Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus & Core Ultra 5 250K Plus Review

I’ve been conflicted astir the latest Intel Core Ultra 200S processors ever since I archetypal reviewed them for TechRadar past year, and I person the nonstop aforesaid problems with the caller Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus arsenic I did with Intel’s archetypal stab astatine a Core Ultra desktop chip.

On paper, these are genuinely fantastic processors that connection immoderate of the champion multi-core show you’re going to find extracurricular of an AMD Ryzen Threadripper, particularly for the price. Even connected the gaming front, they aren’t unspeakable processors and tin connection amended worth for the show than AMD successful a fewer games. But the gaming show isn't rather bully capable to urge erstwhile amended gaming processors beryllium elsewhere.

Specs and Features

The Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus are steps up from the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, respectively. The 250K Plus and 270K Plus diagnostic immoderate enhanced Arrow Lake architecture implicit the basal Series 200S chips, including 4 further E-cores and somewhat faster boost timepiece speeds.

In the lawsuit of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, this puts the spot connected par with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K with 24 full cores (8 show + 16 efficient) astatine a somewhat slower boost velocity (5.5GHz, compared to the 285K’s 5.7GHz boost), though astatine astir fractional the price. For the 250K Plus, the further cores brings its full number to 18 (6p+12e), compared to the 6p+8e halfway configuration of the 245K.

Both chips besides person immoderate expanded L3 cache, though thing connected the bid of AMD Ryzen 3D V-Cache. They are besides capable to enactment up to 7200MT/s DDR5 RAM, an summation of astir 800MT/s implicit the baseline Arrow Lake-S chips.

All of this sounds astonishing considering the little terms of these 2 chips, with the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus coming successful astatine $299.99 and the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus settling successful astatine $219.99. For non-gamers, this is perfectly the case; but for anyone who lone wants to play games, the worth proposition falls off.

Performance

Both the Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Ultra 7 270K Plus punch good supra their value erstwhile it comes to multi-core and originative performance, truthful for productivity oregon workstation use, I really urge considering them if you don’t program connected upgrading past this for a fewer years.

However, successful games, these processors occasionally autumn abbreviated of their respective Core Ultra 200S non-Plus counterparts. That makes these precise hard processors to urge if gaming is adjacent remotely important to you.

Synthetic single-core and multi-core show connected these refreshed Arrow Lake CPUs is outstanding, with the 270K Plus managing to combat the Core Ultra 9 285K to an effectual necktie successful Cinebench R23 successful multi-core show and coming wrong 4% of the 285K’s single-core performance.

Against the champion AMD processors, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus scores a astir 83% amended multi-core show and a astir 9% amended single-core show implicit the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D successful Cinebench R23, and adjacent manages to somewhat borderline retired the multicore show of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. Against its nonstop AMD competition, the Ryzen 7 9700X, the 270K Plus gets 117% amended multi-core performance, though it is lone 2.5% faster successful single-core, successful Cinebench R23.

For the 250K Plus, I recovered a afloat 25% amended multi-core show and a astir 6% amended azygous halfway show successful Cinebench R23 implicit the Core Ultra 245K, and a 35-40% amended multi-core show implicit its 2 Ryzen 7 3D V-Cache competitors. Against the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, the 250K Plus pulls down a 107% amended multi-core show successful Cinebench R23, and 112% faster multi-core show successful 3DMark’s CPU Profile.

On the originative broadside of things, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus are phenomenal for originative enactment connected the cheap, particularly the 250K Plus, which beats retired adjacent the Core Ultra 9 285K by conscionable implicit 8% successful my Photoshop results.

When it comes to gaming, though, the Core Ultra 200S Plus chips conscionable can’t vie with AMD’s offerings, oregon adjacent their non-Plus counterparts.

In Cyberpunk 2077’s benchmark (no RT, nary DLSS, Ultra preset astatine 1080p), the Core Ultra 250K Plus falls astir 2% down the Ryzen 5 9600X successful mean fps, which is much oregon little wrong the borderline of investigating variance, truthful I’d telephone it a necktie here. Unfortunately for the 250K Plus, it is noticeably slower than the 9600X successful Total War: Warhammer 3’s conflict benchmark (1080p ultra preset), with a astir 16% little mean fps. Against the Intel Core Ultra 245K, the 250K Plus posts mixed results with a astir 7% higher mean fps successful Cyberpunk 2077 but a 14% little mean fps successful Total War: Warhammer 3; taken together, scoring astir 6% slower successful gaming show wide against the spot it is refreshing.

The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, meanwhile, has its champion effect against the Ryzen 7 9700X successful Cyberpunk 2077, scoring a astir 7% amended mean fps. It’s downhill from there, though, arsenic the 270K Plus underperforms the Ryzen 7 9800X3D successful Cyberpunk 2077 mean fps by astir 25%, and adjacent falls astir 4% down the Ryzen 5 9600X and astir 2% down the 250K Plus.

In Total War: Warhammer 3’s conflict benchmark, the 270K Plus does negociate to get astir 12% amended mean fps than the 250K Plus, but gets astir 5% little mean fps than the 9700X and astir 8% little versus the 9800X3D. Possibly worst of each for the 270K Plus, it gets 6.5% little mean fps than the Ryzen 5 9600X.

The 1 happening that the 250K Plus and 270K Plus bash bring to the array is phenomenal worth for their wide performance, but this conscionable doesn’t construe to gaming.

Whereas the 270K Plus offers astir 11% amended wide show for the terms versus the Ryzen 7 9700X, it gets astir 14.5% little gaming performance-per-dollar, and is presently astir 16% much costly than its nonstop AMD competition. Against the much elite 9800X3D chip, the 270K Plus sells for astir 19% cheaper and offers a fantastic 43% amended performance-per-dollar overall, but it’s lone astir a 4.5% amended gaming worth than the much costly 9800X3D. It looks adjacent worse erstwhile compared to the Ryzen 5 9600X, a spot that costs astir fractional the terms of the 270K Plus, but gets astir 6% amended gaming show connected average.

The 250K Plus likewise fails to support up with the Ryzen 5 9600X successful presumption of value, managing a 4% amended wide performance-per-dollar than the 9600X, but the 9600X offers astir 35% amended gaming show for the terms than the 250K Plus. That said, the 250K Plus does connection the 3rd champion gaming performance-per-dollar of the existent procreation of processors, down the 9600X and the second-place Core Ultra 5 245K, truthful it mightiness beryllium a bully prime depending connected your budget.

It’s besides worthy noting that AMD’s competing chips are overmuch much powerfulness businesslike than Intel’s latest, with the 9600X and 9700X topping retired astatine 88W, compared to 163.5W for the 250K Plus and astir 268W for the 270K Plus. Even the 9800X3D scores amended than the 250K Plus, with a max powerfulness gully of 161.2W. As for thermals, the 270K Plus runs the hottest with a max temp of 90C, followed by the 9600X’s 88C max, the 9800X3D maxing retired astatine 86C, the 9700X hitting a 75.5C max, and the 250K Plus moving coolest astatine a maximum temp of 69C.