Core Ultra 9 285K with 200S Boost vs Ryzen 7 9800X3D shows Intel is still distant second in gaming

With the release of the Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200S desktop processors, Intel attempted to change the playbook. Gone was the relentless hunt for maximum performance, and in came a quest for added power efficiency. To some extent, Intel did manage to reduce the power consumption of the Arrow Lake desktop chips without losing pure single-core and multi-core performance. However, the Core Ultra 200S desktop processors did take a massive gaming performance hit and were no match for AMD’s Zen 5 CPUs.

For instance, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D appeared to be a massive 40% faster in games in our review of the Zen5X3D chip.

That said, since the initial launch of the Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake chips, Intel has pushed updates and patches to reduce this gaming performance gap. Team Blue has also introduced a one-click overclocking utility, the 200S Boost, to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the Core Ultra 200S processors.

Hardware Unboxed has compared the gaming performance of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D with the Core Ultra 9 285K running with and without the 200S Boost to see how far the Intel Arrow Lake flagship has come since launch.

Ryzen 7 9800X3D vs Core Ultra 9 285K with 200S Boost

Sadly, even after the performance-increasing updates and the 200S Boost, the Core Ultra 9 285K is still no match for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in gaming. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D was around 35% faster on average in Hardware Unboxed's 12 tested games, at 1080/Medium. The Ryzen CPU’s lead shrank when using the 1080p/High setting, but was still a considerable 26% vs the Core Ultra 9 285K. This is despite the fact that the Core Ultra 9 285K was paired with a faster DDR5-8200 memory vs DDR5-6000 for the Ryzen chip.

The gaming performance of the Core Ultra 9 285K reportedly improved slightly with the 200S Boost, but only by about 3%. So, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is still much faster than the Core Ultra 9 285K, whether you overclock the chip using the 200S Boost or not.

Put simply, if you are a gamer who wants the absolute best CPU, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the only answer. It is quite sad for Intel, as Team Blue’s CPUs were once clear winners in gaming. The situation is unlikely to improve with the upcoming Intel Arrow Lake Refresh. However, Intel has a chance of dethroning AMD with Nova Lake, but the architecture is a few years away.

Buy the Ryzen 7 9800X3D | Core Ultra 9 285K on Amazon