Intel Core Ultra 9 285K

Intel's brave new world isn't the paradise we hoped for, but the reduction in power consumption is a big step in the right direction. The second-rate gaming performance is a big step backwards, though, as it is slower than Raptor Lake and Zen 5.

It’s hard to look at the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and not scratch my head. It’s a powerful processor, but Intel removed Hyper-Threading and lowered the max Turbo Boost speed, nerfing its potential. This was done in favor of adding an NPU to the chip, but that makes little sense for a desktop processor that’s invariably going to be paired with a dedicated graphics card.

Intel’s latest desktop Core Ultra 200 Series processors put energy efficiency before blockbuster performance. Learning lessons from wattage-guzzling headline chips from previous generations, Core Ultra 9 285K’s mix of hyperthreading-less P-cores and improved E-cores serve to match their levels but with less power for both regular work and gaming.

Intel's flagship "Arrow Lake" CPU, the Core Ultra 9 285K, delivers reduced power consumption, dedicated AI silicon, and promising platform improvements. The one big question mark: Its performance is superb in some tasks but subpar in others, though this may improve with software updates.

I had high hopes for Arrow Lake, and of the two current-gen processor lines, it beats out archrival AMD's Ryzen 9000 series, which is a positive. However, the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and Intel Core Ultra 5 245K really aren't any better than the chips they are replacing, and their efficiency gains are too modest to justify investing in a whole new platform.

Coming out on top in synthetic benchmark results puts the Core Ultra 9 285K at the top of the productivity pile, but the gaming situation hasn't changed much from the previous-gen Core i9-14900K, and that's by design. Still, there's beauty in watching my CPU cooler barely spin up its fans because the temperatures are so much lower than they have been for years as Intel nails performance-per-watt efficiency.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is less about performance, and more about efficiency – if power usage and cooling is a major factor in your next CPU purchase, this may be worth the upgrade.

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 CPU sets a new standard for power efficiency and takes a significant step toward the future of computing, even if its raw performance isn’t groundbreaking.

Much like AMD Zen 5, Arrow Lake may look better as it matures over time. BIOS updates to refine microcode, software updates, and perhaps Windows updates to refine thread management could occur, and we hope they do. With some maturity, Arrow Lake can be competitive, and with maturity can hopefully show its full potential.

We expected the Core Ultra 9 285K to be the CPU to continue the commanding lead that Intel had in single core performance and blow the latest AMD CPUs out of the water. With a die shrink of 7 nm, it seems we expected too much from the Core Ultra series flagship. It does edge out in synthetic workloads and multi-core performance, but it barely keeps up in gaming. Much more efficient though, if that’s your thing. For productivity workloads, however, this CPU is a beast that cannot be tamed.