Notebookcheck Logo

Intel Core Ultra 5 226V vs Intel Core Ultra 7 268V

Intel Core Ultra 5 226V

► remove from comparison Intel Core Ultra 5 226V

The Intel Core Ultra 5 226V is one of the 2 slowest Lunar Lake family processors as of Nov 2024. This is an SoC for use in tablets and laptops of the slimmer kind that was unveiled in Autumn 2024. It features 4 new Skymont E-cores and 4 new Lion Cove P-cores running at up to 3.5 GHz and 4.5 GHz respectively, along with the new Arc 130V iGPU and 16 GB of on-package LPDDR5x-8533 RAM. A new 40 TOPS neural engine, Thunderbolt 4 and PCIe 5 SSD support are included as well.

The only difference between this chip and the Ultra 5 228V 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 Crestwood, the difference is a staggering 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 226V's level 3 cache is pretty small as compared to more expensive Ultra 7 2xxV and Ultra 9 2xxV chips at 8 MB vs 12 MB. Elsewhere, the 226V 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 40 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

Our in-house testing of an Acer laptop powered by the Ultra 5 chip revealed the latter to be about as fast as the Ryzen 7 7730U and the Ryzen 7 7735U in multi-threaded tasks which is OK but not mind-blowing for late 2024. It is worth noting that the laptop in question does not use the Intel-recommended 17 W long-term power target; instead, the processor gets 30 W to eat which affects its benchmark scores significantly.

Generally speaking, the 226V, 228V, 236V and 238V are slower than the 256V, 258V, 266V, 268V, 288V due to the difference in their last-level cache size 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%. Exact figures depend on the TDP values of the laptops being pitted against each other more than on anything else.

Graphics

The Arc Graphics 130V has 7 Xe² architecture "cores" running at up to 1,850 MHz, as well as 7 ray tracing units at its disposal. This is a direct successor to the Arc 7 iGPU; it is DirectX 12 Ultimate-enabled and able to HW-decode a long list of 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.

Its performance can be vastly different depending on which benchmarks and games one runs. Oftentimes, it isn't much faster than its direct predecessor, the Arc 7. It is clear the 130V isn't fast enough to run most triple-A 2024 games at 1080p. However, it's still more than good enough for an occasional gaming session.

Power consumption

While this 2nd generation Core Ultra processor is supposed to consume 17 W when under long-term workloads, the only laptop powered by this chip that we have tested as of early Nov 2024 has a much higher value than that at 30 W.

The Intel-recommended short-term power limit for the chip sits at 37 W.

Intel Core Ultra 7 268V

► remove from comparison Intel Core Ultra 7 268V

The Intel Core Ultra 7 268V is a higher-end 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 5.0 GHz respectively, along with the new Arc 140V iGPU and 32 GB of on-package LPDDR5x-8533 RAM. A new 48 TOPS neural engine, Thunderbolt 4 and PCIe 5 SSD support are included as well.

The only difference between this chip and the Ultra 7 266V is the amount of on-package, non-replaceable RAM: 32 GB vs 16 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 Crestwood, 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 268V 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 268V should be just a couple of percentage points faster than the 258V for an Core Ultra 7 165U or Core i7-1360P-like multi-thread performance, provided it's running at the default long-term TDP power target which is 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 2,000 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.

ModelIntel Core Ultra 5 226VIntel Core Ultra 7 268V
CodenameLunar LakeLunar Lake
SeriesIntel Lunar LakeIntel Lunar Lake
Series: Lunar Lake Lunar Lake
Intel Core Ultra 9 288V compare3.3 - 5.1 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 268V2.2 - 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 compare2.2 - 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 « 2.1 - 4.5 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 9 288V compare3.3 - 5.1 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 268V « 2.2 - 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 compare2.2 - 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 226V2.1 - 4.5 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Clock2100 - 4500 MHz2200 - 5000 MHz
L3 Cache8 MB12 MB
Cores / Threads8 / 8
4 x 4.5 GHz Intel Lion Cove P-core
4 x 3.5 GHz Intel Skymont E-core
8 / 8
4 x 5.0 GHz Intel Lion Cove P-core
4 x 3.7 GHz Intel Skymont E-core
TDP17 Watt17 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 (40 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 130V ( - 1850 MHz)Intel Arc Graphics 140V ( - 2000 MHz)
Architecturex86x86
Announced
Manufacturerark.intel.comark.intel.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - CB R15 + R20 + 7-Zip + X265 + Blender + 3DM11 CPU - Core Ultra 5 226V
36.2 pt (60%)
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Single Core
111 Points (62%)
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Multi Core
530 Points (10%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
9867 Points (9%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
1699 Points (72%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
653 Points (72%)
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
3850 Points (9%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
1510 Points (10%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
263 Points (74%)
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64 Bit
19.1 Points (25%)
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Single 64 Bit
3.1 Points (75%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Single (32bit)
9738 Points (59%)
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Multi (32bit)
42086 Points (30%)
WinRAR - WinRAR 4.0
4824 Points (8%)
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Multi Thread 4 runs
33099 MIPS (19%)
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Single Thread 4 runs
5305 MIPS (63%)
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 2
93.6 fps (31%)
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 1
305.4 fps (70%)
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - HWBOT x265 4k Preset
12.2 fps (21%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Serpent
0.6 GB/s (19%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Twofish
1.1 GB/s (19%)
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt AES
7.1 GB/s (18%)
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
624 Seconds (8%)
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
355 Seconds (3%)
R Benchmark 2.5 - R Benchmark 2.5 *
0.5 sec (11%)
3DMark 06 - CPU - 3DMark 06 - CPU
10506 Points (22%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M *
8.8 s (2%)
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M *
19.2 s (1%)
Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 32M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 32M *
458.3 s (2%)
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. CPU no Physx
48122 Points (37%)
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Physics
14236 Points (36%)
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Physics
76606 Points (62%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics
13013 Points (33%)
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Physics
19392 Points (35%)
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy CPU
7169 Points (30%)
Geekbench 6.3 - Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core
2527 Points (64%)
2583 Points (66%)
Geekbench 6.3 - Geekbench 6.3 Multi-Core
9850 Points (38%)
10911 Points (42%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Single-Core
1852 Points (72%)
2008 Points (78%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Multi-Core
8704 Points (16%)
9766 Points (17%)
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Single-Core
7753 Points (77%)
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
31261 Points (31%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
543 ms (1%)
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
249 Points (70%)
Power Consumption - Prime95 Power Consumption - external Monitor *
29.4 Watt (5%)
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
5.4 Watt (4%)
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
6.2 Watt (7%)

Average Benchmarks Intel Core Ultra 5 226V → 100% n=4

Average Benchmarks Intel Core Ultra 7 268V → 108% n=4

- 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

Add one or more devices and compare

In the following list you can select (and also search for) devices that should be added to the comparison. You can select more than one device.

restrict list:
v1.28
log 07. 13:27:57

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

#1 checking url part for id 18000 +0s ... 0s

#2 checking url part for id 17991 +0s ... 0s

#3 redirected to Ajax server, took 1733574477s time from redirect:0 +0s ... 0s

#4 did not recreate cache, as it is less than 5 days old! Created at Sat, 07 Dec 2024 05:18:31 +0100 +0s ... 0s

#5 composed specs +0.01s ... 0.01s

#6 did output specs +0s ... 0.01s

#7 getting avg benchmarks for device 18000 +0.003s ... 0.013s

#8 got single benchmarks 18000 +0.005s ... 0.018s

#9 getting avg benchmarks for device 17991 +0.001s ... 0.019s

#10 got single benchmarks 17991 +0.003s ... 0.022s

#11 got avg benchmarks for devices +0s ... 0.022s

#12 min, max, avg, median took s +0.022s ... 0.044s

#13 return log +0.003s ... 0.046s

Please share our article, every link counts!
Mail Logo
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Benchmarks / Tech > Processor Comparison - Head 2 Head
Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)