Intel Panther Lake Is Here! Hands On With Their Most Powerful iGPU! [19:01]

YouTube ^ | January 26, 2026 | ETA PRIME

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] Intel Panther Lake is finally here -- Intel Core Ultra 300 gets a massive iGPU upgrade. I tested the Core Ultra X9 388H + Arc B390 iGPU in real benchmarks and real games (including Cyberpunk). In this hands-on performance test, I'm putting Intel's new Panther Lake (Core Ultra 300) through weeks of benchmarks, creator tests, AI workloads, and gaming -- using a Lenovo reference laptop to focus purely on the chip. The big headline is the Intel Arc B390 iGPU with XeSS features (including multi-frame generation) delivering surprisingly high frame rates -- even in demanding titles. [/snip] 

Intel Panther Lake Is Here! Hands On With Their Most Powerful iGPU! | 19:01 
ETA PRIME | 1.35M subscribers | 8,814 | views | January 26, 2026

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: etaprime; intel; microsoft; pantherlake; windows11; youtube

[SunkenCiv]

YouTube's transcript can be reformatted at textformatter.ai, DO NOT ping me to any transcript you manage to find or generate.

[SunkenCiv]

This guy has been doing loads of product reviews for years, with a pronounced focus on gaming.

• Windows 11 Update [YT search results]

[SunkenCiv]

0:00 – Intro Core Ultra 3 Panther Lake
0:35 – What’s in this video (Panther Lake/Core Ultra 300 testing) + sponsor note
1:30 – Core Ultra X9 388H specs (cores, clocks, memory)
3:10 – Arc B390 iGPU deep dive (Xe cores, RT, XMX, VRAM share)
5:05 – XeSS + multi-frame generation (2x/3x/4x override explained)
6:15 – System overview + Lenovo power profiles / TDP behavior
7:10 – AI performance: Intel AI Playground (image generation demo)
9:05 – AI Playground chat demo (LLM on iGPU + utilization)
10:10 – CPU benchmarks: Geekbench 6, Cinebench 24, 7-Zip
12:00 – Creator/office benchmarks: Puget + Procyon results
13:10 – AI + GPU benchmarks: Geekbench AI (OpenVINO) + Time Spy
14:15 – Gaming: Forza Horizon 5 (settings + performance)
15:10 – Gaming: Red Dead Redemption 2 (harder load, fps results)
15:55 – Gaming: Spider-Man 2 (high + XeSS Quality)
16:40 – Cyberpunk baseline (1080p high, no frame gen)
17:25 – XeSS frame gen ON (override) + smoothness/perf jump
18:05 – 1600p Cyberpunk + multi-frame gen x4 (what it enables)
18:40 – Battery life results + final thoughts + handheld Panther Lake mention

[SunkenCiv]

Windows Install to Virtual Machine | 23:15
ExplainingComputers | 1.16M subscribers | 10,749 views | January 25, 2026

Chapters:
00:00 Titles & Intro
00:44 VirtualBox
02:35 Disk2vhd
06:44 VDI Conversion
13:05 Virtual Machine Creation
16:28 Guest Additions
18:35 Activation & Configuration
22:20 Wrap

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, the link was supposed to be in a separate post. [blush]

[iamgalt]

It is good to see Intel is staying on the field. Competition is good for all.

[Dr. Sivana]

I always liked Intel chipsets. I have not been a serious gamer for 40 years, so I lok for compatibility and configuarbilty first. Cooling and raw performance is not an issue. My seven year old tower i7 with 32 GB RAM and 4 tb NVME does the job still. I will get atleast thre more years out of it.

[Highest Authority]

I’ll have to ask my GrandSon what this means!

[SunkenCiv]

😊

[iamgalt]

Sounds like your set up should be all you need especially if you were able to put W11 on it. If not you could go Linux.

[GOPJ]

Intel’s clawing it’s way back... good for them. Sometimes it’ll be one step forward and two back, but they’ve got it... and they’ll overcome.

[SunkenCiv]

The stock has doubled in six months (with six prior months of doldrums) and is falling off its 52 week high. Over the next year it'll possibly look like a great buy, but I'm wondering if it will look like a genius buy if one waits a couple of months. It's all about the adoption rate by the computer makers.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Video Transcription Summary

The video from ETA Prime provides hands-on testing of Intel's Panther Lake (Core Ultra Series 3 / Core Ultra 300) mobile processors, specifically the flagship Intel Core Ultra X9 388H in a reference Lenovo laptop. Sponsored by Intel (but with no editorial control), it's an early look at the chip's performance, focusing heavily on the upgraded integrated GPU.

Key Specs of the Core Ultra X9 388H (Panther Lake)

• Built on Intel's advanced 18A process with RibbonFET and PowerVia technologies.

• CPU: 16 cores / 16 threads — 4 Performance-cores (up to 5.1 GHz), 8 Efficiency-cores (up to 3.8 GHz), 4 Low-Power Efficiency-cores (up to 3.7 GHz).

• Supports up to 96 GB LPDDR5X-9600 RAM (very fast shared memory).

• iGPU: New Intel Arc B390 (based on Xe3 architecture) — up to 2.5 GHz clock, 12 Xe3 cores, 12 ray tracing units, 96 XMX engines, 96 vector engines.
  • Supports dedicating large amounts of system RAM as VRAM (e.g., up to ~91 GB in high-RAM configs; tested with up to 18 GB shared).

  • New features: XeSS 3 (super resolution + multi-frame generation up to 4x), Xe low latency, and overrides for frame generation in games/apps.

• Includes Intel NPU for AI tasks.

Performance Highlights

• CPU Benchmarks (in high-performance/geek modes):
  • Geekbench 6: ~3018 single-core, ~17,796 multi-core.

  • Cinebench R24: Strong single-core (~130), multi-core 1345 (competitive but limited by 16c/16t design vs. higher-threaded chips).

  • 7-Zip and PugetBench: Often beats prior-gen Intel Core Ultra 200-series (e.g., 285H) and AMD Ryzen 9 365 in single-thread and some productivity/creative workloads.

  • Geekbench AI (OpenVINO on GPU): Strong showing for the B390 iGPU.

• GPU / Gaming (biggest upgrade area):
  • 3DMark Time Spy: ~7865 (record for Intel iGPU).

  • Real games (high settings, no/low scaling initially):
    • Forza Horizon 5: Native 1440p → solid performance (~55W peaks).

    • Red Dead Redemption 2: 1080p high-ultra mix → ~78 FPS average.

    • Spider-Man 2: 1080p high + XeSS Quality → ~74 FPS average.

    • Cyberpunk 2077: 1080p high + XeSS Quality (no frame gen) → high 70s FPS.

  • With XeSS multi-frame generation (override up to 4x): Cyberpunk at 1600p (2560x1600) high settings → well over 100 FPS average (feels super smooth; ~68W peaks in bursts).

  • Impressive for an iGPU — playable modern titles at high resolutions/settings, especially with frame gen tech.

• AI Capabilities:
  • Using Intel AI Playground (one-click ComfyUI wrapper): Fast local image/video generation (e.g., 512x512 images quick; on par with discrete Arc B580 in some cases) and chat (Llama models via GPU/NPU).

  • GPU heavily utilized for AI workloads.

• Efficiency & Battery (99Wh battery in tested laptop):
  • Quiet mode (office/mixed use): Up to ~18 hours.

  • Balanced: ~13 hours.

  • Performance mode (higher TDP ~54-55W): Still ~8 hours continuous use.

  • Excellent balance — long battery for productivity, strong bursts for gaming/AI.

Overall ImpressionsETA Prime is highly positive, calling Panther Lake a major upgrade over Core Ultra 200-series (especially iGPU), with great power efficiency, cutting-edge architecture, and standout gaming on integrated graphics. He notes it's not a full laptop review (reference design), plans more videos (X7 variant, lower TDP tests, more games, handheld-focused Panther Lake line coming), and emphasizes the potential for handhelds.

This positions Panther Lake as Intel's strongest mobile iGPU yet, making thin laptops/handhelds capable of high-FPS modern gaming and local AI without a discrete GPU.