Core Ultra 5 238V: CPU benchmarks and laptop guide

The Intel Core Ultra 5 238V is a 3 nm Lunar Lake processor from 2024 built for efficient thin laptops, and 27 catalog models carry it. Against the 69 games the catalog tracks it meets the recommended CPU requirement in 36 of them — just over half. This guide covers where the chip ranks among laptop CPUs, what it trades for its low power draw, and which laptops use it.

Where the Core Ultra 5 238V sits in 2026

A catalog score of 52.8 places the chip 263rd of 737 scored laptop CPUs — the upper third of the table. The neighborhood is a dense mid-range cluster that mixes generations: the Core i5-8257U (52.9) just above, the Core i5-1340P and sibling Core Ultra 5 236V (52.8 each) level with it, and the Core i5-1250P (52.8), Core i7-1360P (52.7) and Ryzen 5 8540U (52.7) just below. Keeping level with recent P-series Core i5 and i7 parts is a solid mid-table result — mainstream throughput, not performance leadership.

What the chip brings

Lunar Lake gives it 8 cores and 8 threads on a 3 nm process, running at a 2.1 GHz base with boosts to 4.7 GHz inside a 17 W P-class envelope, with integrated Intel Arc Graphics 130V on board. The recorded public benchmark is an overall PassMark of 18,399 — a comfortable mainstream figure. The design brief shows in the numbers: modest threading and clocks exchanged for efficiency in thin bodies.

Games: CPU-side readiness

Measured purely as a processor, the chip clears the recommended CPU tier for 36 of 69 cataloged games. Seven titles fall below its minimum bar — Starfield, Helldivers 2, Call of Duty: Warzone, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, Apex Legends and Fortnite — and twenty-six more, from Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk 2077 down to even Minecraft, League of Legends and Valorant, only clear the minimum. From Dying Light 2, Diablo 4 and Flight Simulator 2020 through Doom Eternal, GTA V and Civilization 6, the recommended requirement is met. These verdicts are CPU-only; in this roster the integrated graphics are the real ceiling for playability.

Laptops that carry it

The 27-model roster is fronted by 2025 business hardware: Lenovo's ThinkPad T16 Gen 4 at $1,284, the E14 Gen 7, E16 Gen 3, T14 Gen 6 and both X9 Gen 1 Aura Edition sizes at $1,144, plus Dell's Pro line — the Pro 13, Pro 14 and Pro 13 Premium at $1,232 and the Pro 13 Plus, Pro 14 Plus and Pro 16 Plus at $765. The laptops around it typically show a median office comfort of 100, a performance index of about 49, energy efficiency of about 93 and portability of about 72 — quick, cool office machines rather than gaming rigs, with a median gaming index of just 18.

Bottom line

The Core Ultra 5 238V is capable mainstream efficiency silicon: 263rd of 737 with 36 of 69 games at the recommended CPU tier. It suits buyers who want a modern, cool-running business laptop for office work, browsing and video — the $765–$1,284 machines carrying it deliver exactly that. Serious gaming or heavy multithreaded rendering calls for a step up the table; a step down mainly costs battery life and responsiveness rather than office adequacy.