Intel’s 13th Gen mobile processors include the first 24-core laptop CPU

Intel’s 13th Gen desktop CPUs have already delivered impressive performance to beat their AMD counterparts, and now Intel is bringing Raptor Lake to its mobile processor lineup. The flagship Core i9-13980HX is built for upcoming gaming laptops, and there are also the regular H-, P-, and U-series chips for a variety of more mainstream laptops.

Intel’s Core i9-13980HX is the star of the show with a 5.6GHz turbo frequency and 24 cores. It’s the first time a laptop CPU has supported a 24-core configuration, and Intel claims it’s the “world’s fastest mobile processor.”

Intel has repurposed the same die it uses for its desktop 13th Gen processors for its HX CPU series, with eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores on the flagship Core i9-13980HX. That’s the same number of performance cores on the previous Core i9-12950HX but double the number of efficiency cores. It’s all packaged into a 55-watt chip that’s designed to be paired with the latest discrete mobile GPUs for high-performance workloads and gaming.

Intel claims the end result is up to 11 percent faster single-thread performance and up to 49 percent faster multitasking performance over the same 12th Gen chips. Gaming performance is said to be up to 12 percent faster, but we’ll need to test the chips fully to see how the performance improvements impact battery life.

There’s also support for both DDR4 (up to 3,200MHz) and DDR5 (up to 5,600MHz), with up to 128GB of RAM supported. Intel’s latest 13th Gen mobile HX chips also include support for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and Thunderbolt 4. Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Asus, and Razer have all committed to bringing 13th Gen HX laptops to market, and there will be more than 60 in total.

Intel also has regular 13th Gen H-series processors for 2023, with a base power of 45 watts. There’s up to a 400MHz higher boost clock over the 12th Gen versions and up to 14 cores in total.

Over on the less extreme performance side of laptops, Intel is launching 13th Gen versions of its 28W P-series for thin and light laptops and the 15W U-series for ultralight laptops, foldables, and beyond. The P-series tops out at up to 14 cores (six performance / eight efficiency) with a max turbo of 5.2GHz and support for both DDR4 and DDR5. The top U-series chip (i7-1365U) has 10 cores in total (two performance / eight efficiency) and a max turbo frequency of 5.2GHz.

These P- and U-series chips are what we’ll see in a variety of laptops announced in the coming days at the Consumer Electronics Show. Intel isn’t promising any major performance advances for its P- and U-series, but together with the regular H-series chips, we’ll see them in more than 300 designs coming in 2023 from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Razer, Asus, Samsung, and others.

Finally, Intel is also announcing new additions to its 13th Gen desktop processor lineup. The new 35- and 65-watt chips are designed for more mainstream desktop PCs with a balance of power efficiency and performance for gaming and productivity. Intel is promising up to 11 percent single-thread performance gains and up to 34 percent multitasking improvements over the previous 12th Gen chips.