Intel Core Ultra X9 388H “Panther Lake” CPU Review
Introduction and Technical Specification
Introduction
It’s fair to say that the Intel Ultra 200 series processors weren’t a massive success. They had a lot going for them, but didn’t capture the imagination in the way other options have. If you thought that it would be easy to look at that launch and dismiss Intel, then they quickly supressed any such idea with the excellent Arc B580 GPU. Having more than proved that the potential was there for a graphics powerhouse that barely used any power, it’s no surprise that the new Ultra Series 3 processors can come with an Arc GPU.
Obviously that’s not going to be true for all of them, but at the higher end you’re getting a processor that threatens to perform so well that it will be the only choice for portable platforms. We’ve got the flagship model for review today, the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H. With 16 cores and threads, 5 GHz clock speed, the beefy Intel Arc B390 GPU and a host of new features, it ticks a lot of boxes. After the disappointment of the previous Core Ultra range Intel had to turn things around and they have done so with alacrity.
We’ve already had a brief hands on when we were at CES. We were absolutely blown away by how capable it is. Understandably we couldn’t wait to spend a more significant amount of time with it. Courtesy of an ASUS Laptop we’ve had a good amount of time digging into the new Panther Lake CPU. We bring you the fruits of our labours today. Spoiler alert, it’s deeply impressive.
Technical Specifications
Clock speed boosting is key to giving great performance when you need it. Similarly when you’re just faffing about then you want the processor to run slow and save precious battery. The Intel X9 388H certainly chances speed on a dime. 1.2 GHz here at idle. When running flat out we saw 5.152 GHz on the P-Cores, 3.839 GHz on the E-Cores and 3.738 GHz on the LP-Cores. This is no layabout.
The table shows that even as you move down the range you’re still getting a lot of performance. We’re pleased to see the Arc Pro B390 appearing on more than just this flagship Ultra X9 388H. Naturally we can’t tell how the vanilla “Intel Graphics” performs. It’s also good to see that the Arc Pro equipped CPUs end in an 8. It makes it easy to ensure you’re getting the right Ultra Series 3 processor.
