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Intel Core Ultra 7 256V vs Intel Core Ultra 9 288V

Intel Core Ultra 7 256V

► remove from comparison Intel Core Ultra 7 256V

The Intel Core Ultra 5 256V is an upper mid-range Lunar Lake family processor. This is an SoC for use in tablets and laptops of the slimmer kind that was unveiled in Autumn 2024. It sports 4 new Skymont E-cores and 4 new Lion Cove P-cores running at up to 3.7 GHz and 4.8 GHz respectively, along with the new Arc 140V iGPU and 16 GB of on-package LPDDR5x-8533 RAM. A new 47 TOPS neural engine, Thunderbolt 4 and PCIe 5 SSD support are included as well.

The only difference between this chip and the Ultra 7 258V is the amount of on-package, non-replaceable RAM: 16 GB vs 32 GB respectively.

Architecture and Features

Lunar Lake is built using the Foveros technology (stacking several dies on top of each other and next to each other), just like Meteor Lake was. The new chips make use of the enormous BGA2833 socket interface. Of the 8 cores, not a single one is Hyper-Threading-enabled which is the opposite of what AMD currently does with its Zen 5/5c chips.

Intel claims Lion Cove cores bring a 14% IPC improvement over Redwood Cove. For Skymont and Crestmont, the difference is much higher at 68%. Several tweaks and improvements are present here, such as the Low Latency Fabric that is supposed to make small data transfers between cores/caches a lot faster. The 256V has a very healthy 12 MB of level 3 cache; elsewhere, it has 4 PCIe 5 and 4 PCIe 4 lanes for connecting various kinds of devices, including NVMe SSDs at up to 15.75 GB/s. Thunderbolt 4 support is onboard by default, as is support for CNVi WiFi 7 + BT 5.4 cards from Intel. The 47 TOPS "AI Boost" neural engine is present along with technologies such as Threat Detection to make AI-enabled applications such as the Windows Defender more powerful.

Intel is predicted to get short of on-package RAM in subsequent CPU generations.

Performance

Based on the time we've had with 2 systems powered by the 256V, the chip's multi-thread performance is as good as that of the Core Ultra 7 165U and the Core i7-1360P. Please note that both systems had a higher long-term TDP power target than the Intel-recommended value: 30 W and 32 W vs 17 W.

Generally speaking, the 288V, 268V, 266V, 258V, 256V are faster than the 238V, 236V, 228V and 226V due to the difference in their last-level cache size (8 MB vs 12 MB) as well as clock speeds. However, the difference in performance between the slowest Lunar Lake chip, the 226V, and the fastest chip, the 288V is fairly small at around 10% to 15%. It depends on the TDP figures of the laptops being pitted against each other more than on anything else.

Graphics

The Arc Graphics 140V is here to replace the Arc 8 iGPU. Its 8 Xe² architecture "cores" run at up to 1,950 MHz and it also has 8 ray tracing units at its disposal. The adapter is DirectX 12 Ultimate-enabled and able to HW-decode a long list of popular video codecs such as h.266 VVC, h.265 HEVC, h.264 AVC, AV1 and VP9. Three SUHD 4320p monitors can be used simultaneously with this iGPU.

All 2023 and 2024 games are playable at 1080p on low graphics settings or higher with this iGPU. We got well over 30 fps in Ghost of Tsushima and almost 40 fps in Baldur's Gate 3. This means the Radeon 780M gets left behind while the Radeon 890M reigns supreme.

Power consumption

This 2nd generation Core Ultra processor is supposed to consume 17 W when under long-term workloads. The Intel-recommended short-term power limit for the chip sits at 37 W.

Intel Core Ultra 9 288V

► remove from comparison Intel Core Ultra 9 288V

The Intel Core Ultra 7 288V is the fastest Lunar Lake family processor as of Nov 2024 thanks to its higher TDP power target and higher clock speeds. This is an SoC for use in tablets and laptops of the slimmer kind that was unveiled in Autumn 2024. It sports 4 new Skymont E-cores and 4 new Lion Cove P-cores running at up to 3.7 GHz and 5.1 GHz respectively, along with the promising new Arc 140V iGPU and 32 GB of on-package, non-replaceable LPDDR5x-8533 RAM. A new 48 TOPS neural engine, Thunderbolt 4 and PCIe 5 SSD support are included as well. A vPro-enabled version of the CPU became available in early 2025.

Architecture and Features

Lunar Lake is built using the Foveros technology (stacking several dies on top of each other and next to each other), just like Meteor Lake was. The new chips make use of the enormous BGA2833 socket interface. Of the 8 cores, not a single one is Hyper-Threading-enabled which is the opposite of what AMD currently does with its Zen 5/5c chips.

Intel claims Lion Cove cores bring a 14% IPC improvement over Redwood Cove. For Skymont and Crestmont, the difference is much higher at 68%. Several tweaks and improvements are present here, such as the Low Latency Fabric that is supposed to make small data transfers between cores/caches a lot faster. The 288V has a very healthy 12 MB of level 3 cache; elsewhere, it has 4 PCIe 5 and 4 PCIe 4 lanes for connecting various kinds of devices, including NVMe SSDs at up to 15.75 GB/s. Thunderbolt 4 support is onboard by default, as is support for CNVi WiFi 7 + BT 5.4 cards from Intel. The 48 TOPS "AI Boost" neural engine is present along with technologies such as Threat Detection to make AI-enabled applications such as the Windows Defender more powerful.

Intel is predicted to get short of on-package RAM in subsequent CPU generations.

Performance

The 288V should be just a couple of percentage points faster than the Core Ultra 7 165U and Core i7-1360P in multi-threaded tasks.

Generally speaking, the 256V, 258V, 266V, 268V, 288V are faster than the 226V, 228V, 236V and 228V due to the difference in their last-level cache size (8 MB vs 12 MB) as well as clock speeds. However, the difference in performance between the slowest Lunar Lake chip, the 226V, and the fastest chip, the 288V is fairly small at around 10% to 15%. It depends on the TDP figures of the laptops being pitted against each other more than on anything else.

Graphics

The Arc Graphics 140V is here to replace the Arc 8 iGPU. Its 8 Xe² architecture "cores" run at up to 2,050 MHz and it also has 8 ray tracing units at its disposal. The adapter is DirectX 12 Ultimate-enabled and able to HW-decode a long list of popular video codecs such as h.266 VVC, h.265 HEVC, h.264 AVC, AV1 and VP9. Three SUHD 4320p monitors can be used simultaneously with this iGPU.

All 2023 and 2024 games are playable at 1080p on low graphics settings or higher with this iGPU. We got well over 30 fps in Ghost of Tsushima and almost 40 fps in Baldur's Gate 3. This means the Radeon 780M gets left behind while the Radeon 890M reigns supreme.

Power consumption

Unlike the slower 268V, 266V, 258V, 256V, 238V, 236V, 228V and 226V, this 2nd generation Core Ultra processor is supposed to consume 30 W when under long-term workloads rather than 17 W. The Intel-recommended short-term power limit for all of them is identical: 37 W.

ModelIntel Core Ultra 7 256VIntel Core Ultra 9 288V
CodenameLunar LakeLunar Lake
SeriesIntel Lunar LakeIntel Lunar Lake
Series: Lunar Lake Lunar Lake
Intel Core Ultra 9 288V3.3 - 5.1 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 268V compare2.2 - 5 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 266V compare2.2 - 5 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 258V compare2.2 - 4.8 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 256V « 2.2 - 4.8 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 238V compare2.1 - 4.7 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 236V compare2.1 - 4.7 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 228V compare2.1 - 4.5 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 226V compare2.1 - 4.5 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 9 288V « 3.3 - 5.1 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 268V compare2.2 - 5 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 266V compare2.2 - 5 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 258V compare2.2 - 4.8 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 256V2.2 - 4.8 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 238V compare2.1 - 4.7 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 236V compare2.1 - 4.7 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 228V compare2.1 - 4.5 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 226V compare2.1 - 4.5 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Clock2200 - 4800 MHz3300 - 5100 MHz
L1 Cache1.4 MB1.4 MB
L2 Cache14 MB14 MB
L3 Cache12 MB12 MB
Cores / Threads8 / 8
4 x 4.8 GHz Intel Lion Cove P-core
4 x 3.7 GHz Intel Skymont E-core
8 / 8
4 x 5.1 GHz Intel Lion Cove P-core
4 x 3.7 GHz Intel Skymont E-core
TDP17 Watt30 Watt
TDP Turbo PL237 Watt37 Watt
Technology3 nm3 nm
max. Temp.100 °C100 °C
SocketBGA2833BGA2833
FeaturesLPDDR5x-8533 RAM, PCIe 5 + PCIe 4, USB 4, AI Boost NPU (47 TOPS), Thread Director, PSE, Threat Detection, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX-VNNi, FMA3, SHALPDDR5x-8533 RAM, PCIe 5 + PCIe 4, USB 4, AI Boost NPU (48 TOPS), Thread Director, PSE, Threat Detection, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX-VNNi, FMA3, SHA
iGPUIntel Arc Graphics 140V ( - 1950 MHz)Intel Arc Graphics 140V ( - 2050 MHz)
Architecturex86x86
Announced
Manufacturerark.intel.comark.intel.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - CB R15 + R20 + 7-Zip + X265 + Blender + 3DM11 CPU - Core Ultra 7 256V
38.5 pt (64%)
Restrict / Search: Model: Max. age: years
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Single Core
min: 117.4     avg: 118.5     median: 118 (66%)     max: 120 Points
min: 122     avg: 122.1     median: 122.2 (69%)     max: 122.2 Points
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Multi Core
min: 435     avg: 549     median: 582 (11%)     max: 630 Points
min: 493     avg: 551     median: 561 (10%)     max: 598 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
min: 8589     avg: 10070     median: 10460.5 (10%)     max: 10768 Points
min: 9091     avg: 9479     median: 9479 (9%)     max: 9867 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
min: 1875     avg: 1890     median: 1890.5 (80%)     max: 1902 Points
1950 Points (83%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
min: 720     avg: 726     median: 727 (81%)     max: 730 Points
645 Points (72%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
min: 4038     avg: 4102     median: 4106 (10%)     max: 4162 Points
min: 2683     avg: 3292     median: 3292 (8%)     max: 3901 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
min: 1570     avg: 1599     median: 1598.5 (10%)     max: 1627 Points
1500 Points (9%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
min: 285     avg: 285.5     median: 285.5 (80%)     max: 286 Points
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64 Bit
19.8 Points (26%)
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Single 64 Bit
3.6 Points (85%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Single (32bit)
10697 Points (65%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Multi (32bit)
45377 Points (33%)
WinRAR - WinRAR 4.0
8613 Points (14%)
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Multi Thread 4 runs
min: 35535     avg: 35821     median: 35950 (21%)     max: 35978 MIPS
min: 32105     avg: 33197     median: 32236 (19%)     max: 35250 MIPS
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Single Thread 4 runs
min: 5616     avg: 5697     median: 5727 (68%)     max: 5749 MIPS
min: 5923     avg: 5961     median: 5968 (70%)     max: 5993 MIPS
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 2
77.1 fps (26%)
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 1
265.5 fps (61%)
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - HWBOT x265 4k Preset
min: 13     avg: 13.2     median: 13.1 (23%)     max: 13.5 fps
11.2 fps (20%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Serpent
0.7 GB/s (21%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Twofish
1.4 GB/s (24%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt AES
7.7 GB/s (20%)
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
min: 533     avg: 549     median: 534 (7%)     max: 580 Seconds
681 Seconds (9%)
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
min: 324     avg: 330.7     median: 329 (2%)     max: 339 Seconds
441 Seconds (3%)
R Benchmark 2.5 - R Benchmark 2.5 *
min: 0.4578     avg: 0.5     median: 0.5 (10%)     max: 0.4645 sec
0.4 sec (9%)
3DMark 06 - CPU - 3DMark 06 - CPU
12505 Points (27%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M *
7.7 s (2%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M *
16.8 s (1%)
Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 32M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 32M *
624 s (3%)
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Physics
min: 14943     avg: 15126     median: 15079 (38%)     max: 15356 Points
15437 Points (38%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics
min: 13840     avg: 14107     median: 13988 (35%)     max: 14493 Points
14344 Points (36%)
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Physics
min: 14488     avg: 19994     median: 21614.5 (39%)     max: 22257 Points
21791 Points (39%)
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy CPU
min: 4853     avg: 6273     median: 6586.5 (28%)     max: 7066 Points
7143 Points (30%)
Geekbench 6.4 - Geekbench 6.4 Single-Core
min: 2680     avg: 2748     median: 2763 (69%)     max: 2784 Points
2864 Points (72%)
Geekbench 6.4 - Geekbench 6.4 Multi-Core
min: 9852     avg: 10701     median: 10962 (43%)     max: 11026 Points
min: 10969     avg: 11019     median: 11019 (43%)     max: 11069 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1972     avg: 1994     median: 2000 (78%)     max: 2010 Points
2114 Points (83%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 9302     avg: 9427     median: 9361 (17%)     max: 9618 Points
9588 Points (17%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
min: 472     avg: 475.3     median: 474 (1%)     max: 480 ms
Sunspider - Sunspider 1.0 Total Score *
54.1 ms (1%)
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
min: 281.6     avg: 283.9     median: 284 (78%)     max: 286 Points
342 Points (94%)
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
min: 243     avg: 286.3     median: 306 (55%)     max: 310 Points
421 Points (76%)
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
min: 1636     avg: 1678     median: 1663 (62%)     max: 1736 Points
min: 1654     avg: 1693     median: 1708 (64%)     max: 1716 Points
Power Consumption - Prime95 Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 42.2     avg: 47.3     median: 46.1 (8%)     max: 53.6 Watt
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 50.9     avg: 54     median: 54 (10%)     max: 57.1 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 1.596     avg: 2.6     median: 2.6 (2%)     max: 3.63 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
min: 1.954     avg: 4.2     median: 5.1 (6%)     max: 5.48 Watt
Power Consumption - Power Efficiency - Cinebench R15 Multi external Monitor
30.8 Points per Watt (23%)

Average Benchmarks Intel Core Ultra 7 256V → 100% n=24

Average Benchmarks Intel Core Ultra 9 288V → 99% n=24

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
red legend - Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

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v1.33
log 03. 01:12:06

#0 ran 0s before starting gpusingle class +0s ... 0s

#1 checking url part for id 17996 +0s ... 0s

#2 checking url part for id 17915 +0s ... 0s

#3 not redirecting to Ajax server +0s ... 0s

#4 did not recreate cache, as it is less than 5 days old! Created at Thu, 01 May 2025 05:16:08 +0200 +0s ... 0s

#5 composed specs +0.008s ... 0.008s

#6 did output specs +0s ... 0.008s

#7 getting avg benchmarks for device 17996 +0.004s ... 0.012s

#8 got single benchmarks 17996 +0.007s ... 0.019s

#9 getting avg benchmarks for device 17915 +0.001s ... 0.019s

#10 got single benchmarks 17915 +0.004s ... 0.024s

#11 got avg benchmarks for devices +0s ... 0.024s

#12 min, max, avg, median took s +0.025s ... 0.048s

#13 return log +0.002s ... 0.051s

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Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)