We have our first benchmarks of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H. The unusual ‘X’ naming scheme has been linked to the new Panther Lake processors, which Intel will be launching in 2026 at CES in early January. There have already been glimpses of Panther Lake-powered tech, such as an Acer laptop that featured at IFA Berlin a few months ago.

A list of the mobile chips were leaked in release notes for HWMonitor, a hardware monitoring tool, revealing twelve new CPUs headlined by the X9 388H model, codenamed Panther Lake-H. These are a step above the non-X models, which cap out at the Ultra 9 375H. It’s worth noting that Intel is yet to name every single SKU, so these specs may not be final just yet.

Intel Core Ultra X9 388H benchmarks appear on Geekbench

The first thing to point out is that these 388H benchmarks come ahead of the release of Panther Lake, so may not represent the final performance of the chip. We can also compare the performance of the new flagship mobile chip to that of pre-release benchmarks for the 285H and 185H, sourced from ahead of their respective release dates. All three mobile CPUs come with a 16-core design. The latest Intel Core 200 and 100 series scores are sourced from Geekbench 6 processor benchmarks.

Leaked benchmarks for the Core Ultra X9 388H show it performing up to 17% faster in single-core than the previous generation 285H, and nearly 20% in multi-core. Back when Intel formally introduced Panther Lake, it claimed up to 50% better CPU and GPU performance than the ‘Lunar Lake’ 200 series (otherwise known as Core Ultra Series 2).

Overall, Panther Lake seems to be shaping up to be a solid generational upgrade. These Geekbench benchmarks only relate to CPU performance, so we’ll have to wait and see how much difference the new Xe3 cores make to graphics, and the potential of gaming. The integrated graphics on Lunar Lake weren’t too bad for gaming, so we expect even better in 2026.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.