Core Ultra 7 268V: CPU benchmarks and laptop guide

The Intel Core Ultra 7 268V is the Lunar Lake branch of the second Ultra generation, launched in 2024 with battery life as the design goal. The catalog tracks 23 models carrying it, all current thin-and-light machines. Measured as a processor it meets the recommended CPU requirement in 68 of the 69 tracked games. This guide covers where the chip sits among laptop CPUs, what it brings to a portable, and which laptops carry it.

Where the Core Ultra 7 268V sits in 2026

A catalog score of 84.3 places the chip 30th of 672 scored laptop CPUs. The neighborhood is telling: the Ryzen 7 8845HS (86.3), Ryzen 9 PRO 7940HS (86) and Ryzen 7 PRO 7840HS (84.7) just above are previous-generation gaming-class silicon, while immediately below sit the chip's own siblings, the Core Ultra 7 256V and 258V (both 83.9), and the Ryzen 5 7640HS (82.6). An 8-core, 17 W part ranking within two points of HS gaming processors is the Lunar Lake pitch in one line — most of the capability of hotter chips at a fraction of the draw.

What the chip brings

Lunar Lake is an 8-core, 8-thread design — one thread per core — built on a 3 nm process and rated at just 17 W: a 2.2 GHz base and up to 5.0 GHz boost. The integrated Arc Graphics 140V runs between 300 MHz and 2,000 MHz and is the graphics ceiling for this fleet. Memory support and cache details were not captured for this chip, so the table above sticks to what the catalog verifiably holds: GeekBench results of 2,438 single-core and 9,681 multi-core points.

Games: CPU-side readiness

Measured purely as a processor, the chip clears the recommended CPU tier for 68 of 69 cataloged games — including Helldivers 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring, Alan Wake 2, Black Myth Wukong and Counter-Strike 2. The single holdout is Starfield, which sits at the minimum CPU tier — the only game in the catalog whose recommended bar of 88 exceeds this chip's score. These verdicts are CPU-only — actual playability depends on the laptop's GPU and RAM, and this fleet's integrated-only graphics are the real ceiling for games.

Laptops that carry it

The 23-model roster is all 2025 business and executive hardware. Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 and ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition sit at $1,144; Dell's Pro 13, Pro 14 and their Premium variants at $1,232; HP's EliteBook Ultra 14 G1i at $1,144. The value end of the band is the Dell Pro 16 Plus and Pro 14 Plus at $765. Roster medians describe the fleet honestly: office comfort at a perfect 100, energy efficiency 92.5, mobility 89 — and a gaming index of 19, with a median discrete-GPU score of zero. These are quiet all-day machines, not gaming rigs.

Bottom line

The Core Ultra 7 268V is the pick for a premium thin-and-light: near-complete CPU readiness for the tracked game catalog, efficiency that suits the thinnest chassis, and a roster of current business machines from $765 to $1,232. It is not the pick for frame rates — the integrated Arc 140V sets the graphics ceiling, and the roster offers no discrete-GPU escape hatch. Buyers who want both battery life and gaming should look at the HS-class chips a few ranks up.