Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU Review

Synthetic Benchmarks

Starting things off with the 3DMark CPU Profile benchmark and things are off to a good start. The U5 245K sees a healthy 11% increase in performance in single core and a pretty staggering 24% improvement in multi-core when compared to its predecessor, the 14600K. The U7 265K sees strong improvements too of 11% in single core and 19% in multi-core when compared to the 14700K, while the U9 285K flagship sees the strongest single core gain over the 14900K of 13%, and a 23% uplift in max threaded workloads. This also puts both the U9 and U7 ahead of the 9950X in both single-thread and max-thread results, so a good and strong start from Intel.

In PCMark 10, not only are AMD storming ahead by quite a large margin to the tune of just under 17% from the 9950X, but the 9700X and 7950X also fair better, along with the complete 13th and 14th generation CPUs that we tested. When you have a 13600K i5 coming in with a stronger score than a Core Ultra 9 285K, then you know some performance has been left on the table, and optimisations should help dramatically, though it could all be down to hyperthreading now being eliminated, though I suspect it’s more of the former, than the latter.