Intel’s Wildcat Lake Entry-Level CPUs to Skip Ray Tracing, Include Two “Xe3” RT Units and XMX Cores

Alright, let’s dive into this wild ride called Intel’s upcoming CPUs. So, Intel’s got these new kids on the block, Wildcat Lake CPUs — meant to shake up the low-end segment and kick Alder Lake-N to the curb. Supposedly.

Intel Wildcat Lake CPUs: The New Kids on the Block with Entry-Level Vibes, but No RT Fancy Stuff

Here’s the deal: Intel’s rolling out Wildcat Lake alongside their flashier sibling, Panther Lake. Now, Panther Lake’s like your overachieving cousin at family reunions, aiming for the mainstream and high-end. Wildcat? It’s gunning for the budget-friendly, entry-level mobiles. If you’re expecting something extra fancy, look elsewhere, buddy.

Both of these lineups — Panther and Wildcat — share some architectural DNA. Think of it as family traits or whatever. We’re talking Cougar Cove P-Cores (sounds fierce, right?), Darkmont E-Cores (bit mysterious, huh?), and this Xe3 "Celestial" graphics architecture (fancy name, little mysterious). Word on the street says Wildcat will pack in 2 P-Cores, 4 LP-E cores, and, uh, 2 Xe3 cores.

Okay, quick tangent: Thunderbolt 4 makes its appearance here! That’s like, super fast connections or something. Plus, there’s support for LPDDR5X/DDR5. Techy folks will nod knowingly. Something about faster performance and stuff. Bringing it back to Wildcat, it’s adopting a BGA 1516 package — whatever that means — smaller, cheaper compared to its Panther counterpart (which is larger, BGA 2540).

Here’s a quirk: no ray tracing. Yup. Even though it’s equipped with 2 Xe3 cores, the ray tracing fairy skipped this one. Makes sense if you squint hard — only two RT units, so why bother? You’ll find some XMX cores there, whispering promises of XeSS support — but whether that’ll impress anyone is still anyone’s guess.

Now, why should you care about all this? Wildcat Lake CPUs are successors to Alder Lake-N & Twin Lake, and they’ve got a future in budget designs and Mini PCs. Oh, and maybe a few handhelds too. Expect them to sip power at lesser than 10W. For those hungry for more details, hold your horses until later this year when things finally start heating up towards launch time.

Quick comparison moment—Wildcat versus the old guards, Alder Lake-N and Twin Lake. For fellow geeks who dote on tables:

• CPU Family: Wildcat Lake v Twin Lake v Alder Lake-N
• P-Core Architecture: Cougar Cove v — v —
• E-Core Architecture: Darkmont v Gracemont v Gracemont
• GPU Architecture: Xe3 "Celestian" v Intel UHD v Intel UHD
• Max GPU Cores: 2 Xe3 Cores v 32 EUs v 32 EUs
• TDP: 9-15W? v 9-15W v 9-15W
• Launch: 2H 2025? v Q1 2025 v Q1 2023

So there you have it. Wildcat Lake’s shaping up to be a nifty little lineup. Stay tuned for more juicy deets when Intel decides to spill the beans.