It's hard to imagine some of the best gaming laptops without a discrete GPU like Nvidia's RTX 50-series graphics cards, but the upcoming Intel Panther Lake CPUs sporting integrated graphics may change the playing field.
A next-gen Intel Core Ultra 300 series CPU has shown up in Geekbench, showing benchmark results for an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor in an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Not only does this reveal that we can expect Panther Lake to show up in one of the most popular gaming laptops we've tested, but it also shows its integrated graphics performance — without a dedicated GPU.
While Intel Panther Lake is already looking to kick off a new lineup of slim gaming rigs, our picks for the best gaming laptops are more than capable of playing the latest PC games.
Now, there's no telling what this test was really for, and it may not show the true strength of the integrated graphics performance of the CPU, considering Panther Lake is set to make its way to laptops in 2026. However, it tells us two key details:
- We'll likely see Intel Panther Lake power upcoming Asus ROG gaming laptops: With the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H in the Zephyrus G14, that's a good sign that testing is already being done for next year's Asus laptops.
- There may not be a need for a discrete GPU: There's no dedicated Nvidia GPU in sight in this benchmark unit, showing that Asus may be considering laptops without Nvidia's latest graphics cards.
Of course, this may not be the case at all. As per the result, while the 52,014 OpenCL score beats an RTX 3050 laptop GPU's Geekbench score of 50,918, which is an impressive feat for integrated graphics, it still falls behind an RTX 4050's 75,228 benchmark. We're now on entry-level RTX 5050 graphics cards, and even the latest Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 we tested comes with up to an RTX 5080.
We've seen how Intel's upcoming Panther Lake CPUs aim to deliver 50% more GPU performance compared to Lunar Lake, thanks to its advanced Xe3 architecture, and this certainly appears to be the case, according to another recent early benchmark showing 3DMark results for a Core Ultra X9 388H processor.
More integrated, less dedicated
All-in-one chipsets with integrated graphics are having their moment. Not only is Intel Panther Lake gearing up to be a fitting processor for gaming handhelds, but with Intel and Nvidia partnering up to deliver x86 RTX chips and Qualcomm making strides in gaming with its upcoming Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip for laptops, we may see a new lineup of slim, portable gaming laptops with formidable performance in the next year.
This brings into question whether we'll see less dedicated GPUs like an RTX 50-series in upcoming gaming laptops. Even Apple's recent M5 MacBook Pro saw frame rates up to 55 FPS at 1080p resolution in Resident Evil 4 Remake, and up to 120 FPS with MetalFX enabled.
With AI tech such as Nvidia's DLSS 4 and AMD's FSR 4 offering upscaled visuals and higher frame rates, and this being put into action in Intel's latest Panther Lake chips with XeSS 3 tech introducing multi-frame generation with a 1.5x improvement, there may be less of a need for discrete graphics cards in laptops.
But not just yet. As we've seen time and time again, the latest lineup of GPU units in laptops delivers high-end gaming performance that integrated graphics in a CPU just can't match. Take the Alienware 16X Aurora with an RTX 5060 I tested, reaching over 160 FPS at high settings with DLSS 4 turned on.
Either way, there's a new era of gaming laptops on the horizon, and you may not find a dedicated GPU in them.
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