Intel's new Core Ultra 7 268V 'Lunar Lake' CPU tested against AMD Strix Point, Apple M3 chips

Intel's new Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU has been tested ahead of laptops hitting the market later this month, with the 8-core, 8-thread CPU tested against AMD's new Strix Point APU and Apple's new M3 processor.

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Inside, the new Intel Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" CPUs feature new Lion Cove P-Cores and Skymont E-Cores, with either 16GB or 32GB of on-package memory that sits next to the chip itself. In some early testing, we've got some numbers from a Vietnamese YouTuber that has tested a new Dell XPS 13 laptop with the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory, and Windows 11 Home.

Cinebench R23 single-threaded performance shows that the new Intel Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" processor beating out the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU, and the Apple M3. Interestingly, the Core Ultra 7 268V processor using 15W of power, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU using 21W of power, while Apple blows them both away with the M3 using just 6W of power.

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This is about where the efficiency stops for the Core Ultra 7 268V, with its 15W mighty impressive against the Strix Point APU using 21W, but loses in multi-threaded as its just an 8-core, 8-thread CPU while the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is a 12-core, 24-thread CPU that has oodles more threads than the 268V chip.

• Read more: Intel Lunar Lake CPUs: almost 24-hour battery life, beats Apple M3, M2 chips
• Read more: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU: Windows 11 23H2 vs. 24H2
• Read more: Intel Core Ultra 200V series 'Lunar Lake' to battle both AMD + Qualcomm
• Read more: Intel: Xe2 'Battlemage' GPU inside of Lunar Lake CPUs is the 'world's best built-in GPU'

Intel has promised a 50% upgraded in gaming performance with its new Xe2 "Battlemage" GPU inside of the new Lunar Lake processors, where in a 3DMark TimeSpy run we see a graphics score of 3715 points, beating out the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU with 3526 points, an 8-core Arc GPU inside of an Intel Core Ultra 9 series "Meteor Lake" CPU with 3238 points, and AMD's handheld-focused Ryzen Z1 Extreme with 3017 points. Xe2 is shaping up beautifully here.

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Great efficiency is one thing, but not when it kills your product: case in point is the new Dell XPS 13 with the Intel Core Ultra 7 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU which only works on 17W mode, compared to the ASUS Vivobook S14 laptop with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU that bumps up to 55W.

In gaming, the reviewer tested Far Cry 6 which was running at 50FPS+ on the Strix Point APU, while the 268V "Lunar Lake" CPU was only pushing mid-30FPS. Black Myth: Wukong is another story, with the Strix Point APU pushing out 100FPS+ while the Xe2-based Lunar Lake CPU was only hitting 50FPS or so.

Lower power but still manageable performance (30FPS+) is great for handhelds, where Intel's new Core Ultra 200 series "Lunar Lake" CPUs will appear in new gaming handhelds like MSI's upcoming Claw 8, which is powered by a Lunar Lake processor.