Intel to avoid efficient RAM in laptop CPUs in the future

Intel’s Lunar Lake chips feature integrated RAM for the first time. This means that the CPUs not only use less power, but also achieve higher data transfer speeds. However, this will be avoided in the future. For simple reasons.

Intel is taking a step back

With Lunar Lake, Intel actually came closer to Apple’s high-performance M-series chips. The processors from Cupertino use integrated RAM from the start, which makes them not only compact and efficient, but also fast.

The Core Ultra chips for mobile devices also make use of these advantages and come with built-in 16 or 32 gigabytes of RAM. Despite the advantages, Intel wants to take the step back to external RAM. Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel, has now revealed this.

Integrated RAM too expensive

The manager’s statements within the current framework Earnings Announcement According to them, the production of chips with integrated RAM is simply too expensive. Manufacturing would reduce the profit margin on the processors too much. “That’s not a good way to run a company,” said the Gelsinger. So Lunar Lake remains “unique”. The upcoming Panther Lake and Nova Lake chips will again come without integrated RAM.

So for us, Lunar Lake is really a unique thing. That will not be the case with Panther Lake, Nova Lake and their successors. We will build them in a more traditional way, with the storage outside of the package […]. Pat Gelsinger, CEO Intel

Success as a problem

Lunar Lake was originally intended to be a niche product that would offer the very best performance and the best efficiency. With the advent of AI PCs, the chips have become a kind of mass product, which, according to the CEO, makes up a “significant share” of Intel’s product mix.

This fact, combined with the increased cost, now seems to have spelled doom for onboard RAM. In the future, Intel will rely on external memory again for financial reasons. In addition to the disadvantages such as increased power consumption and lower performance, this at least has the advantage that partners and customers have more flexibility when configuring their systems.