Intel Newest Releases Panther Lake Its built-in Arc B390 graphics chip has made quite an impact, and real-world gaming performance tests confirm it’s truly impressive—even when“Cyberpunk 2077” can also deliver performance averaging over 80 FPS…and at the press conference, Intel also claimed to have significantly outperformed its competitors AMD. AMD also has something to say about this; they believe it’s completely unfair to compare a high-end product to a mid-range one, and they aren’t at all concerned about Panther Lake, since their own Strix Halo outperforms it in every aspect of graphics performance.
AMD took a jab at Intel by comparing its top-of-the-line Panther Lake product to AMD’s mid-range offering, showing no concern whatsoever about the new processor.
According to a report by Tom’s Hardware, they conducted an on-site interview with Rahul Tikoo, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Client Products Group, at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, which included AMD’s response to Intel’s latest high-performance Panther Lake mobile processors.
Tikoo noted that Intel deliberately excluded any Strix Halo APUs from its presentation comparisons and instead used AMD’s mid-range Ryzen AI series chips for comparison—and there’s a reason for that.
AMD is not afraid of Intel’s new chips and believes that its high-performance Ryzen AI Max (Strix Halo) APUs and mainstream Ryzen AI series chips are better suited to meet market demand.
Tikoo stated bluntly, “The Strix Halo—also known as the Ryzen AI Max—will completely wipe the floor with it. This isn’t even a fair matchup, because its graphics performance is already on par with a discrete graphics card.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the details, during the Panther Lake (Core Ultra 3) launch event, Intel compared its top-of-the-line Core Ultra X9 388H to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370:
Tikoo added, “Our strategy is for the Strix Halo to go head-to-head with the Ryzen AI Max (Panther Lake with 12 Xe cores) and outperform it in every aspect, including graphics performance. As for mainstream users in the market, they don’t actually place that much emphasis on graphics performance. To be honest, most laptop users—unless they’re creators or gamers—don’t really need that much graphics power.”
AMD believes that when consumers are shopping for laptops, they make their choices based on their specific needs—such as what applications they primarily use and what games they typically play.
They are currently in the most advantageous position in the market, offering two distinct product lines to precisely meet the differing performance needs of heavy users and professional consumers, as well as those of mainstream consumers.
Although AMD does have a valid point, I’d still like to say a few words in Intel’s defense. The current argument is based on the fact that the Core Ultra X9 388H laptop is priced significantly higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, so this comparison isn’t fair.
At this stage, it’s unclear how much laptops featuring the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H will cost. If they end up being priced similarly to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, then Panther Lake will undoubtedly be very competitive.
Source: KOCPC Chinese