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Intel Core Ultra 7 155U

Intel Ultra 7 155U

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155U is a mid-range Meteor Lake chip that debuted in December 2023. This 1st Gen Core Ultra processor has come to replace 13th generation Core processors; it has 12 cores (2 + 8 + 2) and 14 threads at its disposal. Its Performance cores, of which there are 2, are HT-enabled and run at up to 4.8 GHz while its Efficient cores, of which there are 10 (8 main cores plus 2 extra ones found in the Low Power Island) run at up to 3.8 GHz. The 4-core Intel Arc Graphics, just out of the oven, serves as the integrated graphics adapter - this runs at up to 1.95 GHz - and there is a bevy of other brand-new technologies on offer as well such as the integrated AI Boost NPU with two Gen 3 engines for hardware AI workload acceleration.

Architecture & Features

Meteor Lake is a case of throwing everything at AMD (including the kitchen sink, yes) and seeing what sticks. With this product family, Intel intends to deliver higher CPU performance, higher GPU performance, higher hardware AI workload acceleration rates and longer battery life than what Raptor Lake chips were capable of. For those counting, that's four birds to kill with a single stone.

This generation of Intel Core processors features Redwood architecture P-cores and Crestwood architecture E-cores. Both come with slight architectural improvements over Raptor Cove and Gracemont respectively for slightly higher performance-per-clock figures; the interesting thing is that of the 10 E-cores, two are actually a separate cluster located on what Intel calls a "Low Power Island". Essentially, the latter is an SoC within an SoC that can stay active while most other parts of the chip are temporarily switched off to save power. The low-power E-cores run at up to 2.1 GHz. Intel hopes this approach will let it deliver unprecedentedly low power consumption figures when under low load, boosting battery life of laptops and tablets powered by Meteor Lake.

To build its Meteor Lake processors, Intel uses the Foveros technology (stacking several chips on top of each other). This is a cost-cutting measure more than anything else, as manufacturing several small dies on several different processes is so much cheaper than making a huge single die and hoping that there are no defects in it that will require disabling some parts of it.

Elsewhere, the Core Ultra 7 155U comes with 12 MB of L3 cache which is a significant reduction compared to the 24 MB that the 155H, the 165H and the 185H have. The processor has a decent number of PCIe 4 lanes for NVMe SSD speeds up to 7.8 GB/s; it supports RAM running at up to 7467 MHz (DDR5-5600, LPDDR5-7467, LPDDR5x-7467, to be specific - which is about as good as what 8040 series Ryzen chips have). Naturally, the 155U features built-in Thunderbolt 4 support and Intel CNVi Wi-Fi support. It is also worth mentioning that Intel chose to keep native SATA III support that AMD had removed from its Ryzen processors quite a while ago.

The 155U is compatible with 64-bit Windows 10, 64-bit Windows 11 and with many Linux distros.

Performance

While we have no way of knowing what the 155U will be like, as of December 2023, it's safe to expect the chip to be almost as fast as the Core i7-1340P (Raptor Lake, 12 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.6 GHz), as far as multi-thread performance is concerned.

Either way, real-world performance of the chip may vary significantly depending on how high the CPU power limits are and how competent the cooling solution of the system is.

Graphics

The 4-core Arc Graphics runs at up to 1.95 GHz. We expect the iGPU to be about as fast as the aging 96 EU Iris Xe meaning it's good enough for most games, as long as one sticks to 1080p and mostly low quality settings.

A proper DX12 Ultimate graphics adapter, the Arc Graphics is no stranger to ray tracing and other modern technologies including AI frame generation (XeSS). It will let you connect up to four SUHD 4320p monitors and it will both HW-encode and HW-encode the most widely used video codecs including AVC, HEVC and AV1 in a fast and efficient manner.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are, how competent the cooling solution of your system is, how fast the RAM of your system is.

Power consumption

This Core Ultra 7 series processor has a Base power consumption of 15 W, with 57 W being its maximum Intel-recommended Turbo power consumption. An active cooling solution is a must for a system powered by this chip.

The 155U is comprised of several small chips ("tiles") that are connected using Intel's Foveros technology. The tile containing main CPU cores is produced on the fairly modern 7 nm Intel process marketed as Intel 4 while most other tiles (the iGPU, the I/O die, ...) are built with TSMC's N5 and N6 processes. The base tile is built with the old Intel 22FFL process.

SeriesIntel Intel Meteor Lake-U
CodenameMeteor Lake-P

Series: Intel Meteor Lake-U Meteor Lake-P

Intel Core Ultra 7 165U compare3.8 - 4.9 GHz12 / 14 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 155U « 3.8 - 4.8 GHz12 / 14 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 135U compare3.6 - 4.4 GHz12 / 14 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 125U compare3.6 - 4.3 GHz12 / 14 cores12 MB L3
Clock Rate3800 - 4800 MHz
Level 3 Cache12 MB
Number of Cores / Threads12 / 14
2 x 4.8 GHz Intel Redwood Cove P-Core
8 x 3.8 GHz Intel Crestmont E-Core
2 x 2.1 GHz Intel Crestmont E-Core
Power Consumption (TDP = Thermal Design Power)15 Watt
Manufacturing Technology7 nm
Max. Temperature110 °C
SocketBGA2049
FeaturesDDR5-5600/LPDDR5-7467/LPDDR5x-7467 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
GPUIntel Graphics 4-Cores iGPU (Arc) ( - 1950 MHz)
64 Bit64 Bit support
Architecturex86
Announcement Date12/14/2023
Product Link (external)ark.intel.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - CB R15 + R20 + 7-Zip + X265 + Blender + 3DM11 CPU
37.5 pt (52%)
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
1505 Points (10%)
080160240320400480560640720800880960104011201200128013601440Tooltip
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - HWBOT x265 4k Preset
10.7 fps (19%)
012345678910111213141516Tooltip
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics
12460 Points (32%)
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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Other CPUs of the series Intel Meteor Lake-U

» Intel Core Ultra 7 165U
   12x 3.8 GHz - 4.9 GHz
» Intel Core Ultra 7 155U
   12x 3.8 GHz - 4.8 GHz
» Intel Core Ultra 7 164U
   12x 3.8 GHz - 4.8 GHz
» Intel Core Ultra 5 135U
   12x 3.6 GHz - 4.4 GHz
» Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
   12x 3.6 GHz - 4.3 GHz
» Intel Core Ultra 5 134U
   12x 3.6 GHz - 4.4 GHz

Surrounding CPUs

+ AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS
   6x 4.3 GHz - 5 GHz
+ AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7640HS
   6x 4.3 GHz - 5 GHz
+ AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U
   8x 3.3 GHz - 5.1 GHz
+ AMD Ryzen 7 8840U
   8x 3.3 GHz - 5.1 GHz
+ AMD Ryzen 7 7840U
   8x 3.3 GHz - 5.1 GHz
» Intel Core Ultra 7 155U
   12x 3.8 GHz - 4.8 GHz
- Intel Core Ultra 7 164U
   12x 3.8 GHz - 4.8 GHz
- Intel Core i7-11850H
   8x 2.5 GHz - 4.8 GHz
- Intel Core 7 150U
   10x 1.2 GHz - 5.4 GHz
- Intel Core i7-1365U
   10x 1.3 GHz - 5.2 GHz
- Intel Core i7-11800H
   8x 2.3 GHz - 4.6 GHz
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Benchmarks / Tech > Notebook Processors > Intel Core Ultra 7 155U Processor - Benchmarks and Specs
Klaus Hinum (Update: 2023-12-14)