5X-4267 |
| Memory Capacity (Max) | TBD | 32 GB | TBD | 96 GB | 64 GB | 64 GB |
| Thunderbolt Ports | TBD | TBD | TBD | 4 (TB4) | 4 (TB4) | 4 (TB4) |
| WiFi Capability | TBD | WiFi 7 | TBD | WiFi 6E | WiFi 6E | WiFi 6E |
| TDP | TBD | 17-30W | TBD | 7W-45W | 15-55W | 15-55W |
| Launch | 2H 2025 | 2H 2024 | 2H 2024 | 2H 2023 | 1H 2023 | 1H 2022 |
