Same CPU, slower GPU and NPU: Meet the rest of Intel’s Core Ultra 200 laptop chips
Intel’s Core Ultra 200 series is currently bifurcated between two architectures: Lunar Lake, which powers the Core Ultra 200V series of laptop chips; and Arrow Lake, which is included in the Core Ultra 200S desktop processors. Both share the same CPU architectures across their P-cores and E-cores, but the similarities end there. Arrow Lake processors can include many more CPU cores, but only Lunar Lake uses Intel’s latest GPU architecture and a neural processing unit (NPU) fast enough for Microsoft’s Copilot+ functionality.
Intel is rounding out the rest of the Core Ultra 200 family today at CES, and the most important thing to know is that it’s Arrow Lake, and not Lunar Lake, that is powering all of these new processors. This means that none of them are fast enough to earn the Copilot+ label or use upcoming features like Windows Recall, and none of them will have integrated graphics that are as good as the Core Ultra 200V. But it will make them a better fit for gaming laptops and other kinds of systems that prioritize CPU performance or include an external graphics card, as well as less-expensive ultraportable laptops.
Intel may be going with Arrow Lake because Lunar Lake processors are more expensive to make; Intel’s (now former) CEO, Pat Gelsinger, declared the Lunar Lake design a “one-off” because of the extra cost associated with integrating the RAM into the CPU package. Intel said at the time that this saved motherboard space and reduced energy use, but these benefits aren’t being extended to the rest of the lineup.
Regardless of the reasoning, here’s what’s going on with the rest of Intel’s laptop chips this year.
Mixing and matching chiplets
All of Intel’s Core Ultra CPUs have used chiplet-based designs, which means that every processor die is actually a collection of smaller silicon tiles fused together with a “base tile” that facilitates communication between the chiplets. That’s relevant because it allows Intel to do some mixing and matching of different parts.
For example, the “Arrow Lake” of the Core Ultra U and H processors is slightly different from the Arrow Lake used in the HX processors and desktop chips. They appear to include an “SoC tile” similar or identical to the one used in last-generation Meteor Lake-based Core Ultra 100 chips, giving them each a pair of extra low-power E-cores (or LP-E-cores) to handle low-lift or background tasks while consuming less energy than the standard E-cores. This was an approach Intel abandoned for Lunar Lake and also didn’t see fit to include in the desktop-class Arrow Lake CPUs.
