Leak claims new Intel gaming CPUs could be even slower than its current ones, which is pretty disappointing

Intel's next big CPU range is set to be the Intel Core Ultra 300 series, which is expected to arrive in early 2026 and bring with it the debut of the company's much-talked-about new manufacturing process: 18A. This new system promises even more densely-packed transistors and better power efficiency, but some early leaks of the new chips suggest their peak performance isn't going to be all that impressive.

I wasn't expecting these particular Intel chips, based on a new Panther Lake architecture, to be earning spots on our best gaming CPU guide, as the whole series is only destined for laptops and other mobile devices. Instead, it's the company's upcoming Nova Lake chips that you'll want to keep an eye out for on the desktop front.

Back to Panther Lake, though, and a leak from tech testers, Laptopreview, has shown how the new chips allegedly perform in both CPU and GPU benchmarks. Specifically, the site has shown scores for the Cinebench R23 CPU benchmark and the 3DMark Time Spy GPU benchmark, running on the Intel Core Ultra X7 385H and Core Ultra 5 338H.

In 3DMark, the chips perform impressively. One of their known features is that they're set to have impressively powerful integrated GPUs. They'll be based on the company's new Xe3 graphics architecture and be much larger than on previous Intel chips. To that end, the Core Ultra X7 385H is shown almost exactly doubling the 3DMark score of the current-generation Core Ultra 7 255H.

For reference, its score of 6,830 is still half that of the RTX 5050 or RX 7600, for instance, but it's a huge leap up from the 3,956 points of the Core Ultra 7 255H. That could potentially mean playable performance in modern games on Intel integrated graphics at 1080p.

However, while there's potential for some interesting thin and light gaming laptops that could rival the likes of the Razer Blade 14 and Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 without the need for an extra Nvidia GPU, when it comes to CPU performance, these chips look less promising.

In Cinebench R23, the Core Ultra X7 385H reportedly scored 20,000 points when running at 65W, which compares to 21,826 for the Core Ultra 7 255H in 65W mode and 22,578 in 80W mode. Meanwhile, the Core Ultra 5 338H is well behind on 16,000 points.

Now, this is a multi-core test, so when it comes to the Core Ultra 5 338H, we'd expected it to be behind the higher-end chips, as it's only a 12-core chip while the others are 16-core models. However, you'd expect the more modern Core Ultra X7 385H to comfortably outperform the Core Ultra 7 255H, yet this isn't the case.

Complicating the comparison is that the Core Ultra X7 385H has a slightly different core configuration from the Core Ultra 7 255H. It has four performance cores (P-Cores), eight efficiency cores (E-Cores), and four low-power efficiency cores (LP-Cores), compared to the Core Ultra 7 255H's six P-Cores, eight E-Cores, and two LP-Cores.

This reduction in P-Cores and increase in LP-Cores would seem to account for the difference in scores, with Intel appearing to prioritizie peak performance on fewer cores - ideal for gaming - at the expense of fully-loaded multi-core performance. But, you might still expect a new chip using a new architecture with a brand new manufacturing process to still compete, despite these slight differences.

Ultimately, we'll have to wait and see just how good or not Intel Core Ultra 300 Panther Lake CPUs will be when they launch next year. There's still every chance they could be a game-changer for mobile gaming.

While we wait to hear more about Intel's future CPU plans, why not have a read of our best gaming laptop guide, to see just what Intel's current CPUs can do in the latest devices. Also, be sure to jump onto our community Discord server to give us your thoughts on this latest Intel news.