Intel (INTC 3.78%) made a splash at CES 2026 with its new Panther Lake household of laptop computer CPUs. Panther Lake is constructed on the Intel 18A course of and is anticipated to ship main enhancements in battery life and efficiency in comparison with Intel’s last-generation chips. More than 200 PC fashions powered by the brand new chips are on their method, with units anticipated to ship later this month.
Panther Lake poses an actual menace to AMD (AMD 2.85%) within the laptop computer market, however the firm has much more to fret about. Intel is reportedly gunning for the hand held gaming PC market, which AMD at present dominates.
Image supply: Intel.
Panther Lake is an environment friendly gaming monster
Some of the fashions in Intel’s Panther Lake lineup embody the corporate’s newest and biggest Arc built-in graphics. The top-tier chip options 12 graphics cores and delivers as much as 77% higher gaming efficiency in comparison with Lunar Lake, Intel’s last-generation chip.
In an article on Engadget, a reviewer famous that he was in a position to play Battlefield 6 on a Panther Lake ultraportable at a 1080p decision at 190 frames per second. More highly effective {hardware}, mixed with Intel’s up to date upscaling and body technology know-how, enabled the spectacular efficiency.
Intel claims that the top-tier Panther Lake chip trounces AMD’s HX 370 by greater than 80% in gaming, and that it could go toe-to-toe with Nvidia‘s discrete RTX 4050 cell graphics chip. While real-world benchmarks shall be wanted to confirm these claims, Panther Lake seems to be a gaming powerhouse.
The chips are additionally extremely environment friendly, which is vital for battery-powered units. In laptops, Intel is claiming as much as 27 hours of battery life. The Intel 18A manufacturing course of options bottom energy supply, which strikes energy circuitry to the again of the chip. This can meaningfully enhance effectivity, and it is one driver behind the spectacular battery lifetime of Panther Lake units.
A booming market could also be unexpectedly up for grabs
The handheld gaming PC has grown right into a multi-billion-dollar market. There is a slew of choices, together with Valve’s Steam Deck and fashions from Asus and Lenovo. At the beginning of 2025, IDC pegged the cumulative variety of handheld PC items shipped at 6 million, with an anticipated 2 million extra gross sales in 2025. Notably, this estimate excluded smaller distributors, as a substitute specializing in simply the key gamers.
One factor almost all handheld PCs have in frequent is using AMD chips. The Steam Deck is powered by an AMD APU, which mixes CPU and GPU cores. The Asus ROG Ally makes use of a more recent AMD chip with enhanced graphics capabilities. The upcoming Lenovo Legion Go can be powered by a more recent AMD chip. Up till now, AMD has dominated this market.
Panther Lake may change issues. Intel is reportedly planning to provide variants of Panther Lake chips tailor-made for gaming handhelds, probably tuning the chips for even higher gaming efficiency. Older Intel chips have beforehand appeared in some handheld units, however not almost as many as AMD chips. With Panther Lake, the corporate has an actual shot at difficult AMD.
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A brand new income stream for Intel
Panther Lake may halt Intel’s market share slide within the laptop computer market, which alone could be nice information for the corporate. Seriously difficult AMD within the handheld PC market is icing on the cake, representing a brand new income stream for Intel.
How Panther Lake’s efficiency holds up when energy utilization is scaled down, vital for handheld units, stays to be seen. Valve is reportedly engaged on a brand new model of the Steam Deck, however the firm has said that it is ready for vital efficiency enhancements earlier than shifting ahead. Panther Lake could possibly be adequate, though this might seemingly be a 2027 story on the earliest.
While Intel had largely ceded the hand held PC market to AMD previously, the corporate is utilizing Panther Lake to regain its foothold. It will take time for any Intel-powered handhelds to hit the market, however AMD’s dominance seems to be in danger.