Review Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Intel Throws a Lateral with Arrow Lake

[Admin]

Intel’s flagship $589 Core Ultra 9 285K headlines its new ‘Arrow Lake’ Core Ultra 200S series, leading the charge with 24 cores melded into a completely new chiplet architecture that comes with plenty of new leading-edge tech, like 3D Foveros packaging, support for new DDR5 CUDIMM memory tech, and the first dedicated AI engine fused inside a desktop PC chip.

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Intel Throws a Lateral with Arrow Lake : Read more

 

[TheHerald]

Insane efficiency in MT tasks, but gaming is a big fat nothing burger / even worse than 14th gen. For non gaming workloads, both the i5 and the i9 look amazing, for gamers, dont bother.

 

[Elusive Ruse]

Thank you for the detailed review @PaulAlcorn
From what I can see the launch prices of the 285K start at $620 though not $589.

 

[Bluoper]

Honestly if they brought the pricing to be closer to current 14th gen pricing, these would be a good option if power draw is a concern. I dont think the gaming performance drops are as bad as i thought they would be, and honestly the gaming performance is fine for %99 of poeple. Hopefuly we see gaming improvments in the next gen without power draw increasing. I like the direction their going in, but i dont think this is really a compelling upgrade for anyone 12th gen and up.

 

[usertests]

Insane efficiency in MT tasks,

If it's insane, Ryzen is super insane by being even more efficient.

 

[-Fran-]

Talk about "hold my beer" moments... Holy cow. I thought it was going to be bad, but not THIS bad.

I hope Intel irons out all the reported and shown issues in multiple reviews and get it to a better place, but as an initial showing, makes Zen5 a friggen home run.

And thanks a lot Paul. Great data as always and I'll definitely check later when the missing bits and bobs are added

Regards.

 

[TheHerald]

If it's insane, Ryzen is super insane by being even more efficient.

You sure about that?

From computerbase de

 

[Amdlova]

Got one 14700t for 283usd what I see will have a little less performance than this core ultra with less power wasted. The T family's aways stuck at 65w power max when set the pl1 to max allowed power.
Will wait till ddr6 and pcie 6 droops on desktop yo upgrade.

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

Thanks for the write-up, Paul! IMO, Intel did what AMD did with their 9xxx series: they laid the foundations for future gens, with workstation and server workloads sped up first.

"Sorry gamers, tough luck this round."

I like this: "We also can't help but wonder how a future Intel CPU that incorporates a cache chiplet — similar to AMD's X3D line — might change the picture."
I think we've seen examples how a large cache, when wisely implemented, can benefit workloads from both AMD and Intel before.

 

[ingtar33]

You sure about that?

From computerbase de

computerbase.de clearly made a mistake. those numbers don't match anyone else.

They probably are only measuring the power draw at the 8 pin cpu power plug. apparently this chip draws a lot of it's power from the 24pin, something you wouldn't notice unless you measured system power draw everywhere.

 

[logainofhades]

Kinda sad that, for gaming, this isn't really all that much better than my 12700k. It feels like 2nd-7th gen all over again with meager improvement, except AMD this time isn't losing.

 

[ingtar33]

Kinda sad that, for gaming, this isn't really all that much better than my 12700k. It feels like 2nd-7th gen all over again with meager improvement, except AMD this time isn't losing.

well it's gaming performance is about on par with the r7 5700x3d or 5800x3d depending on the game. but for production its an ok chip if you ignore power draw, coming in second to the r9 9950x in most titles (or winning) and while it draws about x2 the power as the r9, thats still solid performance.

 

[bit_user]

Insane efficiency in MT tasks,

According to this, the 285K barely edges out the 9950X, but the 245K is no match for the 7000X3D crew.

​

This bodes well for the 9000X3D models.

 

[bolweval]

Insane efficiency in MT tasks, but gaming is a big fat nothing burger / even worse than 14th gen. For non gaming workloads, both the i5 and the i9 look amazing, for gamers, dont bother.

I would be willing to lose a couple frames in gaming for the gain of efficiency and cooling...

 

[bit_user]

Talk about "hold my beer" moments... Holy cow. I thought it was going to be bad, but not THIS bad.

Considering that it's both a major new microarchitecture and made on a two generations newer process node that Apple has already proven, it's quite dismal.

We should be seeing an improvement a little more like more like Gen 11 -> Gen 12, not this.

 

[USAFRet]

As a non-gamer, I am VERY interested in this line...

 

[logainofhades]

well it's gaming performance is about on par with the r7 5700x3d or 5800x3d depending on the game. but for production its an ok chip if you ignore power draw, coming in second to the r9 9950x in most titles (or winning) and while it draws about x2 the power as the r9, thats still solid performance.

I would be using a 5700x3d or 5800x3d right now, if I hadn't won my current rig a couple years ago. I only play WoW, and it loves x3d.

 

[bit_user]

I would be willing to lose a couple frames in gaming for the gain of efficiency and cooling...

With X3D, you can have both gaming perf and efficiency!

 

[TheHerald]

I would be willing to lose a couple frames in gaming for the gain of efficiency and cooling...

Yeap, me 2. Im already thinking about ordering.

 

[TheHerald]

According to this, the 285K barely edges out the 9950X, but the 245K is no match for the 7000X3D crew.

​

​

This bodes well for the 9000X3D models.

We've been through this, different power limits. The 245k makes short work of the 7800x 3d.

But the 285k is freaking bonkers, I guess computerbasede didn't make a mistake

 

[LookHereBub]

I find it somewhat funny that everyone is crying about the flat or slight fall in gaming numbers. Intel's sells the VAST majority of its chips to OEM's, of which the VAST majority of those systems are for business purposes. Right now, that is super good news for Intel since workload performance and power efficiency is tops on all those guys lists. Gaming is a tiny part of the CPU pie. Might be best to keep things in perspective.

 

[TheHerald]

I find it somewhat funny that everyone is crying about the flat or slight fall in gaming numbers. Intel's sells the VAST majority of its chips to OEM's, of which the VAST majority of those systems are for business purposes. Right now, that is super good news for Intel since workload performance and power efficiency is tops on all those guys lists. Gaming is a tiny part of the CPU pie. Might be best to keep things in perspective.

Well gaming is problematic, it barely matches zen 5 which was a joke, but since in some games it seems to be a chart topper I assume it's the usual broken launch crap and it will get updated with fixes.

If it doesn't get fixed, let's face it, in some games it's freaking terrible. I don't personally care that much since my 4090 is a huge bottleneck anyways, but I can see why some people aren't satisfied with the gaming performance.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I find it somewhat funny that everyone is crying about the flat or slight fall in gaming numbers. Intel's sells the VAST majority of its chips to OEM's, of which the VAST majority of those systems are for business purposes. Right now, that is super good news for Intel since workload performance and power efficiency is tops on all those guys lists. Gaming is a tiny part of the CPU pie. Might be best to keep things in perspective.

The PC Gaming Audience has a disproportional amount of sales vs marketing, & customer psychological influence.

You have to understand how important they are.

Our noise influences ALOT of purchasing decisions.

 

[YSCCC]

Watched together with de8auer, GN, HUB etc. it seems it's quite a mixed bag, for production, rendering benchmarks it seems to be a chart topper, but I found it puzzling the PS benchmark is rather poor, and that gaming is lackluster getting smoked by all previous gen X3D and not really better than Zen5, plus it need a new board and likely CUDIMM to shine, wonders how well it will be recieved

 

[CaptRiker]

Sooooooo happy I made the decision last november to switch from intel to amd for my 1st new system in 7 yrs (was using an Intel 5960x 8c/16t hedt x99 intel system). my Gaming is SOOOO silky smooth.


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