Asus ExpertBook Ultra is as fast as many entry-level gaming laptops while being half the size

Intel lifted the curtains off its upcoming generation of Panther Lake CPUs at CES 2026 and the first official benchmarks are now beginning to appear online. Although not expected to hit store shelves until Q2 of this year, we had the chance to play around with the Asus ExpertBook Ultra equipped with the Core Ultra X7 358H and found its integrated Arc B390 GPU to be faster than expected especially given the meager 60 W to 70 W power envelope of the entire laptop.

As shown by the 3DMark benchmarks below, the ExpertBook Ultra outperforms laptops with the GeForce RTX 3050 like the MSI Thin GF63 12UC or HP Pavilion Plus 16. The advantage is so wide that the Asus is even within striking distance of the RTX 4050 in many cases as detailed in our recent analyses.

Of course, synthetic benchmarks don't always translate perfectly when playing actual games. In this case, the ExpertBook Ultra can still outperform laptops with the RTX 3050 albeit by smaller margins. Older titles like GTA V or DOTA 2 Reborn may even run faster on the older Nvidia GPU, but most newer titles like Baldur's Gate 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 run better on the Intel GPU before applying any AI upscaling or frame generation features.

Speaking of Ai features and frame generation, support for XESS continues to lag behind Nvidia and even AMD. Arc Raiders, for example, currently supports FG only for team green and team red while attempting to enable XESS in Forza Horizon 5 would result in performance issues in our experience.

In either case, the Asus system is significantly more lightweight and efficient than ant RTX 3050 or 4050 solution largely because it doesn't even need a dedicated chip to closely match or outperform the budget Nvidia alternative. More benchmarks and comparisons can be found on our dedicated review of the Asus ExpertBook Ultra.