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What Is Performance Hybrid Architecture?

Content Type: Product Information & Documentation   |   Article ID: 000091896   |   Last Reviewed: 12/16/2024
Description Resolution

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)).
NoteIntel® 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.

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