Intel claps back hard as Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus give tough time to AMD Ryzen rivals
Pre-launch leaks of the Intel Arrow Lake Refresh Core Ultra 200S Plus CPUs weren’t particularly exciting. However, Intel seems to have hit it out of the park with the new Core Ultra 200S Plus Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs. Both the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus are marked improvements over the vanilla Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 Arrow Lake CPUs, and are much better values than their AMD Ryzen counterparts.
In our review of the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, we note that the new Intel CPUs are great performers in productivity workloads, enjoy faster gaming performance over the non-Plus Core Ultra 200 CPUs, and are super power efficient. We also praised the CPUs for their outstanding price/performance, as the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus only cost $199 and $299, respectively.
Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Ryzen 5 9600X
Various media outlets, including TechPowerUp and Hardware Unboxed, share our sentiment. TechPowerUp, for instance, shows that the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus has closed the gaming performance gap that existed between the Core Ultra 5 245K and the Ryzen 5 9600X. The Ryzen 5 9600X and the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus are now on par.
Not only this, but the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is also much faster than the Ryzen 5 9600X in application performance. Hardware Unboxed’s testing reveals a phenomenal 85% multi-core performance gain for the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus over the Ryzen 5 9600X in Cinebench 2026, with smaller but still meaningful performance deltas in other scenarios. Granted, the Cinebench 2026 result is the best-case scenario where the software utilizes all available cores/threads optimally.
So, with the Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, you are getting a CPU that is in the same price and gaming performance bracket as the Ryzen 5 9600X, but is considerably faster for productivity tasks.
That said, the sample of games we tested on the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus resulted in a 18% performane advantage for the Ryzen 5 9600X. This goes to show that the performance of CPUs can vary quite a bit on a per-game basis. So, be sure to go through a bunch of different reviews before making a final purchasing decision.
Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
Like the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus has also seen a marked gaming and application performance improvement over the Core Ultra 7 265K. The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus now reportedly matches the Ryzen 7 9700X in gaming, according to TechPowerUp.
For application performance, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is essentially on par with the much more expensive Ryzen 9 9950X. In Blender, for instance, both the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Ryzen 7 9950X performed identically in our testing.
In other words, the $299 Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is at the same performance level as the Ryzen 9 9950X, which launched at $649. Seeing these results, it is unfortunate that Intel is reportedly not launching the flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus. A recent leak has shown that the CPU handily beats the Ryzen 9950X in both single-core and multi-core performance.
Long story short, if you are on a tight budget and are looking for a well-rounded CPU, both the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus appear to fit the bill perfectly.
Buy the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K | Ryzen 5 9600X on Amazon
Source(s)
Notebookcheck, TechPowerUp (1,2), Hardware Unboxed on YouTube, Teaser image source: Sebastian Bade for Notebookcheck, geralt on Pixabay, edited
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