Intel’s 1st Gen Core Ultra processors are up for purchase, marking the debut of the 4nm-class Intel 4 process node. These Meteor Lake chips are the first from Team Blue to leverage a modular (chiplet/tiled) architecture with the iGPU/SoC dies fabbed on TSMC’s 4nm/6nm nodes. Intel’s official benchmarks make them look like a modest improvement over Raptor Lake, with a focus on graphics and efficiency.
Intel Meteor Lake CPU Performance
Unfortunately, (unbiased) third-party reviews like this one from NBC overturn that opinion. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is slower and less efficient than AMD’s year-old Ryzen 7 7840S in pretty much every workload, including content creation, productivity, and gaming.
In Cinebench 2024, the Core Ultra 7 155H scores up to 747 points, falling short of the Ryzen 7 7840S, which posts 853 points. The same happens in R23, where the 155H nets 15,043 points, while the 7840HS manages 15,102 points.
If that weren’t bad enough, the Core Ultra 7 155H is also notably less power-efficient than AMD’s Ryzen 7940HS. The 7940HS yields (up to) 254 points per watt, while the 155H is limited to 189.7.
The Core Ultra 7 155H is slower than the Ryzen 7 7840U at every power limit from 28W to 45W. The difference is particularly glaring at lower power envelopes, especially between 28W and 35W. Here, the multi-core deltas expand to nearly 2,000 points in R23.
PCMark 10 isn’t any faster on the Core Ultra 7 155H. The Meteor Lake chip falls short of the Ryzen 7 7840U by 116 points in this benchmark. We’re looking at 6,625 points on the former versus 6,741 points on the latter.
iGPU Gaming Performance
Meteor Lake is an even bigger disappointment in gaming, especially since it was marketing as one of its key points. The Xe-LPG Arc GPU on the Core Ultra 7 155H falls short of the Radeon 780M (R7 7840) in every game, with a markedly worse power efficiency.
In Dota 2, the Core Ultra 7 averages 73 FPS at 1080p Ultra, while the Radeon 780M nets a more satisfying 79 FPS. Moreover, there’s a 22 FPS delta between their lows, as the former often drops to sub-60 values.
Final Fantasy XV favors the Radeon 780M with 29 FPS on average. The Arc iGPU on the 155H is a stuttering mess at 18 FPS.
GTA V runs poorly on the Radeon 780M, with 22.3 FPS on average. The 155H is much worse, averaging 13 FPS with lows of 2 FPS.
Far Cry 5 has been out for quite some time now. The Radeon 780M posts an average of (up to) 40 FPS, while the Arc iGPU on the Core Ultra 7 155H lags with just 33 FPS.
The Witcher 3 isn’t meant for iGPUs, but the Radeon 780M manages an average of 30 FPS, up from 23.3 FPS on the Meteor Laked chip.
The iGPU power efficiency figures aren’t any positive for the Core Ultra 7 155H. The Xe-LPG graphics score 0.46 FPS per watt, while the Radeon 780M nets nearly 0.6 FPS per watt. And with that, the cycle of shame is complete. Meteor Lake looks like an absolute waste of sand, lacking performance or efficiency upgrades.
