At CES 2025, Intel unveiled the new Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processors, featuring AI enhancements, increased efficiency and performance improvements.
“Intel Core Ultra processors are setting new benchmarks for mobile AI and graphics, once again demonstrating the superior performance and efficiency of the x86 architecture as we shape the future of personal computing,” says Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products.
“The strength of our AI PC product innovation, combined with the breadth and scale of our hardware and software ecosystem across all segments of the market, is empowering users with a better experience in the traditional ways we use PCs for productivity, creation and communication, while opening up completely new capabilities with over 400 AI features.
“And Intel is only going to continue bolstering its AI PC product portfolio in 2025 and beyond as we sample our lead Intel 18A product to customers now ahead of volume production in the second half of 2025.”
Intel Core Ultra 200V Series
For businesses striving to stay ahead in the AI era, Intel introduces Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors with Intel vPro. These new processors offer dramatic performance gains, enhanced efficiency, and robust security and manageability features to help modernize IT environments.
Intel has partnered with Microsoft to continue to advance AI-driven innovation, enhanced security and superior performance into 2025. Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra 200V series processors unlock next-gen AI productivity, all while delivering long-lasting battery life.
The updated Intel vPro platform further raises the bar for IT excellence, offering comprehensive security, modern device management, and broad app compatibility for seamless IT transitions and device refreshes.
“Copilot+ PCs offer exceptional performance, battery life, enhanced AI experiences, and are all Secured-core PCs with the Microsoft Pluton security processor. Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra 200V series deliver on all these fronts, and we are excited to partner with Intel to bring a broad set of Copilot+ PCs to commercial audiences,” says Pavan Davuluri, corporate vice-president: Windows + Devices at Microsoft. “Intel Core Ultra 200V series Copilot+ PCs are an excellent choice for commercial customers looking to upgrade their existing Windows 10 PCs to Windows 11.”
Intel vPro
Intel vPro continues offer advanced fleet provisioning, unmatched defense and manageability with AI enhanced security, premium connectivity and exceptional device stability.
“With decades of experience delivering proven business solutions, Intel is committed to empowering IT professionals with the most advanced tools for managing distributed fleets securely and efficiently,” says David Feng, vice-president of the Client Computing Group and GM of Client Segments at Intel. “We’re accelerating innovation with Intel vPro to provide IT teams the capabilities they need to maximize productivity and reduce complexity.”
Key Intel vPro features include:
- Enhanced Productivity: Intel Core Ultra 200V processors help deliver exceptional battery life in thin-and-light designs, empowering AI experiences on the go.
- Advanced Security: Intel vPro Security is the only hardware-assisted security validated by the MITRE ATT&CK framework, with more than 150 silicon-enabled mitigations. A new Intel Partner Security Engine provides an isolated platform for third-party firmware, such as Microsoft Pluton, enhancing sensitive data protection4.
- Seamless Manageability: New out-of-band diagnosis and remediation tools, including Intel Endpoint Cloud Services, simplify remote support and ensure rapid recovery from PC outages. Intel vPro Fleet Services, which will preview in the first half of this year, allows IT professionals to manage PC fleets remotely via an Intel-hosted cloud service. It is ideal for organisations seeking flexible, cloud-based device management.
- Unrivaled Stability: With Intel vPro’s support for 99.7% app compatibility, IT managers can confidently migrate to the latest technologies without disrupting business operations.
Intel Core Ultra 200HX and H Series
For creators and gaming enthusiasts, Intel introduces the Core Ultra 200HX and H series mobile processors, delivering industry-leading performance, efficiency and platform capabilities, alongside a landmark reduction in power usage. These processors elevate mobile creativity and provide gamers with an immersive experience backed by powerful AI acceleration.
“Our Intel Core Ultra 200HX and H series processors are built for the next generation of creators and gamers,” says Josh Newman, vice-president of the Client Computing Group and GM of Product Marketing and Management at Intel. “With breakthrough compute and graphics performance, efficiency and AI capabilities, these processors will push the entire laptop experience to new heights.”
Key features of the Intel Core Ultra 200HX and H series mobile processors include:
- Up to 24 cores – eight Performance-cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficient-cores (E-cores) – for HX-series and up to 16 cores – six P-cores, eight E-cores and two low-power E-cores – for H-series, based on Intel’s latest core architecture. These new processors give gamers, creators and professionals the computing power they need for gaming and creating on the go – including up to 41% better multi-thread (MT) performance for Intel Core Ultra 200HX series compared to prior-gen HX-series processors.
- The Intel Core Ultra 200H series features Intel Arc™ graphics with up to eight Intel Xe cores featuring Intel Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) for AI acceleration – providing up to 22% better gaming performance compared with prior gen H-series processors. Across the entire platform these processors deliver up to 99 TOPS (trillion operations per second) when using the graphics processing unit (GPU), central processing unit (CPU) and neural processing unit (NPU).
- The Intel Core Ultra 200HX series processor is Intel’s first mobile enthusiast AI PC with a built-in NPU, providing 13 TOPS.
- The Intel Core Ultra 200HX series processor provides the latest in bandwidth and connectivity, with as many as 48 total PCIe lanes (including PCIe 4.0 and 5.0) to connect the latest discrete GPUs and storage.
- Packaging improvements result in a 33% smaller processor package overall, enabling new premium thin-and-light designs without compromising on performance.
Select Intel Core Ultra 200HX SKUs will offer overclocking options to further tune performance, with key features including:
- Compute overclocking for P-cores and E-cores.
- Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) support for DDR5 SODIMM overclocking.
- New overclocking interfaces including die-to-die and fabric and controls like 16,6 megahertz ratios.
- Intel Extreme Tuning Utility with one-click overclocking using the Intel Speed Optimizer feature.
Additionally, Intel is launching its Intel Core Ultra 200U series mobile processors featuring up to two P-cores and eight E-cores, Intel Xe LPG graphics, and up to 24 platform TOPS. Intel Core Ultra 200U series systems give users a great balance of performance, power efficiency and price.
Intel is also expanding its Intel Core Ultra 200S series desktop processors with 12 new 65-watt and 35-watt offerings. Featuring up to eight P-cores and 16 E-cores, these new processors will give customers an incredible blend of performance and power efficiency in a desktop CPU – whether for gaming, creating or using productivity applications.
Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) platforms also include premium connectivity, with features including:
- Greater networking speeds, responsiveness and reliability with Intel WiFi 7 (5 Gig) support, along with the fastest, simplest and most reliable USB-C connection with Thunderbolt 5 or Thunderbolt 4 technology.
- Continuous AI-based network connection optimization with Intel® Connectivity Performance Suite software.
- High-fidelity, low-power Intel Bluetooth LE Audio.
- Ability to share screens, keyboard, mouse, storage and files with two PCs using Thunderbolt.
AI Optimisation for the Edge
Intel also unveiled a new suite of processors for edge computing designed to provide scalability and superior performance across diverse use cases. Intel Core Ultra processors deliver remarkable power efficiency, making them ideal for AI workloads at the edge, with performance gains that surpass competing products in critical metrics like media processing and AI analytics.
New Intel Core Ultra 9 processors show tremendous performance improvements in AI workloads compared with the previous generation, setting a new benchmark for edge AI capabilities. When comparing the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H with the 185H, performance is up to 2,2x higher in Procyon AI computer vision, up to 3,3x higher in Llama 3 8B and up to 2,3x higher in stable diffusion 1,5.
TOPS alone don’t define the real-world performance needs at the edge. The Intel Core Ultra 7 processor.
Key edge products launching at CES include:
- Intel Core Ultra 200S/H/U series processors (code-named Arrow Lake).
- Intel Core 200S/H series processors (code-named Bartlett Lake S and Raptor Lake H Refresh).
- Intel Core 100U series processors (code-named Raptor Lake U Refresh).
- Intel Core 3 processor and Intel® Processor (code-named Twin Lake).
Featured picture: Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products, presents the Intel keynote at CES 2025.