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

So, Intel’s up to something new again with their chips—this time it’s the Wildcat Lake CPUs. Supposedly, they’re swooping in to replace the older Alder Lake-N versions. I guess they’re saying goodbye to the old and, well, more of the old-ish? Anyway, here’s what they’re cooking up.

They’re introducing these alongside the Panther Lake ones. Fancy names, right? Panther for the big cats, Wildcat for… well, the wild entry-level ones. Yeah, so Panthers are for the high-end crowd, while Wildcats are kind of the underdogs, focusing on the entry-level mobiles. Makes you wonder if they throw these ideas around at meetings like they’re naming superhero teams.

Both types—Panther and Wildcat—are sharing some similarities, architecture-wise that is. We’re talking about things like Cougar Cove cores (sounds cozy), Darkmont E-Cores, and Xe3 “Celestial” graphics. No clue why, but Celestial makes me think of stars or maybe just a really epic bowl of cereal I had once. Random? Yes. Relevant? Maybe.

And it doesn’t stop there. Those Wildcat Lake chips are getting Thunderbolt 4, LPDDR5X/DDR5. That’s geeky speak for “faster and better,” I think. Plus, they squeeze all that performance (TOPS) into a neat little package. Smaller than Panther Lake, for sure. Compact is trendy, right?

Now, they’re skipping the whole ray tracing thing. Guess 2 Xe3 cores with 2 RT units aren’t quite up to the task? Makes sense, sorta. They’ve got XMX cores though, so some cool AI stuff is definitely in the mix. How well that’ll work? Only tests tell tales—or so they say.

These Wildcats are heirs to the Alder Lake-N and Twin Lake throne. They’ll probably be the stars in Mini PCs, a few handhelds, and I guess some budget-friendly gear. TDPs under 10W—yeah I’m not even going to pretend like I fully wrapped my head around that. Nerd specs galore. We’ll hear more as their launch gets closer. Stay tuned for the drama.

Alright, throwing down a quick comparison might help all this stick:

| CPU Family | Wildcat Lake | Twin Lake | Alder Lake-N |
|—————|————–|———–|————-|
| Product Family | Core-N? | Core N/N | Core N/N |
| P-Core Architecture | Cougar Cove | N/A | N/A |
| E-Core Architecture | Darkmont | Gracemont | Gracemont |
| GPU Architecture | Xe3 “Celestial” | Intel UHD | Intel UHD |
| Max P-Cores | 4 | N/A | N/A |
| Max E-Cores | 4 (LP) | 8 | 8 |
| Max GPU Cores | 2 Xe3 Cores | 32 EUs | 32 EUs |
| TDP | 9-15W? | 9-15W | 9-15W |
| Launch | 2H 2025? | Q1 2025 | Q1 2023 |

And there you have it, a buffet of techie tidbits about Intel’s latest lineup. Try to keep up if you can.