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Intel Core Ultra 7 256V

Intel Core Ultra 7 256V

The Intel Core Ultra 5 256V is an upper mid-range 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 4.8 GHz respectively, along with the new Arc 140V iGPU and 16 GB of on-package LPDDR5x-8533 RAM. A new 47 TOPS neural engine, Thunderbolt 4 and PCIe 5 SSD support are included as well.

The only difference between this chip and the Ultra 7 258V 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 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 256V 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 47 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

Based on the time we've had with 2 systems powered by the 256V, the chip's multi-thread performance is as good as that of the Core Ultra 7 165U and the Core i7-1360P. Please note that both systems had a higher long-term TDP power target than the Intel-recommended value: 30 W and 32 W vs 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 1,950 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.

SeriesIntel Lunar Lake
CodenameLunar Lake

Series: Lunar Lake Lunar Lake

Intel Core Ultra 9 288V compare3.3 - 5.1 GHz8 / 8 cores12 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 268V compare2.2 - 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 « 2.2 - 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 compare2.1 - 4.5 GHz8 / 8 cores8 MB L3
Clock Rate2200 - 4800 MHz
Level 3 Cache12 MB
Number of Cores / Threads8 / 8
4 x 4.8 GHz Intel Lion Cove P-core
4 x 3.7 GHz Intel Skymont E-core
Power Consumption (TDP = Thermal Design Power)17 Watt
TDP Turbo PL237 Watt
Manufacturing Technology3 nm
Max. Temperature100 °C
SocketBGA2833
FeaturesLPDDR5x-8533 RAM, PCIe 5 + PCIe 4, USB 4, AI Boost NPU (47 TOPS), Thread Director, PSE, Threat Detection, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX-VNNi, FMA3, SHA
GPUIntel Arc Graphics 140V ( - 1950 MHz)
64 Bit64 Bit support
Architecturex86
Announcement Date09/03/2024
Product Link (external)ark.intel.com

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - CB R15 + R20 + 7-Zip + X265 + Blender + 3DM11 CPU
38.3 pt (64%)
Cinebench 2024 - Cinebench 2024 CPU Single Core
min: 117.4     avg: 118.5     median: 118 (67%)     max: 120 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
min: 10391     avg: 10580     median: 10579.5 (10%)     max: 10768 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
min: 1875     avg: 1889     median: 1888.5 (80%)     max: 1902 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
min: 720     avg: 724     median: 723.5 (80%)     max: 727 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
min: 4038     avg: 4100     median: 4100 (10%)     max: 4162 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
1570 Points (10%)
0801602403204004805606407208008809601040112012001280136014401520Tooltip
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Multi Thread 4 runs
min: 35950     avg: 35964     median: 35964 (21%)     max: 35978 MIPS
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Single Thread 4 runs
min: 5616     avg: 5672     median: 5671.5 (67%)     max: 5727 MIPS
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - HWBOT x265 4k Preset
min: 13.1     avg: 13.3     median: 13.3 (23%)     max: 13.5 fps
05101520Tooltip
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
min: 533     avg: 557     median: 556.5 (7%)     max: 580 Seconds
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
min: 324     avg: 331.5     median: 331.5 (2%)     max: 339 Seconds
R Benchmark 2.5 - R Benchmark 2.5 *
min: 0.4578     avg: 0.5     median: 0.5 (10%)     max: 0.4645 sec
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Physics
min: 14943     avg: 15150     median: 15149.5 (38%)     max: 15356 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics
min: 13988     avg: 14241     median: 14240.5 (36%)     max: 14493 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Physics
min: 14488     avg: 19626     median: 22132 (39%)     max: 22257 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy CPU
min: 4853     avg: 6140     median: 6502 (27%)     max: 7066 Points
Geekbench 6.3 - Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core
min: 2680     avg: 2747     median: 2778 (71%)     max: 2784 points
Geekbench 6.3 - Geekbench 6.3 Multi-Core
min: 9852     avg: 10592     median: 10952 (43%)     max: 10972 points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1972     avg: 1991     median: 1991 (78%)     max: 2010 points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 9302     avg: 9460     median: 9460 (17%)     max: 9618 points
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
min: 472     avg: 473     median: 473 (1%)     max: 474 ms
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
min: 284     avg: 285     median: 285 (80%)     max: 286 Points
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
min: 306     avg: 308     median: 308 (57%)     max: 310 Points
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
min: 1663     avg: 1700     median: 1699.5 (65%)     max: 1736 Points
Power Consumption - Prime95 Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 46.1     avg: 49.9     median: 49.9 (9%)     max: 53.6 Watt
051015202530354045505560Tooltip
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 50.9     avg: 54     median: 54 (10%)     max: 57.1 Watt
051015202530354045505560Tooltip
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 1.596     avg: 2.6     median: 2.6 (2%)     max: 3.63 Watt
00.20.50.711.21.51.722.22.42.72.93.23.43.73.94.14.44.6Tooltip
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
min: 1.954     avg: 3.5     median: 3.5 (4%)     max: 5.14 Watt
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- 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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