Intel's flagship "Arrow Lake" CPU, the Core Ultra 9 285K, introduces reduced power consumption, dedicated AI silicon, and promising platform improvements. However, its performance is a mix of wins and losses, which may improve with software updates.
| Technetbook Rating | |
|---|---|
| Rating Score | 8 |
| Stars | ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ |
Pros
- Major performance increase in some tests
- Reduced power consumption
- Improved integrated graphics
- Dedicated AI silicon
- Worthwhile platform enhancements
Cons
- CPU-centric tests are a mix of wins and losses
- Subpar gaming performance in some titles
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Base Clock Frequency | 3.7 GHz |
| Bundled Cooler | None |
| Core Count | 24 |
| Integrated Graphics | Intel Xe LPG |
The Underlying Design: Intel’s Recipe for Chiplets
The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, codenamed "Arrow Lake," represents a significant departure from previous Intel desktop processors. While it maintains the 24-core layout of the Core i9-14900K, it introduces a revolutionary chiplet design.
Arrow Lake processors are composed of several tiles, including a base tile, compute tile, I/O tile, SoC tile, GPU tile, and a filler tile. These tiles are manufactured using different TSMC processes: a 3nm N3B process for the compute tile, a 5nm N5P process for the graphics tile, and a 5nm N6 process for the SoC and I/O tiles. The base tile uses Intel's older 22nm FinFET process.
Intel’s Foveros 3D packaging technology connects these tiles, minimizing latency. This approach, using various fabrication processes, is expected to reduce production costs and improve power efficiency.
Intel is now using third-party manufacturing (TSMC) for some components, marking a big change for the company.
Intel claims that Arrow Lake reduces power consumption by 40% compared to its 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors and offers a 15% performance uplift in multithreaded workloads.
Architectural Improvements
Both the Performance cores (P-cores) and Efficient cores (E-cores) have been redesigned for improved performance. Arrow Lake’s P-cores utilize the "Lion Cove" architecture, boasting a 9% IPC improvement over Raptor Cove. The E-cores feature the new "Skymont" architecture, claiming a 32% IPC uplift over "Gracemont" E-cores.
Additionally, Arrow Lake is the first Intel desktop processor line with dedicated AI hardware, including a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of up to 13 trillion INT8 operations per second (TOPS). The integrated graphics (IGP) uses the Xe LPG architecture with a doubled shader count (512) and can reach speeds up to 2GHz, with ray tracing and AI hardware.
The memory controller supports DDR5 RAM clocked at 6,400 MHz, boosting IGP performance.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Specifics
The Core Ultra 9 285K features 8 P-cores, 16 E-cores, with P-cores boosting to 5.7GHz and E-cores boosting to 4.5GHz. While the L3 cache is 36MB, the total L2 cache is 40MB. Hyper-Threading is not supported in this processor.
Hardware Configuration & the Intel Z890 Platform
Testing was conducted using an MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X motherboard, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super Founders Edition graphics card, two 16 GB sticks of DDR5 RAM, a 1 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, and SilverStone’s DA850 850-watt power supply.
The Z890 chipset provides up to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes in addition to the 20 PCIe 5.0 lanes available from the processor, along with Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 6E support.
CPU Performance Tests
Cinebench 2024
The Ultra 9 285K outperformed the Core i9-14900K in the multithreaded benchmark by 17% and in the single-threaded test by 4%. The Ultra 9 285K also exceeded the performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X in multithreaded testing, but performed comparably in single-threaded performance.
Blender
The Ultra 9 285K showed substantial performance gains over the Core i9-14900K in the Blender tests (15% faster in Monster, 5% in Junkshop, and 19% in Classroom). However, the Ryzen 9 9950X was 14% faster in the Junkshop test.
HandBrake & POV-Ray 3.7
The Core Ultra 9 285K outperformed both the Core i9-14900K and the Ryzen 9 9950X in both HandBrake and POV-Ray benchmarks.
AIDA64
The Core i9-14900K outperformed the Ultra 9 285K in AES 256-bit encryption, SHA-1 hash calculations, and floating-point tests. The results from AIDA64 were inconsistent as it was not optimized for Arrow Lake processors at the time of testing.
Adobe Creative Suite
The Ultra 9 285K underperformed in the Premiere Pro test, losing to the Ryzen 9 9950X and the Core i9-14900K. Results from the Photoshop test showed irregularities, with the Ultra 9 285K lagging far behind.
Gaming Performance Tests
The performance varied widely across different games.
- In 3DMark's Steel Nomad, all processors performed similarly.
- The Ultra 9 285K was significantly slower than the Core i9-14900K and Ryzen 9 9950X in F1 2024 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
- The Ultra 9 285K was also slower in Cyberpunk 2077 and Total War: Three Kingdoms.
- The Ultra 9 285K outperformed both the Core i9-14900K and Ryzen 9 9950X in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The inconsistencies make it difficult to recommend the 285K for gaming, with the Ryzen 9 9950X offering more consistent performance.
Power Consumption & Thermals
Power consumption for the Ultra 9 285K decreased by 11% compared with the Core i9-14900K, aligning it with the Ryzen 9 9950X. However, the Ultra 9 285K ran slightly hotter than the Core i9-14900K in both tests.
The chip's temperature is similar to the Ryzen 9 9950X.
Verdict
The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is a mixed bag of results. While it offers improvements in power consumption and multi-threaded performance, its performance inconsistencies in gaming and some workloads, coupled with some issues potentially related to software optimization, make it hard to recommend.
The processor is a significant improvement over the i9-14900K and provides a look into the future of Intel’s chip designs. However, waiting for software optimizations might be the wiser choice before making a purchase.
