For those curious how far Intel laptop CPU performance has evolved over the past nearly two decades, here are power and performance numbers when re-benchmarking all of the Intel-powered laptop CPUs I have on hand that are still operational from Penryn to Panther Lake. A ThinkPad from 2008 with the Core 2 Duo T9300 “Penryn” was still firing up and working with the latest upstream Intel open-source Linux driver support on Ubuntu 26.04 development. On a geo mean basis over the past 18 years from Penryn to Panther Lake, the performance was at 21.5x in over 150 benchmarks. At the most extreme was a 95x difference going from Intel’s 45nm Penryn to the 18A Panther Lake.
With being fairly impressed by the power efficiency and generational performance gains of Intel Panther Lake on Linux, especially when it comes to the Xe3 graphics with the Arc B390, over the past month I have been re-benchmarking all the old laptops in my lab for seeing exactly how far the Intel laptop CPU performance on Linux has evolved over the past two decades.
The Panther Lake laptop on top compared to the thickness of the oldest laptops tested…
Earlier this month I looked at how the the Arc B390 graphics have evolved since the Skylake / Gen9 graphics era. Today’s article is looking just at the CPU side and going all the way back to Penryn. It doesn’t make sense testing the graphics performance pre-Gen9 since there the Intel integrated graphics are simply too slow and also lack reliable Vulkan driver support that makes it rather difficult to effectively compare the modern graphics performance of Xe3 to these very old generations. So see the prior article in case you missed it and interested in seeing how Intel laptop integrated graphics have evolved since the Gen9 area.
Complementing all the modern Intel Core (Ultra) and AMD Ryzen laptop testing is the big Intel generational CPU comparison look back to Penryn. This comparison was based on the hardware I had available in freshly re-testing all of the hardware atop a modern Linux stack for comparable results and always re-testing hardware at Phoronix for the most representative and accurate experience. Given these oldest Intel laptops are no longer supported on the latest Microsoft Windows releases, it’s a real treat on Linux seeing how far the Intel laptop CPU performance has come with the modern Ubuntu 26.04 development software stack across the board.
The laptops tested included:
Core 2 Duo T9300 – ThinkPad T61 – The oldest laptop I had that still was powering up and working was a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 with the Core 2 Duo T9300 Penryn processor. The Core 2 Duo T9300 features two physical cores without any Hyper Threading and clocked up to 2.5GHz while having a 35 Watt TDP. This ThinkPad T61 had 4GB of DDR2 memory.
Core i7 720QM – ThinkPad W510 – Another very vintage laptop in the mix was the Core i7 720QM for the first-generation Clarksfield quad-core CPU from 2009. This 45nm processor has four physical cores plus Hyper Threading and clocking up to 2.8GHz and a 45 Watt default TDP. This laptop had 4GB of DDR3-1066 memory.
Core i5 2520M – HP EliteBook 8460p – Sandy Bridge! This laptop was one of Intel’s Software Development Vehicles for Sandy Bridge. The Core i5 2520M features two cores plus Hyper Threading, 2.5GHz base frequency with 3.2GHz Turbo, and a 35 Watt TDP. It’s also with this CPU and newer where Intel supports RAPL/PowerCap for exposing CPU power sensors for being able to monitor the CPU power consumption and in turn performance-per-Watt in these benchmarks. This laptop had 4GB of DDR3-1333 memory.
Core i7 3517U – ASUS UX32VDA – This Core i7 Ivy Bridge featured two cores plus HT, 1.9GHz base frequency, 3.0GHz turbo frequency, and a 17 Watt TDP. This ASUS laptop was equipped with 4GB of DDR3-1600 memory.
Core i7 4558U – ASUS UX301LAA – Still good memories of this Haswell laptop. The Core i7 4558U Haswell CPU has two cores plus HT, 2.8GHz base frequency, 3.3GHz turbo frequency, and a 28 Watt TDP. This laptop had 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory.
Core i7 5600U – ThinkPad X1 Carbon G3 – This Broadwell laptop CPU was two cores / four threads with a 2.6GHz base frequency, 3.2GHz turbo frequency, and a 15 Watt TDP. This early ThinkPad X1 Carbon model had 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory.
Core i7 8550U – Dell XPS 13 9370 – This Kabylake CPU has four cores / eight threads with a 1.8GHz base frequency and 4.0GHz turbo frequency with a 15 Watt default TDP. This Dell XPS laptop had 8GB of LPDDR3-1867 memory.
Core i7 8565U – Dell XPS 13 9380 – The Core i7 Whiskey Lake CPU was four cores / eight threads with a 1.8GHz base frequency and 4.6GHz turbo frequency with a 15 Watt TDP. This 14nm CPU was paired with 16GB LPDDR3-2133 memory.
Core i7 1065G7 – Dell XPS 13 7390 – The Ice Lake laptop CPI has four cores / eight threads, 1.3GHz base frequency, 3.9GHz turbo frequency, and a 15 Watt TDP. This Dell XPS laptop had 16GB of LPDDR4-3733 memory.
Core i7 1165G7 – Dell XPS 13 9310 – This Tiger Lake quad core + HT CPU has a 3.0GHz base frequency and 4.8GHz turbo frequency with a 28 Watt TDP. The Tiger Lake laptop was paired with 16GB of LPDDR4-4267 memory.
Core i7 1280P – MSI Prestige 14Evo – The Alder Lake laptop CPU has 14 cores of 6 P cores and 8 E cores. The P cores have Hyper Threading for a total of 20 threads. The Core i7 1280P has a 28 Watt TDP. The MSI Alder Lake laptop is paired with 16GB of LPDDR4-4267 memory.
Core i5 1334U – Framework 12 – This Raptor Lake U laptop has ten cores between two P cores and eight E cores for a total of 12 threads. The max turbo frequency is 4.6GHz and the i5-1334U has a base TDP of 15 Watts. This Framework Laptop has a single channel of DDR5-5200 memory.
Core Ultra 7 155H – Acer Swift 14 – This Meteor Lake laptop CPU has 6 P cores, 8 E cores, and 2 LPE cores for a total of 16 cores / 22 threads with a max turbo frequency of 4.8GHz while having a 28 Watt base power rating. The Meteor Lake CPU was paired with 16GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory.
Core Ultra 7 256V – Zenbook S14 – This Lunar Lake CPU has eight cores between 4 P cores and 4 LPRE cores. The Core Ultra 7 256V has a 4.8GHz maximum turbo frequency and a 17 Watt base power rating. This Lunar Lake CPU has 16GB LPDDR5-8533 memory.
Core Ultra X7 358H – MSI Prestige 14 – Lastly is the sole Panther Lake laptop in the lab at the moment. The Core Ultra X7 358H has 4 P cores, 8 E cores, and 4 LPE cores for a total of 16 cores/threads. There is a maximum turbo frequency of 4.8GHz and a 25 Watt base power rating. This MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI D3MTG MS-14T2 laptop has 32GB of LPDDR5-8533 memory.
All laptops were tested on the Ubuntu 26.04 development state over the past two months for a fresh kernel and other software packages.
Besides looking at the raw performance, the CPU power consumption was also monitored on a per-test basis for Sandy Bridge and newer where the PowerCap/RAPL interfaces are available for being able to read the CPU power consumption to avoid factoring in the laptop panel, cooling, and other differences between these different laptop models.
Over 150 benchmarks were run on each of these laptops under test for looking at the performance and power efficiency across all these laptop models as far back as Penryn and through the exciting days of especially Sandy Bridge, Haswell, Broadwell, etc, and now kicking off 2026 with the new and very exciting Panther Lake.
