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Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and Ultra 5 245K review: gaming losses, content creation wins

Gaming benchmarks: Far Cry 6, Hitman World of Assassination.

Will Judd avatar
Review by Will Judd Deputy Editor, Digital Foundry
Published on
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We see out our regular game benchmark suite with two sneaky-beaky titles that are at their best when things are going wrong: Far Cry 6 and Hitman World of Assassination. Far Cry is famously dependent on single-core speeds, making it a good test of the 285K and 245K, while Hitman's "Best" simulation quality setting makes it a stern test in its own right.

In the next two pages, we'll have a quick look at the 285K in terms of power efficiency and the effect of faster RAM, but for now let's close things out in style.

Far Cry 6

Far Cry 6: Ultra, TAA

Far Cry 6 loves single-core grunt, and the 285K with its highest-ever-recorded single-core scores ought to be a shoe-in, right? Well, the 285K is comfortably mid-pack here, with a score that equals the 12900K, but the 14900K is around 18 percentage points faster at 1080p. AMD's CPUs also do well here, with the 9600X, 5800X3D, 9700X and 7800X3D recording our top four places in that order. Meanwhile, the 245K scores the lowest of our selection of 18 CPUs, meaning it's outfought by the likes of the 5600X and 14600K.

Hitman World of Assassination

Hitman World of Assassination: DX12, Default, Best Simulation Quality, TAA

Hitman World of Assassination, better known as Hitman 3 to its friends, is a relative bright spot for the 285K to close out our regular season testing, with a 203fps average that puts the 285K between the 14600K and 14700K - but in front of ever AMD CPU apart from the 7800X3D. The 245K loses out somewhat, with a 151fps average that only outdoes the 5600X and 5900X.

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and Ultra 5 245K analysis