Intel’s new Core 7 150U non-Ultra CPU adds Ultra confusion

Intel Core 7 150U: new CPU, new name, a refresh

AMD and Intel are battling for the most confusing mobile series names. 

Confusion often arises when companies unveil new naming schemes for their products. The idea of combining multiple architectures within a single product series was first floated by AMD last year for Ryzen 7000 series, resulting in a confusing product lineup. As time passes, people will start to get used to these new labels, but will Intel’s latest product SKU naming scheme be any clearer to consumers?

The company has announced that their forthcoming product line, titled Meteor Lake, will feature a new Core branding without the renowned ‘i’. Also, the numbering system will be changed from 14000 to 100. There is also the Ultra descriptor, which says that the processor is based on the newest architecture.

The new 100 series will not only include the Core Ultra lineup, as stated by Intel China. The non-Ultra parts will be using Raptor Lake dies, so it would technically be a refresh of the 13th Gen Core series. The slides talked about the Raptor Lake-U series, which will join the 1st Gen Core series and Meteor Lake, but they don’t have the word Ultra in their names.

What this means we now have three CPU lineup for Intel’s new laptops:

• Core 100 Ultra (eg. Core 9 185H) – Meteor Lake-H/U
• Core 100 non-Ultra (eg. Core 7 150U) – Raptor Lake-U Refresh
• 14th Gen Core-HX (eg. Core i9-14900HX) – Raptor Lake-HX Refresh

The part that was just confirmed is the Core 7 150U with 10 cores and 12 threads, which means 2 P-Cores and 8 E-Cores. Such configuration is used by three parts: i5-1345U, 1335U and 1334U. The “Bepco” benchmark does not confirm clocks, so it is unclear which part was rebranded.

Intel Core 7 150U, Source: Bepco

If the name is not sufficiently evident that it is indeed a Raptor Lake CPU, it is worth noting the DDR4 memory clock of 3200 MT/s. Moreover, in contrast to Meteor Lake CPUs that feature the new Arc (Xe-LPG) GPU series, Raptor Lake relies on Iris Xe graphics (Xe-LP).

Apart from the Intel China post, the company did not mention Raptor Lake-U Refresh yet. However, it is likely that these CPUs will join Ultra parts on their December 14th launch.

Source: Bapco via @momomo_us