Intel is preparing a new, promising generation of processors with Lunar Lake. A leak reveals the American giant’s plans.
Without getting into trouble, Intel isn’t in great shape. The giant has to face increasingly strong competition in its industry from ARM, AMD and Apple. To respond to these challenges, the brand started almost from scratch and developed Meteor Lake, its biggest revolution “in 40 years”.
We already know the plan for the next generation: here is the information about Lunar Lake.
Microsoft and TSMC are helping
The leak comes from the publication of the Intel roadmap on Twitter, which has since been deleted but was already published on the Anandtech forum. We learn that Microsoft was involved in the design of the chip to help optimize between hardware and software. We also learn that TSMC is set to manufacture part of the chip, more specifically the CPU cores, using the TSMC N3B process.
That’s not all. The Luna Lake architecture discovered here would integrate RAM directly at the chip level. Like Apple’s solution, this should make it possible to significantly increase performance in connection with replacing RAM.
However, this should mean the final end of the possibility of improving your PC yourself. The design of the machines should also be simplified, as Intel is responsible for integrating the RAM and not the manufacturer of the PC or motherboard. Currently, Intel seems to be planning versions with 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR5X RAM.
All of this is intended to help increase the performance of the Intel chip, but also and above all to significantly better control of consumption, the sticking point compared to Apple.
A graphics chip with ray tracing
The leak is very complete and we can find out exactly what new features Intel is planning for Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake MX. For the graphics part, the chip would integrate 8 Xe2 LPG cores and real-time ray tracing for the first time. AI definition enhancement, the equivalent of Nvidia’s DLSS, could also be managed by the processor. Finally, the video connection with DisplayPort 1.4 in addition to HDMI 2.1 would be quite generous. Support for H266 and VVC would also be included. It is the successor to the HEVC we know today.
Other changes to note: The Lunar Lake MX chip would directly integrate Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. The chip would also offer 4 lanes of 5th Gen PCI Express and three 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports. Thunderbolt 5 doesn’t seem to be on the agenda.
A chip without ventilation
Apple’s strength with its M1, M2 or M3 chips is that it doesn’t require ventilation to be effective. The MacBook Air therefore offers a very thin design with fewer mechanical parts that could cause failure or accelerate aging. With Lunar Lake, Intel would offer a version without the necessary ventilation at 8W. If the manufacturer decides to integrate an active cooling system, the processor can be operated with 17 to 30 W.
Here are the four variants that Intel is already working on:
- Core 7: RAM (32GB), CPU (4P + 4E), GPU (8 Xe2-LPG);
- Core 7: RAM (16GB), CPU (4P + 4E) + GPU (8 Xe2-LPG);
- Core 5: RAM (32GB), CPU (4P + 4E) + GPU (7 Xe2-LPG);
- Core 5: RAM (16GB), CPU (4P + 4E) + GPU (7 Xe2-LPG);
Intel is expected to introduce this new line of Lunar Lake chips in late 2024. In other words, the chip that will accompany the launch of Windows 12 and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5000.