Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX spotted: new CPU cores, Xe2 GPU, and on-package LPDDR5X memory

Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX mobile processor for future-gen thin and light laptops has been leaked by our good friend Igor at Igor's Lab. Check it out:

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Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX CPU (source: Igor's Lab)

The next-gen Intel Lunar Lake-MX processor will have up to 8 cores, with 4 powerful "Lion Cove" P-Cores and 4 efficient "Skymont" E-Cores. There's no need for massive amounts of cores in thin and light laptops, as Intel is focusing on balancing performance and efficiency, something Lunar Lake-MX is expected to deliver.

On the integrated GPU side of things, Lunar Lake will feature an Intel Arc Battlemage GPU with a maximum of 64 Xe2-based Execution Units (EUs) and 8 x Xe2 GPU cores. Igor's report says that this will provide a "significant leap in graphics performance that could set new benchmarks for integrated graphics solutions".

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Intel will be making its next-gen Lunar Lake chips with TSMC's new N3B process node for its CPU Tile, GPU Tile, and high-speed I/O Tiles all made on TSMC N3B, the first time in Intel history that sees outsourcing its entire mainstream consumer chips to TSMC.

Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake architecture packs various improvements to instructions per cycle (IPC) for the CPU core, along with new memory technology support with LPDDR5, we will see higher speeds and more energy efficiency. Intel is also putting the LPDDR5X on-die, which will be interesting to see how that pans out later this year.

Intel is also reportedly working with Microsoft on Lunar Lake-PX processors, making sure there's better optimized hardware and software integration, especially with the big changes with AI coming to Windows this year.

• Read more: Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake CPU spotted in new Galaxy Book5 Pro laptop
• Read more: TSMC gets 3nm orders from Apple, Intel and AMD: Lunar Lake, Zen 5 CPUs
• Read more: Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake CPUs in very limited supply late 2024, more 2025
• Read more: Intel Lunar Lake CPU teased: 8-core, 8-thread at 2.8GHz boost benchmarked
• Read more: Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake Xe2 GPU rumored with adaptive sharpening filter
• Read more: Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX mobile CPUs: on-package LPDDR5X memory
• Read more: Intel's low-power Arrow Lake-U CPUs: cheap alternative to next-gen Lunar Lake
• Read more: Intel's next-gen Arrow Lake is first gaming CPU with AI, Lunar Lake: 3x faster NPU

Igor reports that the integrated Xe2 GPU inside of Lunar Lake is showing "promising results" where it's "significantly faster than its predecessors and almost doubles the performance in some internal tests. Unfortunately, neither concrete benchmarks nor verified third-party results can be found in the documents".

Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake CPU features:

• Designed For Thin & Light Notebooks
• Lion Cove P-Cores & Skymont E-Cores
• Battlemage "Xe2-LPG" GPU Architecture
• 4+4 Core Configurations (MX-Series)
• Up To 64 Execution Units
• On-Package LPDDR5x Memory
• Up To 3x Faster NPU Performance Versus Meteor Lake
• Late 2024 Launch, 2025 Volume