The review of Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K highlights significant challenges with performance and stability, particularly due to issues with Windows 11, leading to a mixed bag of benchmark results that show only marginal improvements over the previous generation. The reviewer expresses skepticism about the CPU’s market viability and recommends against purchasing it at its $600 price point, citing underwhelming gaming performance and competition from AMD.
The video provides a detailed review of Intel’s latest CPU, the Core Ultra 9 285K, which is part of the new Arrow Lake architecture. This architecture introduces a tile-based design, moving away from large monolithic chips to a more modular approach. This design allows Intel to utilize advanced manufacturing nodes for CPU cores and integrated graphics while using older, more cost-effective nodes for other components. The review also highlights the new model’s specifications, including its clock speeds, core configurations, and pricing, emphasizing the shift to the LGA 1851 socket.
The reviewer discusses the challenges faced during the review process, including a limited timeframe to prepare due to late sample delivery from Intel. The testing faced numerous issues, particularly with Windows 11 version 24 H2, which resulted in poor performance and stability problems for the Arrow Lake CPUs. The reviewer had to revert to an earlier version of Windows 11 for testing to present the best possible data, noting that many other reviewers experienced similar issues. The review process was described as a “hot mess,” indicating significant teething problems with the new platform.
Benchmark results show mixed performance for the 285K. In multi-core tasks, the CPU outperformed the previous generation, but in single-core performance, it showed only marginal improvements over the 14th generation. The gaming benchmarks were particularly disappointing, with the 285K lagging behind its predecessor in several titles. The reviewer pointed out that while the CPU had strong results in some applications, it often fell short in gaming performance, especially in CPU-intensive scenarios, leading to comparisons with older models.
Power efficiency was noted as a significant improvement over the previous generation, with the 285K consuming less power while delivering better performance in some tests. However, the reviewer highlighted that despite these improvements, the CPU still lags behind AMD’s offerings in terms of power efficiency and overall value. The 285K is expected to retail around $600, which the reviewer deemed too high given its performance compared to competing AMD CPUs.
In conclusion, the reviewer expresses skepticism about the 285K’s viability in the market, labeling it as potentially a flop based on its current performance and pricing. While there is potential for improvements through future updates, the reviewer does not recommend purchasing the CPU at this time, citing the numerous issues and underwhelming gaming performance. The review ends with a commitment to continue testing the Arrow Lake platform as more updates become available, emphasizing the need for Intel to address the existing problems.