Intel Lunar Lake CPU cores will deliver more performance without hype-threading

Intel’s next generation of processors, Core Ultra 200 will mark the debut of new cores and an important change compared to Meteor Lake. Lunar Lake CPUs will not have LP-Coresthose aimed at very simple tasks that consume very little energy, in addition to the absence of hyper-threading technology.

Leaving Redwood Cove, the Lunar Lake series will have Lion Cove as performance hubs. Intel promises average gain of 14% in CPIthat is, the generational evolution in relation to the Core Ultra 100, and between 10 and 18% more performance with the same consumption compared to the previous generation.

In addition to this evolution in performance, the Lion Cove cores will have better power management via artificial intelligence, which will be controlling the use of the Lunar Lake CPU and adapting operating conditions in real time.

Another highlight of the Lunar Lake processors’ performance cores is the absence of hyper-threading technology, which Intel has used for more than two decades. This will happen because the company managed to optimize the Lion Cove cores in a way that delivers more performance per watt and requires a smaller die area.

Efficient cores of Lunar Lake CPUs

There was also an effort to further optimize the efficiency cores, as Intel retired (at least in Lunar Lake) the LP E cores, those aimed at tasks that require little processing, which are the most efficient because of this.

In relation to the evolution over the Crestmont cores present in Meteor Lake CPUs, the single-thread performance jump is 68%. Considering how far the LP E cores were able to reach in terms of performance per watt, the new Skymont cores deliver almost three times more performance.

All of this change will be managed by Intel Thread Director, a technology that already existed since the introduction of hybrid cores with Alder Lake CPUs, but which has undergone improvements to deal with the new cores of Lunar Lake processors.

The new Lion Cove and Skymont cores will also play a small role in the overall performance of Intel Lunar Lake processors with AI. They will be responsible for up to 5 TOPs, which together with the 67 TOPs for the iGPU Xe2 and 48 TOPs for the fourth generation of NPU, will add up to 120 TOPs of peak performance, more than rivals AMD Ryzen AI 300.

Intel Lunar Lake processors will hit the global market in the third quarter. The company even mentioned the generation for desktop PCs, but has not yet gone into details.

Source: Intel