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

With our results in the bag, it's clear that the 245K and 285K are some way from even Intel's relatively conservative guidance when it comes to gaming performance, with the chips trailing their predecessors substantially in many games.

There are a handful of titles where the 285K takes the win against the 14900K - Crysis 3 Remastered, Dragon's Dogma 2 and Forza Horizon 5 all register, and we found that the 285K system tended to consume less power in the three games we tested too. Equally though, there are several games where the 285K is way off, including in Cyberpunk 2077 where the 285K is outperformed by the three-generation old 12600K (!!).

Speaking to other reviewers, our results aren't unique, with many reporting big performance deficits, unusually high variance and stability issues - the latter of which we thankfully haven't encountered. It feels something like a redo of the Ryzen 9000 launch, with confusingly poor performance in some games that spurs dozens of hours of additional, ultimately fruitless testing. For example, further down the page are three games we tested to see if core isolation being enabled was neutering our results - and it doesn't seem to be!

Of course, Ryzen 9000 was later improved by chipset, BIOS and Windows revisions, and that's represented in our data this time around. Hopefully we'll see the Core Ultra Series 2 chips follow a similar trajectory and fulfill their potential, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement to go out and buy one today.

That said, there are still some accolades to award the 285K in particular. Its content creation chops are impressive for a 24-thread part, beating out the 32-thread 14900K in our Cinebench and Handbrake video transcode tests while drawing around 100W less power than the 14900K during the HEVC transcode. It also compares decently to AMD's 32-thread 9950X, beating it in Cinebench and coming just after it in the transcode tests. The highest temperature we recorded in a 10-minute Cinebench 2024 run with (an admittedly massive 360mm liquid cooler) was just 72°C, which is also impressive and suggests that smaller coolers will be able to keep the 285K easily below its 105°C max temp.

It's not a world-beater by any means then, but the Core Ultra 9 part makes a better argument for itself in terms of video production or 3D modelling than its does in terms of gaming. Having AI acceleration onboard is also more of a boon for these sorts of workloads, though we've yet to find a true "killer app" that makes the included Intel NPU a must-have.

Core Isolation - Cyberpunk 2077 2.0, RT Ultra, DLSS Performance

Core Isolation - Far Cry 6: Ultra, TAA

Core Isolation - Microsoft Flight Simulator, Ultra, DLSS Quality

Given the modest gen-on-gen performance improvements overall - and indeed a loss of gaming performance on average - the new Arrow Lake S parts face a difficult challenge in terms of value. The Intel Core i7 14700K (£320/$351) emerged as an extremely capable option in our testing, while AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D (£408/$477) remains a chart leader in many games despite recent price surges as retail availability drops. There's also the upcoming Ryzen 7 9800X3D to consider, though pricing and performance information hasn't yet been announced for that part, alongside price cuts (and Windows 24H2 performance improvements) for the existing Ryzen 9000 processor family that make those processors a better proposition too.

Part of the value proposition comes down to the motherboard side of the equation too. We tested on two models, the Z890 MEG Ace and the ROG Strix Z890-F Gaming WiFi. Both are premium boards, with five NVMe slots, 10-gig networking, WiFi 7 and various quick release mechanisms for graphics cards and NVMe SSDs. There are also a hugely satisfying number of USB ports for a peripheral reviewer such as myself, with the Asus model offering two Thunderbolt 4, two USB-C and 10 USB-A, while the MSI exceeds it with the same count of Thunderbolt and USB-C ports and 11 USB-A ports.

Of course, each has extremely beefy VRMs, and there are a range of (optionally AI-assisted) overclocking features, for which I prefer Asus' interface. Both were extremely easy boards to work with, though the inclusion of an LED display for error codes on the MSI board made it our preferred option for benchmarking. The Asus board lacks this, but is significantly cheaper while offering similar performance. In the end, both are worth considering depending on regional pricing, though cheaper B860 boards are likely to offer better value overall.

As usual, we recommend that you read a wide range of CPU reviews to discover the true lay of the land. Processor benchmarking is always highly dependent on the workloads chosen, and games can have significantly different performance profiles even from one level to another, so seeing coverage from multiple reviewers is the best way forward. That's especially true here, with Windows 23H2 versus 24H2, core isolation on and off, choice of RAM and even motherboard BIOS versions potentially affecting results. Gamers Nexus, Hardware Unboxed and ComputerBase.de are all great resources and we expect their 285K/245K reviews to be enlightening.

It'll also be fascinating to see Intel's response to these CPUs post-launch. I wouldn't rule out a game-changing update somewhere that makes these CPUs more performant in the short to medium term, but equally it's clear that transitioning to a whole new tile-based design isn't trivial - and, like Ryzen, it may take a few generations before we see the best this new architecture has to offer.

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

• Introduction, test rig and content creation benchmarks
• Gaming benchmarks: Dragon's Dogma 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield
• Gaming benchmarks: Flight Simulator 2020, F1 24, Forza Horizon 5
• Gaming benchmarks: Counter-Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Crysis 3 Remastered
• Gaming benchmarks: Far Cry 6, Hitman World of Assassination
• Power analysis: Counter-Strike 2, Far Cry 6, Forza Horizon 5
• RAM gaming benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, Flight Sim 2020
• Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and Ultra 5 245K: the Digital Foundry verdict [this page]