Intel Launches Core Ultra Series 3: A New Era for AI‑Powered PCs and Edge Devices

During the Intel Series 3 launch at CES 2026, the company showcased nine dynamic demos that spanned gaming, artificial intelligence, content creation, retail, and edge computing—all running on its new Intel® Core Ultra Series 3 processors. The presentation underscored the platform’s dual focus: delivering unrivaled performance and graphics for consumer PCs while simultaneously enabling mission‑critical workloads in embedded and industrial environments. ## First Platform Built on Intel 18A Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 marks the first commercial compute platform to use the 18A process technology—Intel’s most advanced semiconductor node ever produced in the United States. The move to 18A offers a significant leap in power density and efficiency, allowing the new processors to achieve headline‑grabbing performance gains while keeping thermal envelopes manageable within slim PC form factors. ## Broad Adoption Across the PC Landscape With a robust family of silicon, the Series 3 is already shipping in over 200 laptop and desktop designs from leading OEMs worldwide. The lineup ranges from high‑performance Core Ultra X9 and X7 models with up to 16 CPU cores, 12 Xe‑cores, and 50 TOPS of NPU acceleration to more mainstream Core Ultra designs that provide better price‑performance ratios without compromising on power efficiency. ### X9 and X7: The New Gold Standard for Mobile Users The X9 and X7 SKUs are purpose‑built for power users who demand advanced workloads such as gaming, media creation, and multitasking while on the move. Key benchmarks show: - **~60 % better multithread performance** relative to the previous Lunar Lake architecture at comparable power envelopes. - **~77 % higher gaming throughput**, measured across a suite of 45 titles at 1080p with 2x upscaling. - **Up to 27 hours of battery life** in a Lenovo IdeaPad reference design during Netflix streaming at 1080p in Edge browser. The core family’s focus on integrating Intel® Arc GPU graphics delivers a true one‑chip solution, boosting not only raw performance but also integration simplicity and power efficiency. ## Expanding into Edge and Industrial AI For the first time, Series 3 processors are validated for embedded and industrial uses. Certified for extended temperature ranges, deterministic performance, and 24/7 uptime, they support edge use cases in robotics, smart‑city infrastructure, automation, and healthcare. Performance metrics in these domains highlight: - **1.9× higher large‑language‑model (LLM) throughput**, measured with DeepSeek Ilama‑8B. - **2.3× better video‑analytics performance per watt‑dollar**, using BS8 benchmarks. - **4.5× higher vision‑language‑action (VLA) throughput** on ACT‑Bimanual insertion models. By consolidating CPU, GPU, and AI accelerators onto a single SoC, the Series 3 delivers superior total cost of ownership compared to multi‑chip CPU‑GPU configurations. ## Availability Consumer laptops featuring Core Ultra Series 3 will open for pre‑orders on January 6, 2026, with the first units shipping globally by January 27, 2026; additional models are slated to appear through the first half of the year. Edge‑centric systems based on the same silicon will become available in Q2 2026. Intel’s launch of Core Ultra Series 3 redefines the intersection of AI, performance, and power efficiency, positioning the company at the forefront of the next generation of high‑performance PCs and edge computing solutions.