Powering your Projects: The New Workstation Range from Intel with "Core Ultra 200"
Intel is making a bold statement in the world of workstations with the launch of an entire new range of solutions designed for the working professional and creator in need without offering affordable and powerful solutions. Traditional, both desktop and mobile, this new range will come pre-configured with the latest Arrow Lake "Core Ultra 200" processors from Intel.
The Desktop Beast: The Core Ultra 200S Series
For those that prefer a traditional setup, there are some pretty bold statements made by Intel. Apparently, their Core Ultra-200S CPUs could outperform AMD's flagship Ryzen 9 9950X by as much as 13% in multithreaded workloads (like Cinebench Multicore 2024). Even better, this is achieved with 11% better performance per watt with both chips running at a 125W TDP. That's a healthy nod to efficiency.
The next desktop workstation features support for a maximum of 256 GB of DDR5 EEC memory, with a speed of 6400 MT/s; WiFi 6E, and professional capabilities such as remote KVM, Intel vPro, and Pro Codec.
On the Go Performance: Core Ultra 200H and 200 HX for Laptops
Users on the go have not been neglected also. Core Ultra 200HX for high-performance mobile workstations, while Core Ultra 200H is for thinner and lighter designs. Suppose the 200HX claims to outperform according to single-threaded performance by 8% and multithreaded performance by more than 42% against the rival AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375. Intel also boasts power efficiency of 41% better than the previous Meteor Lake generation, which means better performance at the same power level.
We're already seeing the integration of these new chips into laptops. One such laptop is the HP ZBook Fury 18, which is expected to launch in June, and offers configurations of up to 256GB of EEC DDR5 memory and an NPU to handle local AI tasks. Demand among Intel for showing off the generational gains has been fueled by benchmarks that illustrate impressive uplifts for the flagship Core Ultra 9 285HX over the incumbent i9-14900HX in professional applications.
More budget-conscious mobile workstations will be those like the Dell Pro Max 16, based on the Core Ultra 200H. Intel claims much better performance, up to 22% faster in Geekbench 6.3 multicore tests, compared to the Ryzen AI 9 365. Battery life will also be a major point of emphasis, with Bills claiming over 21 hours on a charge. These laptops will be featuring Intel's Arc 140T integrated graphics, which can handle both professional workloads and some light gaming. The Core Ultra 200H is said to deliver up to 36% better performance across a suite of nine applications when compared to AMD's Zen 4-based Ryzen 9 8945HS.
Even the flagship mobile Core Ultra 9 285H shows promise, being said to achieve up to 26% better performance over the Zen 5-based Ryzen AI 9 365 in just six different applications. Intel also shared the information about its Arc 140T integrated graphics. Particularly strong in applications like Autodesk Inventor and Chaos V-Ray for Cinema 4D, the integrated graphics are reportedly more than 2.15X and 1.30X faster, respectively, than the iGPU within the Core Ultra 185H.
Need More Graphics Power?
For those applications that greatly benefit from even more graphical horsepower (especially in a desktop context), Intel reminds everyone about the existence of its dedicated workstation GPUs, the Arc Pro B60 with 24GB of VRAM, and the Arc Pro B50 with 16GB.
It seems to go without saying that Intel will go beyond workstations at any price to make it attractive for its customers directly to compete with its competitors in these new Core Ultra "Business Units."
