Comparing the Ultra 9 228V and the Ultra 7 256V to help you decide which one is the right choice for you. Find out the key differences between these two devices!

New comparison between Intel Core Ultra 9 228V vs Ultra 7 256V processors for laptops. Two of the latest chips launched by the American company, which many users are thinking of upgrading to in their new laptop.

But are they really worth it? Let’s take a look at the differences and their performance, among other things.

Technical specifications

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Curiously, with these Intel series we have returned to the era in which the differences between models were basically the clock speed…

Tech giant Intel has launched its first SoCs based on the Lunar Lake microarchitecture . This chip will succeed Meteor Lake in the Core Ultra product line. Compared to the previous generation, the new Ultra 200V Series has brought significant improvements, including:

• Improved Performance and Efficiency – Lunar Lake prioritizes both energy efficiency and increased performance. It uses advanced scheduling to dynamically assign tasks to efficient cores (E-cores) or performance cores (P-cores) based on the demands of the workload. This ensures optimal power usage without sacrificing performance.
• TSMC-manufactured design : Unlike previous generations, Lunar Lake utilizes TSMC’s manufacturing facilities for the compute cores and SoCs. This change allows Intel to leverage TSMC’s advanced N3B and N6 processes to improve performance and efficiency.
• New Core Architecture: Lunar Lake features the powerful Lion Cove P-cores, which increase overall processing power. It also features Skymont E-cores, which offer efficiency improvements over the previous generation. Notably, these E-cores do not connect to the main ring bus, further improving efficiency.
• On-package memory : Up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory is integrated directly into the Lunar Lake package, reducing power consumption and potentially impacting upgradability.
• Powerful AI : This SoC integrates a new NPU 4, capable of delivering up to 48 TOPS of performance, making it compatible with Microsoft Copilot+ AI PC. Additionally, the integrated Arc Xe2-LPG graphics card contributes to the overall AI capabilities.
• Improved Power Management and Thread Director – Intel has significantly improved the Thread Director and power management system for Lunar Lake. The Thread Director uses a smarter scheduling approach, assigning tasks to efficient cores first and scaling as needed. This, combined with advanced power management features, enables significant power reduction for a variety of tasks.

So, if you are thinking of buying a laptop with these processors, both in the case of the Ultra 9 228V and the Ultra 7 256V, this is what awaits you in terms of improvements over the previous generation of Intel. However, this does not solve the initial doubt, about which one you should choose between Ultra 9 228V vs Ultra 7 256V, which will be resolved in the next section, with the performance tests that will put each one in its place…

If you are interested in a gaming laptop, here is our guide to the best gaming notebooks

Ultra 9 228V vs Ultra 7 256V: Performance Tests and Results

As for the performance tests, which are the ones that will really solve the doubts of many users, we have the following results for the overall system performance, under typical daily loads, the results are (more is better) :

As you can see, the difference is not substantial in this Ultra 9 288V vs Ultra 7 256V fight. If we now compare the single-core and multi-core performance of these CPUs , the results are these others, where the Ultra 9 stands out in single-core by having a much higher clock frequency (more is better):

Now, if you are thinking of purchasing one of these laptops for tasks such as virtual reality or rendering , the Ultra 9 288V vs Ultra 7 256V results are:

Testing in games

If you are looking for a gaming laptop, in the video game section , we have these other results:

Finally, in terms of AI performance , which is one of the things Intel has improved the most for this generation, the results are:

So which one interests me more?

On average, laptops with the Ultra 7 256V usually cost around €300 less than those with the Ultra 9 228V version. This can vary up or down depending on the model and the other hardware each one has. However, this price difference does not really translate into a difference in performance, especially when taking into account multi-core performance, since it has the same cores and the difference lies in the clock speed of each one.