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Intel Core Ultra 5 125H vs Intel Core Ultra 5 135H

Intel Core Ultra 5 125H

► remove from comparison Intel Ultra 5 125H

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mid-range Meteor Lake family chip that debuted in December 2023. This 1st Gen Core Ultra processor has come to replace 13th generation Core chips; it has 14 cores (4 + 8 + 2) and 18 threads at its disposal. Its Performance cores, of which there are 4, are HT-enabled and run at up to 4.5 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 3.6 GHz. The 7-core Arc GPU, just out of the oven, serves as the integrated graphics adapter - this runs at up to 2.20 GHz - and there is a bevy of other brand-new technologies on offer as well, including 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 2.5 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 5 125H comes with 18 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 very healthy number of PCIe 5 and PCIe 4 lanes for NVMe SSD speeds up to 15.7 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 125H 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 125H 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 125H will be like, as of December 2023, it's safe to expect the chip to be slightly slower than the Ryzen 7 7735HS (Zen 3 Plus, 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.75 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 7-core Arc GPU running at up to 2.20 GHz is set to overshadow the Radeon 760M; just like the 8-core Arc GPU, this graphics adapter is set to be miles ahead of the aging Xe-series integrated GPUs. As long as one chooses to take Intel's word for it, that is.

A proper DX12 Ultimate graphics adapter, the Arc 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. The latter is really important; Intel stresses that for the Arc to deliver the best results possible, multi-channel RAM configuration is a must.

Power consumption

The Base power consumption, in the case of the 125H, is 28 W while its maximum Turbo power consumption is supposed to be within 115 W. A powerful cooling solution is a must for any system powered by this chip.

This Core Ultra 5 series processor is comprised of five 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.

Intel Core Ultra 5 135H

► remove from comparison Intel Ultra 5 135H

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a mid-range Meteor Lake family chip that debuted in December 2023. This 1st Gen Core Ultra processor has come to replace 13th generation Core processors; it has 14 cores (4 + 8 +2) and 18 threads at its disposal. Its Performance cores, of which there are 4, are HT-enabled and run at up to 4.6 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 3.6 GHz. The 8-core Arc GPU, just out of the oven, serves as the integrated graphics adapter - this runs at up to 2.20 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 2.5 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 5 135H comes with 18 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 very healthy number of PCIe 5 and PCIe 4 lanes for NVMe SSD speeds up to 15.7 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). vPro Enterprise and business-centric features such as the Remote Platform Erase are onboard as well. Naturally, the 135H also 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 135H 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 135H will be like, as of December 2023, it's safe to expect the chip to be at least as fast as the Ryzen 7 7735HS (Zen 3 Plus, 8 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.75 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 8-core Arc GPU running at up to 2.20 GHz is set to give the Radeon 780M something to think about. The Arc is set to be miles ahead of aging Xe-series integrated GPUs. As long as one chooses to take Intel's word for it, that is.

A proper DX12 Ultimate graphics adapter, the Arc 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. The latter is really important; Intel stresses that for the Arc to deliver the best results possible, multi-channel RAM configuration is a must.

Power consumption

This Core Ultra 5 series processor has a Base power consumption of 28 W, while its Turbo power consumption is not supposed to exceed 115 W. Its Base power consumption is supposed to be around 64 W, however, most laptop makers will probably go for a higher value to get higher clock speeds and thus higher performance. Either way, a powerful cooling solution will be needed to sort out this chip's hot temper.

The 135H is comprised of five 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.

ModelIntel Core Ultra 5 125HIntel Core Ultra 5 135H
SeriesIntel Intel Meteor Lake-HIntel Intel Meteor Lake-H
CodenameMeteor Lake-HMeteor Lake-H
Series: Intel Meteor Lake-H Meteor Lake-H
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H compare3.8 - 5.1 GHz16 / 22 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 165H compare3.8 - 5 GHz16 / 22 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 155H compare3.8 - 4.8 GHz16 / 22 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 135H3.6 - 4.6 GHz14 / 18 cores18 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 125H « 3.6 - 4.5 GHz14 / 18 cores18 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H compare3.8 - 5.1 GHz16 / 22 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 165H compare3.8 - 5 GHz16 / 22 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 7 155H compare3.8 - 4.8 GHz16 / 22 cores24 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 135H « 3.6 - 4.6 GHz14 / 18 cores18 MB L3
Intel Core Ultra 5 125H3.6 - 4.5 GHz14 / 18 cores18 MB L3
Clock3600 - 4500 MHz3600 - 4600 MHz
L3 Cache18 MB18 MB
Cores / Threads14 / 18
4 x 4.5 GHz Intel Redwood Cove P-Core
8 x 3.6 GHz Intel Crestmont E-Core
2 x 2.5 GHz Intel Crestmont E-Core
14 / 18 4.6 GHz
4 x 3.6 GHz Intel Redwood Cove P-Core
8 x 2.5 GHz Intel Crestmont E-Core
2 x Intel Crestmont E-Core
TDP28 Watt28 Watt
Technology7 nm7 nm
max. Temp.110 °C110 °C
SocketBGA2049BGA2049
FeaturesDDR5-5600/LPDDR5-7467/LPDDR5x-7467 RAM, PCIe 5, Thr. Director, DL Boost, AI Boost, vPro Essen., MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX-VNNI, FMA3, SHADDR5-5600/LPDDR5-7467/LPDDR5x-7467 RAM, PCIe 5, Thr. Director, DL Boost, AI Boost, vPro Enerp., RPE, MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AES, AVX, AVX2, AVX-VNNI, FMA3, SHA
iGPUIntel Arc 7-Cores iGPU ( - 2200 MHz)Intel Arc 8-Cores iGPU ( - 2200 MHz)
Architecturex86x86
Announced
Manufacturerark.intel.comark.intel.com

Benchmarks

Cinebench 2024 - CB24 CPU Single Core
100 Points (69%)
Cinebench 2024 - CB24 CPU Multi Core
564 Points (10%)
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Multi Core
min: 9965     avg: 11293     median: 11292.5 (10%)     max: 12620 Points
Cinebench R23 - Cinebench R23 Single Core
min: 1655     avg: 1683     median: 1682.5 (72%)     max: 1710 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Single Core)
min: 633     avg: 644     median: 644 (72%)     max: 655 Points
Cinebench R20 - Cinebench R20 CPU (Multi Core)
min: 3870     avg: 4370     median: 4369.5 (11%)     max: 4869 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Multi 64 Bit
min: 1700     avg: 1922     median: 1921.5 (12%)     max: 2143 Points
Cinebench R15 - Cinebench R15 CPU Single 64 Bit
min: 236     avg: 241     median: 241 (73%)     max: 246 Points
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Multi 64 Bit
min: 21.9     avg: 24.2     median: 24.2 (31%)     max: 26.4 Points
Cinebench R11.5 - Cinebench R11.5 CPU Single 64 Bit
min: 2.9     avg: 2.9     median: 2.9 (73%)     max: 2.98 Points
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Single (32bit)
min: 9266     avg: 9335     median: 9334.5 (56%)     max: 9403 Points
Cinebench R10 - Cinebench R10 Rend. Multi (32bit)
min: 45559     avg: 48467     median: 48466.5 (35%)     max: 51374 Points
wPrime 2.10 - wPrime 2.0 1024m *
296.9 s (4%)
wPrime 2.10 - wPrime 2.0 32m *
9.5 s (2%)
WinRAR - WinRAR 4.0
min: 6103     avg: 9592     median: 9591.5 (15%)     max: 13080 Points
7-Zip 18.03 - 7-Zip 18.03 Single Thread 4 runs
min: 4663     avg: 4885     median: 4884.5 (58%)     max: 5106 MIPS
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 2
129.6 fps (45%)
X264 HD Benchmark 4.0 - x264 Pass 1
305.3 fps (70%)
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2 - HWBOT x265 4k Preset
min: 10.6     avg: 12.2     median: 12.2 (21%)     max: 13.7 fps
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Serpent
min: 0.83     avg: 418.9     median: 418.9 (50%)     max: 837 GB/s
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt Twofish
min: 1.2     avg: 1.3     median: 1.3 (22%)     max: 1.4 GB/s
TrueCrypt - TrueCrypt AES
min: 8.9     avg: 9     median: 9 (23%)     max: 9 GB/s
Blender - Blender 3.3 Classroom CPU *
min: 523     avg: 597     median: 597 (8%)     max: 671 Seconds
Blender - Blender 2.79 BMW27 CPU *
min: 285     avg: 324.5     median: 324.5 (2%)     max: 364 Seconds
R Benchmark 2.5 - R Benchmark 2.5 *
min: 0.503     avg: 0.5     median: 0.5 (11%)     max: 0.53 sec
3DMark 06 - CPU - 3DMark 06 - CPU
min: 12498     avg: 13225     median: 13225 (28%)     max: 13952 Points
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 1M *
min: 7.4     avg: 7.5     median: 7.5 (2%)     max: 7.5 s
Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 2M *
16.5 s (1%)
Super Pi Mod 1.5 XS 32M - Super Pi mod 1.5 XS 32M *
min: 400.5     avg: 403.6     median: 403.6 (2%)     max: 406.6 s
3DMark Vantage - 3DM Vant. Perf. CPU no Physx
min: 43778     avg: 54877     median: 54876.5 (48%)     max: 65975 Points
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Physics
min: 12766     avg: 14853     median: 14853 (40%)     max: 16940 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Physics
72226 Points (59%)
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Physics
14164 Points (36%)
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Physics
min: 16291     avg: 18796     median: 18796 (34%)     max: 21301 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Time Spy CPU
min: 6391     avg: 7556     median: 7556 (32%)     max: 8721 Points
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Single-Core
min: 2258     avg: 2284     median: 2284 (69%)     max: 2310 Points
Geekbench 6.2 - Geekbench 6.2 Multi-Core
min: 11555     avg: 11563     median: 11563 (46%)     max: 11571 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Single-Core
min: 1630     avg: 1665     median: 1664.5 (70%)     max: 1699 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
min: 9696     avg: 10236     median: 10235.5 (18%)     max: 10775 Points
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Single-Core
6750 Points (67%)
Geekbench 4.4 - Geekbench 4.1 - 4.4 64 Bit Multi-Core
38736 Points (43%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
min: 575     avg: 582     median: 581.5 (1%)     max: 588 ms
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
85765 Points (77%)
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
237 Points (68%)
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
min: 245     avg: 254     median: 254 (53%)     max: 263 Points
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
1633 Points (63%)
Power Consumption - Prime95 Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 46.9     avg: 50.4     median: 50.4 (9%)     max: 53.9 Watt
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Consumption - external Monitor *
56.7 Watt (10%)
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption - external Monitor *
min: 4.31     avg: 4.8     median: 4.8 (3%)     max: 5.29 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
min: 5.71     avg: 6.7     median: 6.7 (7%)     max: 7.68 Watt
Power Consumption - Cinebench R15 Multi Power Efficiency - external Monitor
30 Points per Watt (22%)

Average Benchmarks Intel Core Ultra 5 125H → 0% n=

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

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Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)