Intel Core Ultra 7 255U

The Intel Core Ultra 7 255U is an upper mid-range CPU with 12 cores from the Arrow Lake U series, which was introduced at the beginning of 2025. The chip is similar to the Meteor Lake U series, but the compute part is manufactured using the modern Intel 3 process and therefore offers higher clock rates.

Like its predecessor, the SoC is based on a tile/chiplet design. The smaller compute tile (compared to the H processors) offers 2 performance cores (P cores, Redwood Cove architecture, SMT) and 8 efficiency cores (E cores, Crestmont architecture). The P-cores support hyperthreading (therefore 14 threads together) and clock up to 5.2 GHz. The E-cores clock at a maximum of 4.2 GHz. In addition, there are now two more low-power efficiency cores with up to 2.4 GHz on the low-power island; the compute tile can therefore be completely deactivated when idle and during simple tasks in order to save power.

Performance

Due to the higher clock rates, the Core Ultra 7 255U can clearly distinguish itself from the old top model Core Ultra 7 165U (12 cores, max 4.9 / 3.8 GHz, 12 MB cache). The old Core Ultra 7 155U lags even further behind due to its low clock rates.

Graphics unit

The Core Ultra 7 155U offers a new Arc-based iGPU called Intel Graphics with 4 Xe cores and 64 EUs that reach a maximum of 2.1 GHz. However, the performance is far below the new Arc iGPU in the H series.

Features

Arrow Lake-U has integrated WiFi 6E (WiFi 7 optional). The integrated memory controller now supports LPDDR5/x-8400 or DDR5-6400 (max. 128 GB). A dedicated NPU (2x Gen3 Neural Compute Engines) is now used. The Xe Media Engine supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 Decode, JPEG, VP8 Decode, VP9, HEVC and AV1 Decode up to 8K 10-bit HDR. The chip now supports PCIe-5.0 (x8 for GPU) and PCIe-4.0 (three x12 for SSDs).

Power consumption

The Intel Core Ultra 7 255U is specified with 15 watts TDP (base) and 57 watts (PL2) max. turbo power. Meteor Lake consists of five individual chips, whereby the processor part is manufactured in the new Intel 3 process (5nm). The graphics unit is produced at TSMC in N5 and the SoC and I/O tile in the older N6 process. These 4 chips are then applied to the 22nm base tile using the Foveros process.

Codename	Arrow Lake-U
Series	Intel Arrow Lake
Series: Arrow Lake Arrow Lake-U Intel Core Ultra 7 265U 2.4 - 5.3 GHz 12 / 14  12 MB L3 Intel Core Ultra 7 255U « 3.8 - 4.8 GHz 12 / 14  12 MB L3 Intel Core Ultra 5 225U 2.4 - 4.8 GHz 12 / 14  12 MB L3 Intel Core Ultra 5 235U 2.4 - 4.9 GHz 12 / 14  12 MB L3
Clock Rate	3800 - 4800 MHz
Level 2 Cache	14 MB
Level 3 Cache	12 MB
Number of Cores / Threads	12 / 14 2 x 5.2 GHz Intel Redwood Cove P-Core 8 x 4.2 GHz Intel Skymont E-Core 2 x 2.4 GHz Intel Crestmont E-Core
Power Consumption (TDP = Thermal Design Power)	15 Watt
TDP Turbo PL2	57 Watt
Manufacturing Technology	3 nm
Max. Temperature	110 °C
Socket	BGA2049
Features	DDR5-6400/LPDDR5-8400/LPDDR5x-8400 RAM, PCIe 4, Thr. Director, DL Boost, AI Boost, vPro Essen., MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX-VNNI, FMA3, SHA
GPU	Intel Graphics 4-Core iGPU (Meteor / Arrow Lake) ( - 2100 MHz)
NPU / AI	12 TOPS INT8
Chip AI	24 TOPS INT8
64 Bit	64 Bit support
Architecture	x86
Announcement Date	01/06/2025
Product Link (external)	ark.intel.com

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