Intel officiallyannouncedits Meteor Lake CPUs on Jul 17, 2025. It’s the 14th generation ofIntel CPUs, and it’s a pretty big deal for the company. There is a lot of hubbub around the release, but there are no bigger surprises than the fact that Intel won’t offer a socketed version of its new processors. That means they won’t be available for individual resale and will only exist within laptops and the occasionalall-in-one PC.
What is Meteor Lake and how will Intel leverage AI in future?
Like everyone else Intel is getting serious about AI.
The other big change is the branding. Previously, Intel CPUs used Core i-Number branding, like Core i7 or Core i9. This new generation changes that to Core Ultra. Thus, the Core Ultra 5 is the new branding for the Core i5. We’ll be using the new branding in this article moving forward.
Like with any CPU release, there are a lot of things to break down, including architecture and performance. Intel has also included a lot of new things with Meteor Lake, includingenhanced AI capabilitiesand even a new chiplet design. We’ll talk about that and more below.
Architecture
Meteor Lake is the first CPUs built on the Intel 4 process, which is the company’s7nm fabrication process. Intel has also gone with a tile-based chiplet architecture where each tile is stacked on top of one another in a 3D stacked chiplet design. That sounds very fancy, and it is, but the premise is simple.
Instead of a single, monolithic-style CPU that houses all the parts together, Intel is separating the various components into tiles and then stacking them on top of each other. Apple and AMD employ chiplet designs in their M-series andRyzen CPUs, although they use different designs.
Intel’s design includes separate GPU, IO, and SoC dies alongside the compute tile, a low-power island (where the low-power cores, or LP-cores, live), and some other high-tech stuff. Intel uses various optimizations, including Intel Thread Director, to make sure that everything runs smoothly despite the extra complexity.
Intel is using its Redwood Cove cores for the performance cores (P-cores) and the Crestmont cores for the efficiency cores (E-cores). That means Intel is continuing its big.LITTLE approach that we’ve seen in the prior two generations of the company’s CPUs. In addition, Intel is using its Arc GPU architecture for the integrated GPU along with a dedicated AI processor, also known as a neural processing unit (NPU).
There are pros and cons to chiplet designs. Chiplets are significantly easier to manufacture and give chip designers more freedom to customize the CPU as a whole. It can also lead to faster production times, better yields, and as a result, lower costs. We’ll see if that translates to consumers, but we doubt it. For negatives, chiplets are more complicated to put together since interconnects need to be as fast and as efficient as possible. Plus, data that needs to travel through multiple chiplets can introduce latency, which can affect performance in applications like gaming.
Intel has announced 11 total Core Ultra processors in total with both core counts and clock speeds. We’ll list them out for your browsing pleasure. If you want more detailed specs, they are in the image above.
Intel Core H-series
Intel Core U-series
Coming later
In terms of purpose, the H-series is meant for performance applications. You’ll likely see these ingaming laptopsand more powerful productivity-oriented laptops and all-in-one PCs. Meanwhile, the U-series is spec’d out for battery performance, and you’ll likely see those on more consumer-oriented laptops.
Performance
We don’t have official performance numbers yet, but there have been several leaked benchmarks for the new Meteor Lake CPUs. If the leaks are accurate, it puts Meteor Lake somewhere between the Intel 12th and 13th generation mobile chips in terms of performance. Most of the leaked benchmarks come fromlaptops that Intel sent to reviewers, such as the upcoming Acer Swift Go 14.
Accordingto leaks, the Core Ultra 9 185H scored 1,873 on single core and 13,796 multicore tests on Geekbench’s laptop benchmark.
That gives it a nearly identical score to the Core i9-13900HK single core tests and scores near the Core i9-12950HX in multicore testing. Meanwhile, the Core Ultra 155U scored 1,750 on single core and 12,191 on multicore tests, which puts it in the neighborhood of the Core i7 13700H in single core performance and the Ryzen 7 7745HX in multicore.
In aseparate leak, the 155U-equipped Acer Go scored competitively against the15-inch Apple MacBook Air, the Framework 13, and theLenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8while thoroughly demolishing theMicrosoft Surface Laptop 5in multicore benchmarks.
Those are fairly respectable scores overall. Those scores are likely to go up post launch as Intel continues to improve and optimize its drivers. Official benchmarks are coming soon. We’re all just waiting for the embargo at this point.
The predictable addition of AI
AI is a big deal and Intel is positioning Meteor Lake to be a solid CPU for AI workloads. There are two spots in the CPU where AI is included. The first are the Xe cores from the Intel Arc GPU that support AI-based Super Sampling. Intel also includes a dedicated NPU that the company calls Intel AI Boost. The NPU is built to handle longer-running AI work loads at low power to compliment the AI capabilities of the CPU and GPU.
Google is reportedly developing a Pixel 9-exclusive AI assistant called ‘Pixie’
The software could bring contextual features by referencing data from other Google services.
Intel mentioned AI 43 times in itsofficial press releasefor Meteor Lake. In terms of hardware, Intel has pretty run-of-the-mill AI support. However, it is workingwith over 100 software vendorsto optimize various AI workloads for Core Ultra CPUs by efficiently splitting work between the CPU, GPU, and NPU. Thus, while Meteor Lake may not look like an AI rockstar on paper, it’s going to get the software support it needs to be competitive in that space.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways to test this, but there are a few.PCMag testedthe Acer Swift Go 14 with the UL Procyon AI Interface Benchmark where it scored 215. The only other Intel-powered laptop in the test, a Framework 13 powered by a Core i7-1370P, scored a 75. Thus, it’s fair to say that the AI capabilities are much better in Meteor Lake. We just don’t know by how much, because AI benchmarks are still rather shaky and unreliable.
Price and availability
As we said earlier, Intel isn’t offering a socketed version of Meteor Lake, so they won’t be available for individual purchase. Desktop builders will have to stick to the Raptor Lake refresh if they want a 14th generation Intel CPU in their desktops. Meaning you’ll only be able to get Meteor Lake CPUs in laptops and potentially some all-in-one PC. You’ll see these laptops start to release in the coming weeks and months. Here is a short list of a few of the laptops that are coming soon with Meteor Lake.
Of course, more are coming, but those are some of the ones that have already been announced.
