Intel's New Core Series 3 Is Its Answer To the MacBook Neo (pcworld.com)
- Reference: 0181735276
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/04/17/0336256/intels-new-core-series-3-is-its-answer-to-the-macbook-neo
- Source link: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3116496/intels-new-core-series-3-is-its-answer-to-the-macbook-neo.html
> Intel unexpectedly launched the Core Series 3, based on its excellent "Panther Lake" (Core Ultra Series 3) architecture and 18A manufacturing, for devices for home consumers and small business on Thursday. Intel announced that a number of partners will launch laptops based upon the chip, including Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, and others. Although those laptops will be available beginning today, a number of them will begin shipping later this year, the partners said.
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> All of it -- from the specifications down to the messaging -- feels extremely aimed at trimming the fat and delivering to users just what they'll want. Intel's new Core Series 3 family just includes two "Cougar Cove" performance cores and four low-power efficiency "Darkmont" cores, with two Xe graphics cores on top of it. Intel isn't really worrying about AI, with an NPU capable of just 17 TOPS, though the company claims the CPU, NPU, and GPU combined reach 40 TOPS of performance. Yes, laptops will use pricey DDR5 memory, but at the lower end: just DDR5-6400 speeds. Support for three external displays will be included, though, maximizing multiple screens for maximum productivity. Intel used the term "all day battery life" without elaboration.
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> [...] Intel Core Series 3 delivers up to 47 percent better single-thread performance, up to 41 percent better multi thread performance, and up to 2.8x better GPU AI performance, Intel said. Compared against Intel's older Core 7 150U, Intel is saying that the new chip will outperform it by 2.1 times in content-creation and 2.7 times the AI performance. [...] We still don't know what Intel will charge for the chip, nor do we know what you'll be able to buy a Core Series 3 laptop for.
[1] https://newsroom.intel.com/client-computing/intel-launches-intel-core-series-3-processors-changing-the-game-for-everyday-computing
[2] https://www.pcworld.com/article/3116496/intels-new-core-series-3-is-its-answer-to-the-macbook-neo.html
[3] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/03/04/1624211/apple-announces-low-cost-macbook-neo-with-a18-pro-chip
Neat! But it's gonna have a tough time (Score:2)
I feel like at the suddenly competitive entry level point that Macbook Neo reminded people of actually existing, the issue isn't the CPU or any other part of the hardware, it's that the poor Intel and AMD entry level CPUs have to somehow propel their little clowncar so very overloaded with bloatware/malware that comes from Microsoft and venerable "partners" named in the article.
In 2026, you can get a wonderful experience on very affordable x86, complete with suspend that works, sane battery life and snappy
It's not the processor, it's the whole package (Score:2)
Good job Intel, but I don't think most people bought a Neo over a comparable Windows laptop just because of the processor. It's more the whole package (i.e.great build quality). Now if Intel stuffs their new Neo killer processor in a machine that looks and feels like a Neo in terms of overall hardware, then they might have a shot. But that's not up to them, but up to the hardware manufacturers themselves, and they'll find any excuse they can to make it as cheap as possible and thereby compromising on that s
The underlying issue (Score:4, Interesting)
And the reason I bought a Neo was that is isn't Windows, So unless this Intel chip is in laptops that run some other OS it isn't solving the problem. I'm just so tired of waiting for Windows to get better.
Re: (Score:2)
> I'm just so tired of waiting for Windows to get better.
Sigh. And as we all know, it's just accelerating at getting worse. I wish I could be just Linux.