Intel's latest Arrow Lake chips are set to debut this February, with the Intel Core Ultra 200HX series processors aiming to give gaming laptops a big performance boost. Thanks to new benchmarks, they're looking to be the best laptop processors on the market.
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU has shown up on PassMark, an independent benchmarking website, and it's now ranked as the fastest laptop processor around. It scored 61,010, placing it ahead of the upcoming AMD Fire Range Ryzen 9000HX CPUs, including the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D (57,112) and Ryzen 9 7945HX (54,826) chips.
Specs for the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX include 24 cores (8 performance cores, 16 efficient cores), 24 threads and a max speed of 5.4 GHz. This chip, along with the rest of the HX series, is made for “creator and gaming notebooks," as Intel says. Judging by these specs and the benchmark, gaming laptops will see quite a leap in performance gains.
It isn't certain which laptop was tested to get this benchmark score, but it's been spotted in upcoming gaming laptops such as the Asus ROG Strix G16 and Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 AI — which we've named a mid-range monster in our hands-on testing.
Despite being the best-performing laptop processor tested on PassMark overall, even beating the powerful M4 Max, Intel's latest chip still couldn't beat Apple's M-series chips in a key area: single-thread performance.
Apple chips still dominate in single-thread performance
PassMark also revealed single-thread performance benchmarks, and it appears Apple's lineup of M3 processors still leads the charge compared to the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU.
Results show the Ultra 9 275HX achieved a score of 4,732. While it's still one of the top listed performers, the Apple M3 Max (4,792), M3 Pro (4,775) and M3 (4,747) outclassed Intel's next-gen CPU. Single-thread performance relates to a CPU's ability to perform a single task — the bigger the number, the better the performance.
Intel's latest Core Ultra 200H CPUs are expected to offer a 5% boost in single-thread performance, which is an area Intel often performs well in. However, according to these results, it doesn't quite catch up to Apple's M-series processors.
Seeing as the M3 processors even beat the M4 lineup, it indicates that the M3 chips are better suited to excel in PassMark's benchmark. According to tests in our MacBook Pro M4 review, the M4 greatly outperforms the M3 in both Geekbench and handbrake tests. So, take these benchmarks with a pinch of salt.
Intel Core Ultra 200HX is still looking strong
While the PassMark benchmarks only hint at what to expect from Intel's latest Arrow Lake CPUs for laptops, they're still a strong indicator of what performance will look like in upcoming gaming laptops this year. This is especially true given that Intel Core Ultra chips have offered underwhelming performance in the past (check out our Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 review).
Here's a quick look at the Intel Core Ultra 200HX chips coming down the pipeline:
| Chip name | Cores and threads | Max speed (gigahertz) | GPU cores | NPU TOPS |
| Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX | 24 cores / 24 threads | 5.5 GHz | 4 | 13 |
| Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX | 24 cores / 24 threads | 5.4 GHz | 4 | 13 |
| Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX | 20 cores / 20 threads | 5.3 GHz | 4 | 13 |
| Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX | 20 cores / 20 threads | 5.2 GHz | 4 | 13 |
| Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX | 14 cores / 14 threads | 5.1 GHz | 3 | 13 |
| Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX | 14 cores / 14 threads | 5.1 GHz | 3 | 13 |
Of course, performance also depends on the laptop itself and whether it can handle the chip's power inside. We will be testing Intel's new Arrow Lake chips soon, and we'll get a better gauge of how powerful these CPUs are. In the meantime, check out the best gaming laptops on the market.
More from Tom's Guide
- Intel Core Ultra 200H and HX Series chips are here — everything you need to know
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