After several leaks, the Intel Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” entry-level processor family is now official. Intel describes it as the first “hybrid AI-ready Core Series processor”. As expected, the “Computer & CPU tile” comes with up to six cores (2x P cores + 4x LPE cores), up to 2-core Intel Xe 3 graphics, up to 40 TOPS of combined AI performance, and LPDDR5x/DDR5 memory interfaces.
The “Platform controller tile” integrates six PCIe Gen4 lanes, two Thunderbolt 4 interfaces, two USB 3.2 and eight USB 2.0 interfaces, as well as WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity. The Computer & GPU tile is manufactured using an Intel 18A process, while the Platform controller tile is manufactured with another “External” process (TSMC?).
Single-channel memory is confirmed, and it looks like eMMC flash will be replaced with UFS 3.0 memory for edge systems with soldered-on memory, although many systems will make use of PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD instead. Some readers complained about the low number of PCIe lanes, but Intel says it’s for your good:
Intentionally designed PCIe to give the right amout of support, targeting to no unused PCIe lanes
I suppose it might make sense for laptops and edge computers the company has in mind… But it won’t be ideal for devices with multiple storage and networking options.
The leaks for the SKUs were mostly right, but the company lists SKUs for PCs and Edge applications, many of which overlap. All SKUs have a PBP of 15W and an MTP of 35W, 6MB Intel Smart Cache, and support up to 48GB LPDDR5x-7467 or 64GB DDR5-6400 of memory. One part, the Intel Core 5 305, does not come with NPU at all, and is reserved for Edge applications.
| Core Count | Base Freq. (P/E) | Turbo Freq. (P-core) | Graphics | NPU | SIPP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core 7 360 | 2P + 4LPE | 1.5/1.4 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 2x Xe3 @ 2.6 GHz, 21 TOPS | 17 TOPS | Yes |
| Intel Core 7 350 | 2P + 4LPE | 1.5/1.4 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 2x Xe3 @ 2.6 GHz, 21 TOPS | 17 TOPS | No |
| Intel Core 5 330 | 2P + 4LPE | 1.5/1.4 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 2x Xe3 @ 2.5 GHz, 20 TOPS | 16 TOPS | Yes |
| Intel Core 5 320 | 2P + 4LPE | 1.5/1.4 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 2x Xe3 @ 2.5 GHz, 20 TOPS | 16 TOPS | No |
| Intel Core 5 315 | 2P + 4LPE | 1.5/1.4 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 2x Xe3 @ 2.3 GHz, 18 TOPS | 15 TOPS | No |
| Intel Core 3 305 (Edge only) | 2P + 4LPE | 1.5/1.4 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 1x Xe3 @ 2.3 GHz, 9 TOPS | N/A | No |
| Intel Core 3 304 | 1P + 4LPE | 1.5/1.4 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 1x Xe3 @ 2.3 GHz, 9 TOPS | 15 TOPS | No |
We previously assumed the Wildcat Lake family would be the successor of the Alder Lake-N and Twin Lake families, but Intel compares the Intel Core 7 360 SoC to the Intel Core 7 150U Raptor Lake 10-core (2P+8E) processor instead. The new Wildcat Lake processors notably deliver up to 2.1x faster creation and productivity in the Topaz Video benchmark.
GPU performance is up to 2.7x better on AI workloads such as Procyon AI Image Gen SD 1.5 Light and Geekbench AI 1.6.
The Intel Core 7 360 is also much more efficient than the Intel Core 7 150U, with up to 64% reduction in power consumption, especially for video playback on YouTube and Netflix, and for video conferencing applications like Zoom. Battery life has been measured on the Intel Wildcat Lake reference platform, lasting up to 18.5 hours while watching YouTube, 12.5 hours for office productivity tasks, and 9.6 hours using Zoom with AI effects.
Intel also mentions that compared to a typical five-year-old PC based on an Intel Core i7-1185G7, the Core Series 3 delivers up to 47% better single-core performance, up to 41% better multi-core performance, and up to 2.8x better GPU AI performance. Photo editing (31%), web browsing (45%), and productivity (26%) have also all improved.
The Intel Core Series 3 also targets edge applications such as robotics, smart buildings, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, and smart metering, and to that effect, compared the Intel Core 7 350 to the Jetson Orin Nano. The Intel SoC delivers up to 1.5x higher object detection performance, up to 1.9x faster image classification, and up to 2.2x higher performance for video analytics.
Intel claims over 70 devices from partners are in the works, and some are available now. This notably includes laptops from Acer, Asus, Colorful, Dell Technologies, Hasee, Haier, Honor, HP, Infinix, Lenovo, Samsung, and others. Edge systems powered by Intel Core Series 3 will become available later in Q2 2026. You’ll find additional information, including more presentation slides, in the announcement as well as the product page. The Intel Ark website has yet to be updated, but it’s probably a question of hours or days.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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