Leaked slides show how the upcoming Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor struggles against its predecessor. The flagship even loses some duels when it comes to gaming, but there seems to be a reason for all of this.
A Chinese outlet has leaked some Intel presentation slides for the unreleased Core Ultra 9 285K CPU. In them, we can see that the brand expects its next-gen chip to deliver equivalent performance to Core i9-14900K. Using a pool of 14 titles, the new chip was on par with its predecessor when averaging the results. Depending on the game, Core Ultra 9 285K was between 13% slower and 15% faster, with many seeing no change.
That said, it’s important to note that Core Ultra consumed less power on multiple occasions. In fact, Intel claims about 80W less at the same output frame rate. Aside from a reduction in your power bill, this has the potential to lower the CPU’s heat output, making it easier to cool. Moreover, less heat means cheaper coolers can do the job and push chips further by potentially overclocking without throttling.
Against AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X, Team Blue once more expects an equal fight as Core Ultra hovers between -13% and +28%. Compared to the stronger Ryzen 9 7950X3D, Intel shows from -21% to +15% in 1080p gaming but claims higher productivity scores, reaching 21% in Cinebench 2024 and 30% in POV-Ray. Note, however, that these figures are first-party and could be cherry-picked to put the CPU in a brighter light.
Even so, Core Ultra 9 285K’s hunt for efficiency seems to have cost it a lot of horsepower. While the lack of hyperthreading may play a role in this, Intel has also indicated a 9% IPC uplift compared to 14th Gen Core CPUs, which should help hide hyperthreading’s absence. This is further worrying when factoring in that AMD has not yet released its Ryzen 9000X3D processors, which may widen the gap.
As someone who lives in a hot climate with expensive power bills, I appreciate the focus on efficiency. Unfortunately, many enthusiasts will be disappointed by the lack of improvement, and they would be right. In the end, if priced correctly, these could fly out of shelves, but that’s a subject for another day.
