Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” debuts at CES 2026
The Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” generation marks the start of Intel’s 18A era and doubles as a statement of the company’s renewed manufacturing independence.
- The 18A era: Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) is the first processor platform built on the Intel 18A node in the US, leveraging RibbonFET gate-all-around transistors and backside power delivery with PowerVia.
- Xe3 graphics and XeSS 3: The new chips feature Intel’s most powerful integrated GPU to date based on the Xe3 architecture, with XeSS Multi-Frame Generation frame interpolation, going after entry-level discrete GPUs.
- Pushing into robotics and edge: Beyond PCs, Core Ultra Series 3 is deeply tuned for industrial workloads and autonomous robots, going head-to-head with NVIDIA Jetson in low-latency computer vision tasks.
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Technological independence with Intel 18A
Intel Core Ultra Series 3 is the first commercial platform built on the Intel 18A process. Unlike the Core Ultra Series 2 “Lunar Lake”, which leaned on external foundries, Core Ultra Series 3 (codename Panther Lake) is manufactured entirely in Intel’s US fabs in Arizona, using RibbonFET (gate-all-around) transistors and backside power delivery via PowerVia. With revamped power delivery, a tighter process and advanced packaging, Core Ultra Series 3 delivers major gains in transistor density and power efficiency. Just as important, Panther Lake is Intel’s proof point that its multi-year restructuring has put it back in control of its own semiconductor supply chain.
Hybrid architecture and X-series horsepower
Intel Core Ultra Series 3 continues to build on a hybrid architecture, mixing next-gen performance cores (P-cores) with efficiency cores (E-cores and LP E-cores). The top-end SKUs scale up to 16 cores in total. The standout change is the new X-series branding, with Core Ultra X9 and X7 models aimed at users who need serious performance on the go. Intel says the Core Ultra X9 388H delivers up to 60% higher multithreaded performance than its Lunar Lake predecessor at the same power level, while still managing up to 27 hours of battery life in video streaming workloads.
Xe3 graphics and NPU 5
One of the biggest upgrades in Core Ultra Series 3 is on the graphics and AI side. The chips integrate a brand-new Xe3-based iGPU with up to 12 Xe cores, support for XeSS 3 (Xe Super Sampling) and a new Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) feature. The result: thin-and-light devices can tackle demanding graphics workloads or gaming with up to 77% higher performance compared to the previous generation, no discrete GPU required. Alongside that, the 5th-gen NPU delivers 50 TOPS of AI compute; combined with the GPU and CPU, the platform is pitched as an “AI PC” capable of running large language models (LLMs) and complex AI agents locally.
Software ecosystem
Intel is rolling out Core Ultra Series 3 with backing from major OEMs including Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and LG, with more than 200 designs expected to hit the market. The new generation is also tightly integrated with the software ecosystem, supporting Microsoft’s Copilot+ features and AI search tools such as Perplexity. According to Microsoft, pairing Core Ultra Series 3 hardware with Windows 11 will broaden access to on-device AI experiences, boosting privacy and reducing latency versus a cloud-only approach.
Expanding into Edge and Robotics
Intel isn’t keeping Series 3 confined to PCs. The company is positioning it as a capable alternative for embedded systems and industrial robots, directly targeting platforms like NVIDIA’s Jetson AGX Orin. Robotics partners including Pinkbot and Trossen report significant speedups in computer vision and vision-language models (VLMs) on the new platform, while drawing noticeably less power. Core Ultra Series 3 is designed for sustained operation in harsh industrial environments (wide temperature ranges, 24/7 duty cycles), fitting use cases like smart cities and digital healthcare.
Commercial rollout
The first consumer laptops powered by Core Ultra Series 3 will go up for preorder on January 6, 2026, with global retail availability by the end of the month. Edge systems based on the new chips are slated for Q2 2026. By fusing CPU, GPU and NPU onto a single die built on one of the most advanced manufacturing processes in the US, Intel Core Ultra Series 3 is clearly meant to tilt the balance of power in semiconductors - challenging rivals both in traditional PCs and in the fast-growing AI edge market.
Intel Core Ultra Series 3 is the commercial name; Panther Lake is the codename for the new mobile processor family. The lineup includes: Core Ultra X9 388H, Core Ultra 9 386H, Core Ultra X7 368H, Core Ultra 7 366H, Core Ultra 7 365, Core Ultra X7 358H, Core Ultra 7 356H, Core Ultra 7 355, Core Ultra 5 338H, Core Ultra 5 336H, Core Ultra 5 335, Core Ultra 5 325, Core Ultra 5 332 and Core Ultra 5 322.
The headline feature of Core Ultra Series 3 is the Intel 18A process. For the first time in years, Intel is bringing its flagship client CPUs back to an in-house node instead of relying on TSMC, as it did with Lunar Lake (Core Ultra Series 2). For professional users who demand both high mobility and high performance, the “X” suffix parts (such as Ultra X9 and X7) are the ones to watch: they pack the full 12-core Xe3 GPU, making them well-suited for graphics-heavy work and mobile AI development in thin-and-light machines.
