You and I may be hotly anticipating what Intel’s next-generation Arrow Lake processors will do later this 12 months, however that doesn’t imply we will’t get enthusiastic about what comes after and even alongside it, proper? Intel’s Lunar Lake is its subsequent, next-generation design, tentatively outlined for a launch perhaps earlier than the top of the 12 months. Perhaps alongside Arrow Lake on desktop, with Lunar Lake centered on cellular as an alternative.
Curious to see what Intel’s been cooking up within the labs? We’re, too, and as we get nearer to Lunar Lake’s debut, we’re beginning to study some intriguing particulars.
Lunar Lake specs
We don’t have arduous specs for Lunar Lake simply but, however we do have a couple of particulars from Intel and a few purported leaks, which paint an attention-grabbing image of what Lunar Lake might be able to.
It’s a mobile-first architectural design with a wattage goal of round 15W, suggesting Lunar Lake might be used for Intel’s conventional U-series processors. With a deal with efficiency per watt, it appears probably that we’ll see decrease clock speeds with this era and a deal with Intel’s effectivity cores. Certainly, one eight-core configuration leaked earlier this 12 months (through GameRant), reportedly included 4 Skymont effectivity cores (the identical E-core structure deliberate for Arrow Lake), and 4 Lion Cove efficiency cores.
Lunar Lake will allegedly make the most of a next-generation graphics structure, too, generally known as Battlemage Xe2-LPG. That’s the next-generation design past the alleged Battlemage Xe+ design that Arrow Lake is slated to make use of for its onboard graphics.
Different rumors counsel that Intel is dropping hyperthreading (its model of simultaneous multi-threading) from Lunar Lake, as it’s reportedly planning with Arrow Lake. This function has been a cornerstone of Intel CPU multi-threaded performance for generations, so Intel should have an excellent cause for dropping it to the wayside.
Intel may launch a low 8W energy model of its Lunar Lake processors, concentrating on fanless laptop designs to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air extra readily.
As for options, Lunar Lake will supposedly help PCI-Specific 5, Thunderbolt 4 and USB4, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and Gigabit Ethernet
Lunar Lake availability
Lunar Lake is reportedly deliberate for an end-of-2024 launch alongside Arrow Lake on desktop. That looks as if a fairly fast turnaround, contemplating we haven’t heard a lot about it but, however Intel has claimed to point out working silicon at current tradeshows, so it’s not unattainable. Purportedly, the plan is for Lunar Lake to be the primary focus of Intel’s entry-level and energy-efficient laptop computer designs, particularly informal gaming efforts.
Arrow Lake will then be used for higher-end cellular designs and desktops. If Lunar Lake does debut alongside Arrow Lake, although, anticipate availability to be restricted to start out with, resulting in mass manufacturing in early 2025.
Lunar Lake efficiency
Regardless of its goal of lower-power laptops, Intel’s Lunar Lake is allegedly a severely highly effective design. The primary ground-up architectural overhaul in a couple of generations, Lunar Lake will proceed to leverage Intel’s Foveros know-how to have bigger efficiency and smaller effectivity cores. Dropping hyperthreading reportedly gained’t sluggish it down, although, as early stories counsel that Lunar Lake could offer performance close to 1.5 times that of Meteor Lake processors at a really comparable energy draw.
This cited efficiency metric is just in Cinebench multi-threaded, which isn’t an ideal snapshot of a processor’s efficiency, but it surely’s an intriguing indication of what it’s able to, nonetheless.
Rumors counsel Lunar Lake will handle a 50% efficiency increase over present Meteor Lake processors. This could be an unbelievable inter-generational leap and a declare that we’ll solely view by our skeptic’s glasses for now. There are additionally some rumors of Lunar Lake’s built-in GPU efficiency doubling that of Meteor Lake at a better TDP. Lunar Lake may very well be wonderful for low-cost, low-power gaming laptops if that proves true.
Intel will have the ability to make the most of a brand new course of node to eke out some additional efficiency, or effectivity, relying on what it’s concentrating on. It gained’t use its inside course of nodes, although, and can as an alternative be primarily based on TSMCs 3nm 3NB course of.
Intel has additionally mentioned Lunar Lake’s neural processing unit (NPU) might be as much as thrice quicker than Meteor Lake’s, which may assist it speed up future AI duties.
It’s all up within the air
For a CPU design that many declare will launch earlier than the top of 2024, the small print for Lunar Lake are very skinny on the bottom. That might usually counsel a launch is additional away, and maybe we gained’t see huge availability till 2025. Nevertheless, it’s encouraging to listen to that Intel is working arduous to handle the disparity in vitality effectivity between AMD and Intel CPUs. The most recent desktop variations, particularly, spotlight an infinite disparity, the place comparably performing Intel CPUs usually use greater than twice the facility of their AMD counterparts.
For now, Lunar Lake is an intriguing what-if that’s coming in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later. It’s obtained potential, however we’ll want to listen to extra earlier than we get really enthusiastic about what it’s bringing to the desk.
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