Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme gaming handheld benchmarked, faster than Ryzen Z2 Extreme

With several credible leaks and rumors pointing to a big Computex 2026 reveal for Intel's new PC gaming handheld processor, called the Arc G3 Extreme, we're now starting to see actual evidence of the device out in the wild. The first one arrives via PassMark, which offers CPU performance of the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor.

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The listing confirms the leaked CPU specs, including a Panther-Lake 14-core design with 2 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 4 LP (low-power) cores. As the listing doesn't include information on the 12-core integrated Xe3 GPU and focuses purely on CPU performance, we now know that the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor is notably more powerful than the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme found in the ROG Xbox Ally X and other Windows-based PC gaming handhelds.

The single-thread score of 4288 for the Arc G3 Extreme is roughly 8% higher than the Ryzen Z2 Extreme's score of 3964. In addition, the full multi-threaded score of 29622 for the Arc G3 Extreme is about 25% higher than the Ryzen Z2 Extreme's 23649. Having more cores and threads helps, and these results indicate better overall gaming performance, as CPU performance plays a role when playing at lower resolutions like 1080p.

In addition to this first synthetic benchmark result for the Intel Arc G3 Extreme processor, a retail listing for the new MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ gaming handheld has appeared online at Italian retailer Ollo, which lists the Intel Arc G3 Extreme in its specs alongside 32GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 7 support, a large 8-inch 1080p or FHD display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, and 1TB of internal storage. The retail listing also includes a price point of 1599.00 €, which is €300 more than current-gen MSI Claw models.