Gaming Breakthrough from Intel: New Core Ultra 300 Promise Up to +77% Gaming Performance

At CES 2026, Intel unveiled the Core Ultra Series 3 lineup, also known as Panther Lake. The company states that this is the first AI PC platform built on the Intel 18A process node, fully designed and manufactured in the USA.

The new lineup is aimed at the mobile segment, with around 200 laptops based on this architecture already in development.

Record-Breaking Power: Core Ultra X9 and X7 Series

The lineup includes a premium class of processors — Core Ultra X. They are designed to deliver maximum performance in thin and lightweight devices.

Integrated Arc graphics based on the Xe3 architecture enabled the new processors to achieve a 77% increase in gaming performance, a 60% CPU performance boost, and up to 27 hours of battery life.

Key technical specifications include up to 16 CPU cores, 12 Xe graphics cores, and an NPU delivering up to 50 TOPS of performance.

New Naming System and Expanded Use Cases

Intel is updating its naming system to make product specialization clearer. The “Core Ultra” name now represents the premium segment, while the “X” designation marks versions more powerful than standard models.

Processors with the “H” suffix can scale up to 80 W, while standard versions are limited to 55 W.

Beyond the consumer market, Panther Lake will be actively used in medicine, robotics, and “smart” industries. In local AI processing, Intel’s new processors outperform NVIDIA counterparts (Jetson Orin AGX), enabling nearly double the performance for modern large language models (LLMs).

Release Date and Market Availability

Pre-orders for the first laptops powered by the new chips opened on January 6, 2026. Global consumer device sales will begin on January 27.

The expansion of the laptop lineup with new processors will take place during the first half of 2026, with specialized systems for industrial automation and healthcare launching toward the end of the year.