Intel to Introduce Core Ultra Brand Extension with "Meteor Lake," iGPU Packs 128 EU

[btarunr]

Intel is planning a major change in its client processor brand extensions with its next-generation mobile processors codenamed "Meteor Lake." The company is working to introduce the new Core Ultra brand extensions, where "Ultra" replaces the "i" in extensions such as i3, i5, i7, and i9 in some processor models. An example of such a brand extension would be the "Core Ultra 5 1003H." Ashes of the Singularity benchmark leaks of the processors surfaced on social media.

The benchmark also detects 128 EU (1,024 unified shaders) for the iGPU powering "Meteor Lake." If true, this iGPU could offer performance that's in the league of an Arc A380 discrete GPU, with some performance lost to the shared memory setup compared to the A380 with its dedicated graphics memory. The iGPU clock speed is detected to be 2.10 GHz, and having 4 MB of L2 cache, the last-level cache local to the Graphics Tile. The detection string for the iGPU as reported by its OpenCL ICD reads "Intel(R) Graphics i gfx-driver-ci-master-13736 DCH RI (1024S 128C SM3.0 2.1GHz, 4MB L2, 12.7GB)."



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[Hyderz]

Not sure if ultra is a good replacement name for its I’s,

 

[Minus Infinity]

LOL Ultra branding on i3 and i5 is marketing BS gone mad.

 

[Dr. Dro]

LOL Ultra branding on i3 and i5 is marketing BS gone mad.

Celeron and Pentium brands have been discontinued, replaced by "Intel Processor" and this is already in effect this generation

MTL branding refresh is as follows, according to what I've heard:

i3 = Intel Core Max
i5 = Intel Core Ultra
i7 = Intel Core Extreme
i9 = Intel Core Extreme+

 

[Minus Infinity]

Celeron and Pentium brands have been discontinued, replaced by "Intel Processor" and this is already in effect this generation

MTL branding refresh is as follows, according to what I've heard:

i3 = Intel Core Max
i5 = Intel Core Ultra
i7 = Intel Core Extreme
i9 = Intel Core Extreme+

As opposed to realistically:

i3 = Intel Core Normal
i5 = Intel Core Performance
i7 = Intel Core Ultra
i9 = Intel Core Extreme
i9 KS = Intel Core Extreme+

 

[Dr. Dro]

As opposed to realistically:

i3 = Intel Core Normal
i5 = Intel Core Performance
i7 = Intel Core Ultra
i9 = Intel Core Extreme
i9 KS = Intel Core Extreme+

Haha, yeah. That product stack is going to become really, really confusing. Intel recently launched these Raptor Lake "Celeron" CPUs for laptops and I think they're super weird, like this one:

Intel® Processor U300 (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Processor U300 (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

Basically a single-core CPU with 4 E-cores attached, for laptops. I wonder how it performs?

 

[Lew Zealand]

i3 = Intel Core Max
i5 = Intel Core Ultra
i7 = Intel Core Extreme
i9 = Intel Core Extreme+

Is this Intel's way of competing with Apple's SOC designations because the i3 and i5 rebrand words are identical to Apple's M# SOC. That's no coincidence. It's also lame if they think they even need to compete in the same space, and doubly lame if they're perceived to be following Apple.

But whatever, if Microsoft needs to follow Apple to making Windows 10 a 'lifetime' OS like Apple's OS 10, and then when Apple decides after 20 years to rebrand to 11 and 12 to follow suit with their own Win 11 and likely 12 soon enough, then sure Intel can follow the big moneymaker with their CPU naming scheme too.

I can only assume the former Celeron and Pentium lines will be re-relabeled "Pro" in a few weeks' time.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Is this Intel's way of competing with Apple's SOC designations because the i3 and i5 rebrand words are identical to Apple's M# SOC. That's no coincidence. It's also lame if they think they even need to compete in the same space, and doubly lame if they're perceived to be following Apple.

But whatever, if Microsoft needs to follow Apple to making Windows 10 a 'lifetime' OS like Apple's OS 10, and then when Apple decides after 20 years to rebrand to 11 and 12 to follow suit with their own Win 11 and likely 12 soon enough, then sure Intel can follow the big moneymaker with their CPU naming scheme too.

I can only assume the former Celeron and Pentium lines will be re-relabeled "Pro" in a few weeks' time.

No, the Celeron and Pentium lines were extinguished in favor of the "Intel Processor" brand I've mentioned, they've even released a PR about it:

Intel Introduces New Intel Processor for Upcoming Essential Segment...

Intel sharpens focus on flagship brands Intel Core, Intel Evo and Intel vPro.

www.intel.com

Oh, apologies, you mentioned re-relabeled... yeah, I agree. Celeron being the "standard" and Pentium the "Pro". It makes sense if they're following Apple, but their multiple models would sour that stack as they cannot guarantee the same performance in every tier like Apple does.

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

As opposed to realistically:

i3 = Intel Core Normal
i5 = Intel Core Performance
i7 = Intel Core Ultra
i9 = Intel Core Extreme
i9 KS = Intel Core Extreme+

Pentium = Intel Core e-waste
Celeron = Intel Core mega e-waste

 

[usiname]

Should we expect such models "u5 1455u"?

 

[Flanker]

Intel APU can be interesting. Hope I'm not being too optimistic lol

 

[Vayra86]

No.

Just no

 

[watzupken]

I see no point in changing the Core I to Core Ultra. People are used to the naming convention, and they really should avoid making unmeaningful change. If the chip is good, it is good. No need for some name change to make it sound "ultra".

 

[john_]

Haha, yeah. That product stack is going to become really, really confusing. Intel recently launched these Raptor Lake "Celeron" CPUs for laptops and I think they're super weird, like this one:

Intel® Processor U300 (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Processor U300 (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

Basically a single-core CPU with 4 E-cores attached, for laptops. I wonder how it performs?

It probably kills in single thread performance, compared to the competition, because that one core can clock higher and offers OK multithread performance for opening word and notepad at the same time.
The future of desktop/laptop CPUs is happening now in smartphones. One or two fast cores, a few mid range cores and a few low power cores.

 

[Nuke Dukem]

Faster iGPUs, you say?

Intel® Processor U300 (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Processor U300 (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

Basically a single-core CPU with 4 E-cores attached, for laptops. I wonder how it performs?

Interesting, an Atom with a dash of Celeron/Pentium. If I had to guess, the P-core and its hyper-thread will often boost to max turbo clocks, taking care of the most mission-critical stuff on screen, while the E-cores (which are quite capable) do their best to assist. Hell, it has decent clocks, dual-channel RAM support and 8MB of L3 -- 95% of people are probably not going to notice a difference versus a "normal" CPU.

Pentium = Intel Core e-waste
Celeron = Intel Core mega e-waste

I'll never understand this dismissive attitude. Let me remind you that another man's trash is another man's treasure. If it's cheap, good enough for everyday computing and casual/older games, then it has a place under the sun. Just like most people just need a car to drive to work and back home, not every CPU needs to be a 6 GHz power hog.

Intel APU can be interesting. Hope I'm not being too optimistic lol

Well, technically they can all be called APUs even now, save for the "F" SKUs. But yes, more iGPU "free" performance is often welcome.

 

[john_]

I see no point in changing the Core I to Core Ultra. People are used to the naming convention, and they really should avoid making unmeaningful change. If the chip is good, it is good. No need for some name change to make it sound "ultra".

With Apple being a successful and premium brand, even after their change to their own CPUs, it makes sense for Intel to just try to make it's CPUs look as premium as Apples. AMD done the same with Ryzen, copying Intel's naming. I wonder if AMD will also start introducing Ultra and Max models after Intel. It could happen.

As for OSes that where mentioned above. Consumers see numbers. Mac OS 12, vs Microsoft Windows 10? Well that 12 is bigger, so probably is also newer. Right? Right. Why? Because Mac OS 12 was introduced in 2021 and Windows 10 in 2015 (not easy to explain to someone the newer versions of Win10, because it is still called Win10). The same is happening for years in browsers, where browsers are in a competition of who will introduced the highest version number. Chrome is at version 112, Firefox at version 112, Edge at 112. Coincidence?

95% of people are probably not going to notice a difference versus a "normal" CPU.

I have a 12 years old 6 core Thuban (AM3+). Believe me it's ultra smooth and fast thanks also to the SATA SSD and 16GBs of fast DDR3. That's until you put it next to my AM4 Ryzen systems. Only then you can notice how much slower it can be in a number of situations. Smooth, but slower. The only reason people wouldn't notice how much slower this CPU is compared to others, is the probably fact that, they would NOT be comparing it to a (much) faster system, by putting them next to each other and starting/running the same apps.

 

[64K]

I guess those goofballs in marketing have to show they are doing something to earn their paychecks.

imo sticking with the present naming convention is better.

 

[Tek-Check]

Pentium = Intel Core e-waste
Celeron = Intel Core mega e-waste

This is nonsense. Celeron CPUs power millions of low power useful devices, for example my NAS Asustor. Great media support with QuickSync too.

 

[Nuke Dukem]

I have a 12 years old 6 core Thuban (AM3+). Believe me it's ultra smooth and fast thanks also to the SATA SSD and 16GBs of fast DDR3. That's until you put it next to my AM4 Ryzen systems. Only then you can notice how much slower it can be in a number of situations. Smooth, but slower.

I'll admit that I havent' fired up the old Phenom II rig in a while, but the last time I did, even with its 4 cores, 8GB 800 MHz DDR2 and a bunch of HDDs it was doing quite fine. It's running non-bloated Windows 7, so that helps.

The only reason people wouldn't notice how much slower this CPU is compared to others, is the probably fact that, they would NOT be comparing it to a (much) faster system, by putting them next to each other and starting/running the same apps.

Sure, if they use both machines side-by-side, some may notice a difference. But in practice, if one isn't noticeably worse than the other, good enough it is.
That's as far as I'm gonna take it without going further off-topic.

I guess those goofballs in marketing have to show they are doing something to earn their paychecks.

imo sticking with the present naming convention is better.

I absolutely agree! The "i" naming convention is so simple and elegant. It just works. I'm not even mad at AMD for "borrowing" it.

 

[Hyderz]

I absolutely agree! The "i" naming convention is so simple and elegant. It just works. I'm not even mad at AMD for "borrowing" it.

Getting JHH flashbacks

 

[aQi]

Ultra seems quite unjustified for such performance uplift. Ultra should be specific to ultra performance variants. I dont think Intel might completely rebrand the "i" series with replacing just the name. Ultra should be ultra

 

[Nuke Dukem]

This is nonsense. Celeron CPUs power millions of useful devices, for example my NAS. Great media support with QuickSync too.

Exactly, I'm currently planning to get a dirt-cheap power-sipping J1800 Asrock motherboard for HTPC/everyday system or NAS duty.

Getting JHH flashbacks

It's a common expression. Sorry if the connotation ruined your day. Pin a print of his face to the door and throw darts at it or something, I don't know...

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

This is nonsense. Celeron CPUs power millions of useful devices, for example my NAS. Great media support with QuickSync too.

I'll never understand this dismissive attitude. Let me remind you that another man's trash is another man's treasure. If it's cheap, good enough for everyday computing and casual/older games, then it has a place under the sun. Just like most people just need a car to drive to work and back home, not every CPU needs to be a 6 GHz power hog.

Someone clearly can't take a joke lol.

 

[john_]

I'll admit that I havent' fired up the old Phenom II rig in a while, but the last time I did, even with its 4 cores, 8GB 800 MHz DDR2 and a bunch of HDDs it was doing quite fine. It's running non-bloated Windows 7, so that helps.

Windows 7 is a much easier OS for storage, so HDDs will work just fine. I bet that 4 core Thuban will be doing just fine even with Windows 10 if used with an SSD. Then again MS managed to mess up with my AM3+ system twice in the past, probably because they don't do much testing on older systems before throwing out updates. So, Windows 10 is a risky option for such old systems. But Windows 7 is fine. My GPU in that installation is even older, an HD 5670!

Sure, if they use both machines side-by-side, some may notice a difference. But in practice, if one isn't noticeably worse than the other, good enough it is.
That's as far as I'm gonna take it without going further off-topic.

In practice we have excess of compute power for a number of years now. Intel realized that, so they know they don't need to throw out anything with more than 8 P cores for at least a few more years. And if we exclude gaming, even 4 P cores will be more than enough.
To be fair, that Celeron with 1 P core and 4 E cores will be much faster anyway compared to my Phenom. Even the E cores are much much faster than those Phenom II cores.

I absolutely agree! The "i" naming convention is so simple and elegant. It just works. I'm not even mad at AMD for "borrowing" it.

When AMD dropped the ATI name from discrete GPUs many where against it. But it didn't took more than one generation to get accustomed to it. Intel probably sees the success of Apple, sees Apple as a threat, so if rumors are correct, they just try to make their platform look premium in the eyes of the random consumer who doesn't have real technical knowledge, even the minimal needed to understand the difference between Apple SOCs and Intel CPUs. The average consumer only sees :
Apple - Ultra Max, meaning premium
Intel i something, meaning old, not premium
Because the i naming is so so soooooooooooooooooooooooo old idea, back from the iPod and iPhone era.
Also by going max and ultra Intel differentiates itself from AMD that gets stack to the old R3/5/7/9 naming.

While we laugh at it, I think Intel's marketing department might have a good argument here.

 

[Tek-Check]

Someone clearly can't take a joke lol.

The second quote is not mine.
It wasn't a good joke in this occasion, but you tried.
I also misfire with jokes. It doesn't always work.