Intel quietly launches the Core 7 245HX, and it's confusing

Intel has been updating the Intel ARK database with a few new CPU models lately. They recently launched the Core Ultra 7 251HX from the Arrow Lake-HX lineup without any official announcement. They also silently launched the "Panther Lake" Core Ultra X9 378H a couple of weeks ago, and now it looks like they have added yet another SKU to their database.

Apparently, Intel has quietly launched a new chip in its mobile CPU series, the Core 7 245HX. What's bizarre about this particular CPU is that it lacks any Core "Ultra" branding, making it the first non-Ultra SKU in that lineup. However, the weirdness with this new CPU does not end with its branding.

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If we look at the detailed specs of the Core 7 245HX, we don't see anything extraordinary at first glance. Sure, it's another decent budget mobile chip with 14 total cores in a 6P+8E configuration along with 14 threads. It has a P-core boost of up to 5.1 GHz and an E-Core boost of 4.5 GHz. Intel has provided 24MB of L3 cache on this chip, and its TDP is 55W with a maximum turbo power rating of 160W.

It all seems well and good specs-wise, but it becomes really confusing once you compare this CPU to existing mobile chips in the Core 200 Arrow Lake lineup. Bizarrely, the new Core 7 245HX is practically identical to the existing Core Ultra 5 235HX, down to the same core count, clock speeds, cache layout, power targets, and even the lack of ECC support. There's not even a difference in features such as embedded support, as was the case with the Ultra X9 378H we covered recently.

As if it wasn't confusing enough, Intel also already has a Core Ultra 7 245HX in its lineup, which is quite different from the non-Ultra Core 7 245HX. That particular CPU is a step above the Core Ultra 5 235HX we already discussed, with a higher P-core base clock, different GPU specs, and support for AMT, vPro, and ECC memory.

There is no official information about where the new Core 7 245HX will sit in the Arrow Lake mobile lineup, as there are no other non-Ultra-branded CPUs in this series. However, since the Core Ultra 5 235HX is the most basic SKU in the Ultra series, we figure the new Core 7 will just sit at the bottom of the stack for now. This launch does serve as a reminder of how utterly confusing Intel's CPU nomenclature has become.