Intel boasts up to 82% better performance than AMD-powered handhelds with new Panther Lake platform
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The awaited Panther Lake reveal has given something for Team Blue to celebrate, especially on the gaming front, with the push for XeSS 3 upscaling and its AI-accelerated feature set. Panther Lake architecture, although designed for mobile chips in lightweight laptops, isn’t bad for gaming, partly thanks to the introduction of multi-frame generation to its integrated graphics on day one. So, it perhaps goes without saying that Panther Lake will be ideal for handhelds, too.
After showcasing the power of XeSS 3 Multi Frame Generation in its top Arc B390 iGPU, referencing Battlefield 6 benchmarks with over 120 FPS, Intel revealed that handhelds will be catered to as well. Intel says it will be launching “an entire gaming platform” for handhelds, which we should get to learn more about soon. Benchmark results for the B390 reveal an impressive performance uplift compared to what AMD currently has on offer.
Panther Lake handhelds already sound promising
It’s so far, so good, for Intel at CES 2026 – aside from the lack of an Arc B770 announcement. Regardless, it’s clear that Intel wants to push its lightweight hardware by targeting the handheld market. Right now, many PC gaming handhelds feature an AMD chip; this includes the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally. Intel has branched out into SoCs for handheld devices before, notably with the MSI Claw series, but Panther Lake looks to be a major step up.
“And finally, with the performance of our graphics integrated into a low power x86 SoC, plus the progress you’ve just seen in software from Intel, it’s natural that we would think even beyond laptops. So, today, we’re excited to share with you that we will be launching an entire handheld gaming platform with Panther Lake, and we’ll have more news to share on that from our hardware and software partners later this year. I hope you stay tuned.”
Dan Rogers, VP & GM, PC Products at Intel
So far, Intel has published benchmarking results comparing its new top Panther Lake chip, the Core Ultra X9 388H, to AMD’s HX 370. The Arc B390 iGPU achieves better performance, even at lower power. Compared to AMD’s mobile chip, the flagship Panther Lake processor offers up to 82% faster performance on average at native resolution, and is up to 73% better when running with 2x upscaling in supported titles. It’s worth noting that the HX 370 is even more powerful than the popular Ryzen Z-series for handhelds, which prominently features in ROG Ally and Legion Go devices.
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Source: Intel
Source: Intel
Although we’ll have to wait and see what Intel has planned with its partners, we can only expect to see some Panther Lake-powered handhelds in 2026. The 388H even offers similar performance to an RTX 4050 laptop (with x2 upscaling). MSI most recently switched to AMD for its Claw A8, but Panther Lake sounds like the perfect excuse to switch back to Team Blue. MSI is listed as one of the partners in Intel’s presentation, alongside Acer, OneXPlayer, and more.
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