Handheld console dominance: Intel Arc G3 Extreme simulation sounds alarm for AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme

We recently got our first real look at the specs of the Intel Panther Lake Arc G3 and G3 Extreme chips for handheld gaming consoles. Both SoCs pack 14 CPU cores, up to 12 Xe3 cores on the iGPU, and can reportedly boost up to 4.7 GHz. Sadly, we don’t have any real handheld gaming consoles that use these processors. So, we don’t know how Intel Panther Lake actually performs inside a portable gamer. However, ETA Prime has come to the rescue.

Intel Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme could trounce Ryzen Z2 and Z2 Extreme APUs

ETA Prime has configured an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H to mimic the leaked 14-core Arc G3 Extreme by disabling two P-cores and limiting the TDP. The resulting SoC essentially packs the same general specs as the leaked Arc G3 Extreme, giving us an opportunity to estimate the performance of the upcoming Intel Panther Lake gaming handhelds.

Starting with Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1080p with medium settings, the reconfigured Core Ultra X7 358H produced close to 60 FPS. Dropping the resolution down to 900p or using FSR should help keep the framerate consistently above 60 FPS. This is a pretty good result as Red Dead Redemption 2 is an excellent-looking game.

Moving on to Forza Horizon 5 at 1080p/medium, the simulated Arc G3 Extreme is able to play the game above 90 FPS, even staying above 100 FPS at times. The impressive thing here is that the processor was limited to just 18 W. ETA Prime mentions that in the same scenario, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme runs the game just above 80 FPS. 

Even at 12 W, the Intel Panther Lake chip runs Forza Horizon 5 above 60 FPS. This goes to show the excellent power efficiency and performance of the Intel Panther Lake chips.

In Spider-Man 2 at 25 W, ETA Prime’s simulated Arc G3 Extreme maintains a 61 FPS average at 900p, medium settings, and with XeSS set to medium. Enabling FSR Frame Generation allows ETA Prime to reduce the TDP to 18 W while maintaining 70+ FPS.

In Cyberpunk 2077 at 25 W, the Arc G3 Extreme could play the game at more than 60 FPS using the “Steam Deck” graphics preset with XeSS instead of FSR. Turning on 4x XeSS MFG takes this framerate to 160+.

The full video, which is linked below, includes more testing. So, it is well worth checking out.

Simply put, the upcoming Intel Panther Lake Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme could be excellent processors for handheld gaming consoles. Both of these chips could easily beat the AMD Ryzen Z2 and Ryzen Z2 Extreme APUs, courtesy of their new CPU and GPU architectures and their power efficiency.

Finally, while we don’t know which OEMs are building portable gaming consoles around the Arc G3 SoCs, it is reasonable to expect that MSI could be among the very first ones. The original MSI Claw, for instance, used the Intel Meteor Lake Core Ultra 7 155H APU. MSI has also released an Intel Lunar Lake-powered system called the MSI Claw 8 AI+.