Intel® Core™ Ultra processors (series 2) are packed with advanced "Foveros Advanced 3D packaging technology" that includes 4x different tiles (Tiles or Chiplets), the SOC tile, GPU tile, Compute tile, and I/O tile. The "Compute" tile (3nm TSMC) integrates the processor's physical P and E cores. The SOC tile (6nm TSMC) integrates a 3rd generation neural processing unit (NPU 3) featuring 2x compute engines, the DDR5 memory controller, and the PCI-Express root complex along with the Display Engine, Media Acceleration Engine, and Display I/O for graphics. The GPU tile carries the integrated Intel® Arc™ graphics (disabled in KF and F-Series models) and the I/O tile contains various interfaces (e.g., a second PCIe® Gen 4 controller, a Thunderbolt™ 4 controller, etc.).

The "Compute" tile of the new Intel® Core™ Ultra (series 2) includes two core clusters: the high-performance P cores (Performance) and the low-power E cores (Efficiency), utilizing Intel's innovative "Performance Hybrid Architecture." The P cores (code name Lion Cove) are designed for exceptional performance in single-threaded or lightly-threaded applications. The E cores (code name Skymont) are optimized for lower power consumption and are activated to boost performance in multi-threaded applications, minimizing interruptions from less critical processes. The revolutionary Intel® Thread Director manages and prioritizes the workflows.

The new P (Performance) and E (Efficiency) cores offer improved IPC (Instructions Per Clock) performance compared to the previous generation. The high-performance Lion Cove cores feature 18x execution ports and 3 MB L2 Cache per core, providing up to 9% higher IPC compared to the previous generation Intel® Core™ P cores. On the other hand, the Skymont cores demonstrate double the L2 Cache bandwidth, have 4 MB L2 Cache per core, and offer up to 32% higher IPC compared to the previous generation E cores (Gracemont) in integer calculations and up to 72% higher IPC in floating-point calculations. Both core clusters (P-core cluster and E-core cluster) have access to up to 36 MB Shared Intel® Smart Cache.

The Intel® Core™ Ultra processors (series 2) are the first announced by the company for the desktop platform that feature a specialized Neural Processing Unit (NPU). The NPU integrated into the processor dramatically accelerates Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications and contributes to energy savings. From image processing and video processing with AI to creative AI, streaming, and gaming, the integrated AI capabilities of the Intel® Core™ Ultra processor (series 2) keep you at the cutting edge of technology. The 3rd generation specialized Neural Processing Unit (NPU 3) offers performance up to 13 TOPS in training reasoning and AI inference models.

Intel®'s hybrid architecture is designed to be compatible with the most advanced platform-level technologies. Thus, the specialized embedded controllers in the processor offer support for up to 192 GB of DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and speeds of up to 6,400 MT/s (unofficially, memory speeds of up to 9,600 MT/s will be supported) and the PCIe® Gen5 standard (a total of 20x PCIe® 5.0 lanes, 24x PCIe® 4.0 lanes, and up to 4x eSPI are supported) while support for Thunderbolt™ 4, Wi-Fi® 6E, and Bluetooth® 5.3 (and discrete Thunderbolt™ 5, Intel® Wi-Fi® 7, and Bluetooth® 5.4 modules) is not absent. A motherboard based on the Intel® 800 Series Chipset also supports up to 10x USB® 3.2 ports (with an option for 5x 20G), up to 14x USB 2.0 ports, and up to 8x SATA 3.0 ports.

Thanks to the hybrid architecture that leverages Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost™ and Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 technologies and the revolutionary Intel® Thread Director system, you enjoy optimal performance in all applications and games. This unique computing experience is now personalized in terms of tuning as you have separate control for overclocking the P (Performance) and E (Efficiency) cores. At your disposal, there are also Intel® eXtreme Memory Profile 3.0, Intel® Dynamic Memory Boost, Intel® Speed Shift, Intel® Dynamic Boost technologies, and the suite of overclocking and management tools Intel® eXtreme Tuning Utility to extract every last MHz from your processor, provided it is... "unlocked" (KF and K-series).

Intel® has managed to significantly reduce the energy footprint of the new Intel® Core™ Ultra (series 2) processors, with the top model of the series consuming up to 58% less energy in productivity applications compared to the previous generation "Raptor Lake-R". And when gaming, the Intel® Core® Ultra 9 285K processor consumes up to 73 W less compared to the Intel® Core® i9-14900K processor in certain cases. Less consumption also means lower temperatures, with the new Intel® Core™ Ultra (series 2) processors, according to the manufacturer, operating on average at temperatures approximately 13°C lower than the previous generation (using a 360mm AIO liquid cooling system).