Saturday, January 10th 2026
Intel Core Ultra X9 388H "Panther Lake" iGPU Doubles AMD "Strix Point" Performance in Cyberpunk 2077
Intel's "Panther Lake" chips, built on the 18A node, debuted at CES 2026, featuring Arc B390 integrated graphics. This launch shows that Intel is now commited to delivering some of the best-in-class iGPU performance. Digital Foundry has reported impressive performance claims from Intel. In Cyberpunk 2077, at 1080p resolution with the game set to "Ultra" and with ray-traced shadows and reflections enabled, Intel's top-tier Core Ultra X9 388H SKU achieves 28 FPS. While this may not seem remarkable at first glance, under the same settings, AMD's "Strix Point" Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 with Radeon 890M graphics manages only 14 FPS. This suggests that the "Panther Lake" chip performs twice as fast in early game results. In Intel's own testing, the "Panther Lake" chip is 73% faster with upscaling technologies and 82% faster at native resolution compared to AMD's "Strix Point," indicating an average across multiple titles. This also means there are instances where the Arc B390 outputs 100% more frames compared to the Radeon 890M.
Regarding desktop GPU performance, Intel is now comparable to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 discrete GPU, which scored 27 FPS in the same Cyberpunk 2077 game settings. Intel is collaborating with developers to integrate its latest XeSS3 multi-frame generation upscaling technology into numerous titles from the start. Cyberpunk 2077 is supported from day one, resulting in about a 3x increase in frame rates compared to XeSS2. In comparison to NVIDIA, Intel also claims to surpass NVIDIA's DLSS with the RTX 4050, particularly since XeSS3 supports multi-frame generation, which the RTX 4050 does not.
Source:
Digital Foundry
Regarding desktop GPU performance, Intel is now comparable to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 discrete GPU, which scored 27 FPS in the same Cyberpunk 2077 game settings. Intel is collaborating with developers to integrate its latest XeSS3 multi-frame generation upscaling technology into numerous titles from the start. Cyberpunk 2077 is supported from day one, resulting in about a 3x increase in frame rates compared to XeSS2. In comparison to NVIDIA, Intel also claims to surpass NVIDIA's DLSS with the RTX 4050, particularly since XeSS3 supports multi-frame generation, which the RTX 4050 does not.
98 Comments on Intel Core Ultra X9 388H "Panther Lake" iGPU Doubles AMD "Strix Point" Performance in Cyberpunk 2077
A pity they didn't compare against the actual top-tier chip from AMD, which is the 395
Between 3 years old 890M and 2 years old 8040S.
If I were to criticize this benchmark I'd argue that using Cyberpunk with RT disadvantages AMD since RDNA 3 is bad at RT. It's still useful data since more and more games are using RT, but I wouldn't expect such dramatic results in most games.
Face it, Intel is taking the lead in iGPUs. Strix Halo is too expensive to ever grab any meaningful marketshare (I've complained about the pricing on it forever now). Panther Lake is going to beat the pants off of Gorgon Point if Intel can be price-competitive, plain and simple.
It’s sizeable but not that big.
They can and probably will bring prices down when it looks like intel is starting to eat their cake
The closest thing Intel had was Lunar Lake, which was probably too expensive to manufacture.
It'll be interesting to see some real benchmarks with more than a single game, Intel GPU's usually do well with RT, but their drivers and raster performance has been very hit or miss.
It’s also on 4nm not 3nm like lunarlake
And the packaging is cheaper for amd.
It’s more expensive but it’s not this can only sit in 2000 usd laptops
AMD has not kept pace in iGPU. Intel was breathing down their neck for years before this breakthrough.
Not just the chip.
Amd is asking silly prices because they can not because 395 is so expensive to make, yes it’s more expensive than a 370 but not by anything that would make systems made with it more than 1000 extra
Find it odd that there was a push for cloud gaming and it failed then shit like FSR and DLS popped up.
Soon it be look cloud gaming is as good now and it will be all due to the delay. Lets face it you play a multiplayer game it can be 80ms +\- delay and FSR and DLLS.
It's no secret that Strix Halo doesn't offer much if any advantage over a mobile 5060 in gaming, yet for some reason AMD insist on charging such a premium for it. I just don't think being able to run larger LLMs (poorly too) justifies such a significant increase in price, and I get the feeling AMD would rather have positioned Strix Halo to compete with gaming laptops if they had had the option of doing so. But they didn't, and most likely that comes down to AMD knowing they couldn't have manufactured Strix Halo cheaply enough to properly position it as a competitive mainstream product, so they sought to market it as an expensive niche instead.
At the end of the day, people need to realize Intel has become a force to be reckoned with in the GPU arena, and that AMD has been slacking in that same department. No, they aren't as bad as Intel was after SandyBridge, but they've seriously underestimated Intel in this space and they're about to pay the price for it.
It’s an ok gaming solution for an ok price product, but they refuse to sell it as such
Playing any any sort of multiplayer game on cloud streaming is a one way pain train.Never said it was forced on you. I dont know where people get the confidence to build arguments on things people didnt say. Reeding comprehension r hrd.It's the old chestnut of the market determining the price. If they have no issue selling them at such an elevated price, then that is the appropriate price.
Sucks for us but they'd have to be genuinely stupid to cut the price in half for no reason.:roll::laugh::roll:
The company with 0% dGPU marketshare is a "force to be reckoned with"? Really? You cant be serious!
So long as intel cant make a dent in sales and has fantastic 1-2 year driver support for their xe iGPUs, there is no way in hell that AMD will be paying any sort of price.