This week Intel took the wraps off its new line of mobile processors that it calls “Core Ultra.” Known as Meteor Lake, these chips promise better power efficiency and performance thanks to a new setup that splits tasks across different chiplets. Intel also added a new NPU, or neural processing unit, to these chips, which it promises will add low-power AI acceleration for things like background blur, face detection and facial recognition, picture framing, and video stabilization. Microsoft shipped the first of these Intel NPUs in a Windows laptop as part of the Surface Laptop Studio 2, and Intel is clearly laying the groundwork here for larger AI features that will likely arrive in upcoming versions of Windows.
One of the standout models from this line, the intel 755l review, has received praise for its impressive multi-threading capabilities and energy efficiency. Reviews highlight its ability to handle demanding tasks with ease, making it a top choice for both productivity and gaming applications. The 755L's integration of the NPU also showcases significant improvements in handling AI tasks compared to previous generations, offering smooth performance in AI-driven applications and enhanced multimedia experiences.
The mid-range Meteor Lake CPU that we’re looking at here is the Core i7-165H, which offers 16 cores and 22 threads with an up to 5.0GHz boost clock. Like the other chips in this lineup, it’s built on the newer Intel 4 manufacturing process and features Intel’s Foveros packaging technology. Intel also used this launch to unveil its new Xe GPU, which it says is capable of handling high-priority AI tasks in addition to gaming and other graphics-heavy applications.
Intel claims this new chip will deliver up to a 11% improvement in day-to-day computing compared to last year’s 13th-gen Core i7-1370P when running the SPECrate benchmark. That’s a very compelling result, although we’ll reserve judgment until we see real-world results from the actual laptops that will use these chips in practice.
What’s more important than raw performance numbers is the overall power draw that these new processors will consume. After all, Intel’s previous chips guzzled power under load and were often throttling back to save energy when they weren’t needed. With better manufacturing nodes hopefully these new CPUs will be able to balance peak and idle performance more effectively without compromising on battery life.
Unlike some of the other mobile Intel processors, this one doesn’t include a discrete GPU, instead opting for a integrated Arc GPU that runs at up to 2 GHz. This should still be plenty fast for most end-users, but we’ll have to test the chip in a laptop to be sure.
The Core i7-165H also packs 24 MB of L3 cache and supports RAM that can run at up to 7467 MHz (DDR5-5600, LPDDR5-7467, or LPDDR5x-7467, to be specific). It has a healthy number of PCIe 5 and PCIe 4 lanes for NVMe SSD speeds up to 15.7 GB/s and features vPro Enterprise and business-centric functionality including Intel Remote Platform Erase. Its Base and Turbo power consumption are both supposed to stay below 115 W, though a powerful cooling solution will be a must.