Intel 4 Xe3 GPU is over 50 percent slower than the flagship Arc B390 according to first benchmarks

Laptops with Panther Lake processors have now begun shipping after debuting at CES 2026 just last month. Buyers can choose between two major CPU SKUs: Panther Lake-U such as the Core Ultra 7 355 or Panther Lake-H such as the Core Ultra X7 358H. After testing both options, users will want to choose wisely as the performance deltas between Panther Lake-U and -H can be wider than expected.

Much like what we observed when comparing their raw CPU power, the Core Ultra 7 355 can be significantly slower than the Core Ultra X7 358H when gaming by up to 60 percent according to 3DMark benchmarks. Average performance is therefore slower than last year's Arc 140V/140T while being in between the Xe 96 EUs and two-year old Arc 8.

The trend remains relatively consistent when running actual games where our Core Ultra 7 XPS 14 test unit would be behind the Arc 140V in most GPU-bound scenarios but otherwise within 10 percent of the Arc 8. It's a decent GPU for running demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 at 900p or 1080p on low settings, but we definitely recommend the Core Ultra X7 or even the competing Radeon 890M for more GPU-oriented tasks.

As for power consumption, one might expect the Core Ultra 7 355 to save more power when gaming as it is a newer architecture when compared to CPUs with the Arc 140V or Arc 8. That is unfortunately not the case as power consumption when running Cyberpunk 2077 on the Dell XPS 14 Core Ultra 7, XPS 14 Core Ultra X7, and Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6 would be within just a few watts from one another despite their massive performance differences.