Get Ready for 24-Core Laptop Processors At CES 2023, Intel announced its next generation of mobile chips based on the Raptor Lake architecture. This includes a new high-performance 55W part dubbed the HX Series.

Reigning at the top of the HX series is the Core i9 13980HX, a 24-core, 5.6GHz mobile part that looks even more overkill than its predecessor.

This Core i9 is essentially carved straight out of a Raptor Lake desktop processor. It has been modified to a BGA socket more suited to laptops (and a bloody huge footprint versus the slimmer U-series), but the rest of the specs tell the story of a desktop-grade processor: 8 performance cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficient cores (E-cores) for a total of 24 cores, putting it on the same level as the familiar desktop Core i9 13900K (open in new tab).

It may already seem like overkill, but there's more: the Core i9 13980HX runs at a Turbo P-core clock of up to 5.6 GHz. This is only 200 MHz less than the Core i9 13900K, and given that the Core i9 13980HX has a power envelope of 55 W, one wonders if the additional 200 MHz clock is really worth the Core i9 13900K's 253 W power consumption. However, mobile chips cannot sustain the same clock speeds as desktop chips for extended periods of time and can consume as much as 157W of power.

Other key features to look for in the 13th generation HX series include support for both DDR5 and DDR4, x16 PCIe Gen5 lanes, and 32EUs of onboard graphics capability, all generally similar to 12th generation mobile parts.

When it comes to performance, however, the 13th generation is likely to be significantly faster in some cases.

Intel has significantly increased the number of E-cores in its Raptor Lake processors versus Alder Lake, though not as much as in the Core i9 top chip; the Core i9 13950HX has twice as many E-cores as the Core i9 12900HX, similar to the desktop, There is no doubt that multi-threaded performance will be dramatically improved in mobile as well.

When rendering scenes in Blender, Intel reports a 74-79% performance improvement over the Core i9 12900HK from its own tests; the Core i9 13950HX has twice as many E-cores and two P-cores and runs 600 MHz faster.

However, compared to the Core i9 12900HX, the 13th generation chip is frighteningly fast.

In benchmarks of Adobe's suite of creative apps, these gains are less pronounced, but still quite significant: in Premiere Pro, the Core i9 13950HX is 6% faster than the Core i9 12900HK; in Photoshop, 12% 12% faster in Photoshop, and 15% faster in After Effects.

For games, it is worth noting that the 13th generation still delivers higher frame rates, but the improvement is more gradual.

The Core i9 13950HX is the biggest and worst chip of the bunch; the Core i9 13950HX will only be found in the most high-end gaming laptops and desktop PCs. Otherwise, there are the 45W H-series, the 28W P-series, and the 15W U-series.

The 45W H series will likely be found in gaming notebooks and will be a less expensive form factor than the HX series. This is probably the most affordable portable gaming machine of its kind.

On the desktop side, Intel has announced a number of new, less expensive 13th generation chips (open in new tab) that may be included in upcoming builds.