Intel announces new AI PC chips with major performance gains
What's the story
Intel has officially unveiled its upcoming Lunar Lake chips for Copilot+ AI PCs, set to hit the market this fall.
The new chips promise a significant performance boost, offering up to 48 TOPs (tera operations per second) of AI performance due to an updated neural processing unit (NPU).
This represents a substantial increase from Intel's previous Meteor Lake chips which had a 10 TOPS NPU.
Market competition
Lunar Lake chips to compete with AMD and Qualcomm
Intel's Lunar Lake chips are set to compete with AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips, which will be available in July, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus.
Despite the competition, Lunar Lake is expected to be a major upgrade for Intel users.
It will feature a new Xe2 GPU, offering 80% faster gaming performance than the previous generation and an AI accelerator with an additional 67 TOPs of performance.
Tech specs
Lunar lake chips feature on-board memory and improved efficiency
In a significant move, Intel's Lunar Lake chips will feature on-board memory, similar to Apple Silicon, with options for either 16GB or 32GB of RAM.
By integrating the memory closer to the processor cores, Intel has managed to reduce latency and system power usage by 40%.
The chips will also include eight cores with improved performance and efficient cores (P-cores and E-cores), resulting in a battery life that is 60% better than Meteor Lake.
Connectivity features
Lunar lake chips support updated connectivity standards
The new Lunar Lake chips will support updated connectivity standards including Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, PCIe Gen-5, and Thunderbolt 4.
However, it's noteworthy that Intel hasn't committed to Thunderbolt 5 yet, even though it plans to launch that standard later this year.
The first set of Lunar Lake-powered laptops are expected to roll out globally by the end of 2024.
Energy efficiency
Lunar lake chips boast enhanced power efficiency
According to Dan Rogers, Vice President and General Manager at Intel, the Lunar Lake chips will be far more power efficient than Intel's first generation of AI PC chips.
"Lunar Lake has a 40% lower power package reduction compared to the Meteor Lake, inclusive of the memory," Rogers stated.
He also noted that boards with Lunar Lake processors are quite small, which will help reduce weight and make space for a bigger battery in a similar chassis.