Summary
Explains the Performance Hybrid Architecture of 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors and newer.
Description
What are the performance cores (P-cores) and the efficient cores (E-cores) and their roles?
Resolution
12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors and newer that integrate two types of cores into a single die, have Performance Hybrid Architecture. This means these processors have both powerful Performance-cores (P-cores) and flexible Efficient-cores (E-cores), which have different roles.
Performance-cores (P-cores):
- Physically larger, high-performance cores designed for raw speed while maintaining efficiency.
- Tuned for high turbo frequencies and high IPC (instructions per cycle).
- Ideal for crunching through the heavy single-threaded work demanded by many game engines.
- Capable of hyper-threading, which means running two software threads at once (not applicable to Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 2)).
| Note | Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 2) new core architecture handles single-threaded workloads effectively and thus, does not include Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology. |
Efficient-cores (E-cores):
- Physically smaller, with multiple E-cores fitting into the physical space of one P-core.
- Designed to maximize CPU efficiency, measured as performance-per-watt.
- Ideal for scalable, multi-threaded performance. They work in concert with P-cores to accelerate core-hungry tasks (like when rendering video, for example).
- Optimized to run background tasks efficiently. Smaller tasks can be offloaded to E-cores — for example, handling Discord or antivirus software — leaving P-cores free to drive gaming performance.
- Capable of running a single software thread.