Intel heralds the 13th Core i generation for notebooks. From the cryptically named “Intel Processor N100” to the Core i9-13980HX, there are 36 new processors that should cover the entire range of the notebook segment. Unlike the desktop CPUs, all newcomers except the N series for cheap notebooks use the latest Raptor Lake dies, whose performance cores are slightly faster than the 12000 series.
The HX spearhead with a basic power consumption of 55 watts is again identical in construction to the desktop processors such as the Core i9-13900K, only in the soldered BGA package and therefore not interchangeable. They are mainly found in thicker gaming and workstation notebooks from the high-end segment. There are three different 24-cores, each with 8 performance and 16 efficiency cores, which only differ in the clock frequencies: the Core i9-13980HX, Core i9-13950HX and Core i9-13900HX.
Bridging to Meteor Lake
As usual, Intel positions three CPU series with the suffixes H (45 watts), P (28 watts) and U (15 watts) under the HX series. Since the number of performance and efficiency cores in these models remains the same at 6 + 8, the jump in performance should be marginal. In addition to the slightly faster Raptor Cove cores, most new models support faster memory, such as LPDDR5-6400 instead of LPDDR5-5200. In the case of the H models, the activation of PCI Express 5.0 on eight lanes is also new, but this does not bring any real advantage due to the lack of PCIe 5.0-capable GPUs and SSDs.
The moderate improvements are hardly surprising, because the entire generation is just bridging the time until Meteor Lake is ready with faster CPU cores and more modern Intel 4 chip production. The presentation should take place until the end of the year, so that the Core i-13000 chips should only have a short life of a few months. Some notebook manufacturers are therefore also waiting with the new editions of their premium series – Dell, for example, has not yet announced any XPS devices for 2023.
Cheap CPUs without P-Cores
An exception is the N series for cheap notebooks with TDP levels of 6 to 15 watts. They only use efficient cores and thus replace the earlier Pentiums and Celerons. The classification as Core i3 of the two faster N eight cores Core i3-N305 and Core i3-N300 is not exactly customer-friendly. Without performance cores and with a maximum turbo of 3.8 GHz, they don’t have much in common with the i3 siblings.
Below that, Intel introduces the generic name Intel Processor. The N200 and N100 both use four E-Cores.
(mma)
