(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Intel needs a big swing—and a long ball—to reassert itself in the desktop processor world. Lo and behold: Its upcoming refreshed Core Ultra 200S chips, now with a "Plus" tacked on the end, might pack the lumber for the job—and surprise plenty of skeptics on price.
Refreshing the same "Arrow Lake" architectural design as the existing Core Ultra 200S line, the new Plus processors, according to Intel, will enjoy multithreaded performance boosted by up to 103% (take that with a grain of salt; that's a new Core Ultra 5 Plus chip versus an AMD Ryzen 5 equivalent), and gaming speed ticked up by an average of 15%. PC gaming is where Intel needs to make up the most ground versus AMD, so this 15% bump is arguably the more important claim.
Still, that increase probably isn’t quite enough alone to draw serious gamers away from AMD and that company’s fan-favorite 3D V-Cache processors. That’s why Intel is also pushing big price cuts with the Core Ultra 200S Plus line to make them hard to ignore. The new Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, which Intel proclaims is its best gaming processor ever, is set to launch for just $299. Intel also touts a $199 Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, but there is no new Core Ultra 9 part in sight. As an expert following chip news for a living, I'll break it all down for you.
[Editor's Note: Intel's initial Core Ultra 200S Plus announcement listed an Intel Core Ultra 7 270KF Plus processor, which we referenced in this article. Intel has since notified us that this was a mistake in the announcement. Intel has no Core Ultra 7 270KF Plus product at this time, just a Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus variant.]
The Refresh: Why Arrow Lake Needs a Second Shot
It’s no secret that Intel’s Core Ultra 200S processors, better known as Arrow Lake, have struggled to compete with AMD’s Ryzen 9000-series processors since their launch. Arrow Lake processors offer abundant processing power that often surpasses that of their direct competitors. The Core Ultra 9 285K, for example, Intel’s top Core Ultra 200S processor, generally produces better raw-CPU performance than the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which are AMD’s two best Ryzen 9000-series processors. At the same time, Intel has sold processors at lower prices, with the Core Ultra 9 285K, for example, going for $60 less than the Ryzen 9 9950X and $110 less than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, respectively, based on MSRP.
With advantages in both raw CPU performance and pricing, one might expect the Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200S processors to dominate the market, but that’s not what’s happened. The Achilles’ heel of the entire processor line has been relatively weak gaming performance when used with a high-end GPU. As gaming speed is the only factor some PC builders care about when choosing parts, this has been a big pain point for Intel and has pushed many people to opt for AMD processors instead, leaving Arrow Lake chips sitting on the shelf.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Intel’s gaming-performance doldrums are often exaggerated, though, so some context is in order. First, the existing Arrow Lake processors' gaming performance is more than sufficient to run any modern game smoothly. When gaming at higher resolutions like 4K with a good graphics card, the performance difference between Intel Core Ultra 200S processors and AMD’s Ryzen 9000-series processors is typically small. This scenario also plays out when running many games at lesser resolutions, such as 1080p or 1440p, with higher graphics settings.
Intel falls behind, and AMD pulls ahead, in certain scenarios involving extremely high frame rates, typically achieved with modest graphical settings at lower resolutions. The faster the frame rate, the bigger AMD’s performance advantage will be in these cases. These frame rates typically come into "play" in older games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Rainbow Six: Siege, or with more modern games like F1 2024 at reduced graphics settings.
This is still a serious problem for Intel, as many gamers prefer games with the highest possible frame rates, and even a small performance advantage in this regard can be enough to make AMD’s processors the better perceived option. Regardless, the 200S gaming issue is not severe enough to prevent you from running any games at an enjoyable frame rate with an Arrow Lake chip and a good graphics card. It's just a matter of degrees.
Latency and Bandwidth: Two Key Improvements With 200S Plus
The exact reason for Arrow Lake’s lackluster gaming performance is not known, but the changes made to the new Core Ultra 200S Plus processors suggest it could be related to Intel’s use of chiplets. Arrow Lake is Intel’s first modern processor design to use "chiplets," meaning the processor package contains several smaller chip modules that work together, rather than the processor being manufactured as a single unit. One challenge from designs like this is managing the data connections that link the pieces together.
To improve performance, Intel said it increased the speed at which data moves between these chiplets by up to 900MHz, suggesting the increase is not uniform across the processor. This change would increase internal memory bandwidth and reduce latency, improving performance. Memory bandwidth and latency also have a pronounced effect on gaming, which may be contributing to the 15% increase in gaming performance that Intel claims here.
In parallel with this, Intel is also boosting the memory controller in these Core Ultra 200S Plus processors to officially support DDR5 at 7,200MHz, up from 6,400MHz on the original Intel Core Ultra 200S processors.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Intel's New Binary Optimization Tool Does...Something
Another performance-boosting feature on Core Ultra 200S Plus processors is Intel’s new Binary Optimization Tool, which Intel says is a first-of-its-kind technology. Intel hasn't fully explained exactly how it works, but the Binary Optimization Tool is clearly related to how processors handle the data and instructions that flow through them. To quote Intel's initial claims...
“New Intel Binary Optimization Tool, a first-of-its-kind optimization technology leveraging Intel’s 40-year history in workload optimization to increase processor instructions per cycle (IPC) and user performance, even if the workload has been optimized for another x86 processor, a game console, or an earlier architecture. This technology sits next to exciting hardware advancements as a key aspect of Intel’s long-term performance roadmap for enthusiasts."
Interestingly, Intel here highlights software optimized for game consoles, none of which has an Intel processor. I was told directly by Intel that the Binary Optimization Tool contributes to improved Core Ultra 200S Plus gaming performance and multithreaded performance.
No Nines: The 200S Plus Drops Core Ultra 9 for Now
Intel does not plan to release a new Core Ultra 9 processor right now, but why is made obvious by the new processors Intel unveiled today.
The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus effectively replaces the Core Ultra 9 285K, packing eight Performance cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficient cores (E-cores). This core arrangement matches that of the Ultra 9 285K, giving the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus four more E-cores than the Core Ultra 7 265K.
(Credit: Intel)I don’t know what clock speed the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus will operate at yet, but having parity with the Core Ultra 9 285K in the number of cores, paired with the other improvements Intel is making with the Core Ultra 200S Plus series, should enable the Ultra 7 270K Plus to at least match, if not outpace, the 285K.
The price, though, is the big shocker. Given these two chips' MSRPs, $299 for the Core Ultra 7 270K versus $589 for the Core Ultra 9 285K, the Ultra 7 270K Plus comes off as the all-around better option, assuming at least near-parity in performance. Intel will still sell the Ultra 9 285K for now, but it's possible you will no longer have much reason to buy it, unless the price drops drastically.
The other "refresh" 200S Plus chip is the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. It also ships with four more E-cores than the previous best Core Ultra 5 part, the Ultra 5 245K, giving it six P-cores and 12 E-cores. This distinction alone doesn’t quite make it a match for the Ultra 7 265K, which has eight P-cores and 12 E-cores. But with the additional enhancements, the Ultra 5 250K Plus could produce faster performance. The pricing is also an eye-opener: It will launch at $199, highly competitive in the current processor market for an 18-core CPU.
Availability: Refreshed Arrow Lake Chips Drop on March 26
Intel plans to launch the $299 Core Ultra 7 270K Plus alongside the $199 Core Ultra 5 250K on March 26. Intel has confirmed that there will only be three SKUs in the Core Ultra 200S Plus line, which are the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, and the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus. Intel's KF CPUs are similar to the K models, but without integrated graphics. Intel has not yet specified what these KF chips will cost, but if the past is any indication, they will likely be priced about $10 to $20 cheaper than the K models.
Pricing reductions on Intel's original Arrow Lake 200S chips are likely to follow these new processors, but by how much is anyone's guess. Intel has set the Core Ultra 200S Plus chips with aggressively low prices, and AMD will most likely adjust its pricing in response, so we’ll have to wait and see how all that unfolds.
Based on these prices and the performance of the existing Arrow Lake processors, one thing is for sure, though: If their performance pans out, these processors could be a big win for you and me, hopefully pushing down the cost of buying or building a new high-end PC just when the industry needs it most, due to shortages and price hikes on other core components. Stay tuned; we'll test and report on these new chips in the coming weeks.