Pros:
– Massive positive aspects in effectivity
– Comes with a whole lot of headroom if you wish to overclock
– Manages warmth effectively
– Strong multithread efficiency, regardless of no hyperthreading
– First desktop CPU to have an NPU
– Solid efficiency positive aspects in inventive workloads
– New chiplet-based structure that has a whole lot of potential
– Comes with much-improved iGPU
Cons:
– New socket means investing in new motherboard & RAM
– Needs top-of the road, high-speed RAM to get probably the most out of it
– No main enchancment in gaming efficiency. Dip in some titles
– NPU is under-utilised in Windows
Rating: 4.25/5
With the launch of their new line of CPUs, Intel is venturing into one thing new right here. Not solely are they going for a brand new structure, they’re additionally going for a complete new design philosophy. Moreover, they’ve achieved away with hyperthreading, the core expertise that made their CPUs unbelievably quick particularly in multithreaded workloads. Among their new line of CPUs, we first check the Core Ultra 9 285K a processor in contrast to any that I’ve seen earlier than.
It marks a daring shift for Intel, reimagining every little thing from its design to its options with a transparent give attention to creating environment friendly desktop CPUs. Compared to what we’ve had for years, this chip accomplishes some fairly superb feats that really feel virtually like a leap into the long run, particularly when you think about the Core i9-14900K, Intel’s final flagship-level desktop CPU.
The Core Ultra 9 285K is spectacular in its personal means. Intel has not solely ramped up effectivity but additionally made strides in efficiency, and it appears like they’ve addressed earlier stability issues
Intel has revamped additionally its Core sequence to align with the naming conventions used for its cellular CPUs. What makes issues actually attention-grabbing although, is like these cellular chips, the Core Ultra 9 285K features a devoted NPU able to 13 TOPS, a primary for a desktop CPU.
The actual query is whether or not that devoted NPU is actually mandatory for a gaming rig geared up with a graphics card, particularly given Windows’ behaviour. Nevertheless, the Core Ultra 9 285K stands out as a worthy improve from the Core i9-14900K, significantly excelling in inventive duties and benchmarks. However, on the subject of gaming efficiency, that’s the place issues begin to get intriguing.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Specifications and options
Intel’s new Arrow Lake structure is shaking issues up with some cool adjustments, beginning with its design. Like AMD, Intel has moved to a chiplet-based method, however they’ve made it a bit extra environment friendly and complicated. At the center of all of it, you’ve obtained a foundational package deal, then layered on prime are completely different tiles: a base tile, compute tile, I/O tile, SoC tile, GPU tile, and a filler tile. Each tile makes use of completely different manufacturing tech, with the compute tile being made on TSMC’s 3-nanometer N3B course of, the graphics tile on TSMC’s 5nm N5P course of, and the SoC and I/O tiles on TSMC’s 5nm N6 course of.
After coping with energy and warmth points within the final couple of Raptor Lake generations, these upgrades had been tremendous vital for Arrow Lake. Intel claims they’ve improved efficiency per watt by decreasing package deal energy consumption by 40% in comparison with the 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh processors, because of this new design.
The Core Ultra 9 285K options 8 Performance Cores and 16 Efficiency Cores, totaling 24 CPU cores. Unlike earlier fashions, Intel has disabled Hyper-Threading, so all these cores are single-threaded. In the previous, Intel’s desktop chips had P-Cores with Hyper-Threading, giving two threads per core, however thanks to raised communication between cores, multi-core efficiency hasn’t taken successful.
Intel has additionally barely lowered the clock speeds. The Core Ultra 9 285K hits a max Turbo Boost of 5.7GHz, down from 6GHz within the Core i9-14900K. This means single-core efficiency gained’t see an enormous soar this time, however 5.7GHz remains to be lightning quick. The complete cache has additionally elevated, with the L3 cache staying at 36MB whereas the L2 cache bumps up from 32MB to 40MB.
A neat new addition is a 13 TOPS NPU (Neural Processing Unit) constructed into the Core Ultra 9 285K. This is similar NPU utilized in Intel’s 2023 Meteor Lake laptop computer processors, so it’s not the super-fast Lunar Lake NPU, nevertheless it nonetheless boosts AI efficiency in comparison with processors with out one.
Intel additionally wished to deal with energy consumption and warmth after a few sizzling generations. Power use is just about the identical, with the Core Ultra 9 285K peaking at 250W, barely decrease than the 253W of the Core i9-14900K. However, temps have improved. Using the identical cooler, the Core Ultra 9 285K peaked at 86°C — nonetheless heat, however significantly better than the 100°C of the Core i9-14900K.
On the graphics facet, Intel has upgraded its built-in graphics {hardware} for Arrow Lake, utilizing the Xe LPG structure. This is intently associated to what you discover in Intel’s Arc graphics playing cards however reworked for built-in use. The shader depend has doubled; the place Raptor Lake’s Intel UHD Graphics 770 had 32 execution models (EUs) and 256 shaders, Arrow Lake processors now have 64 EUs and 512 shaders. These shaders can hit speeds as much as 2GHz and include devoted AI and ray-tracing {hardware}.
Finally, the host processor and built-in graphics profit from an improved reminiscence controller that helps DDR5 RAM clocked at 6,400MT/s. With these upgrades and quicker clock speeds, Arrow Lake processors ought to actually outperform their predecessors on the subject of graphics efficiency.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Compatibility & new chipset
Intel’s new Arrow Lake CPUs use the LGA 1851 socket, which implies they aren’t suitable with any previous-gen motherboards. At launch, the brand new socket solely helps one chipset: the Z890.
The Z890 chipset presents 20 PCIe 5.0 lanes (with x16 for enlargement playing cards and x4 for storage) plus an additional 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes for storage. A cool improve is that the PCIe lanes for enlargement playing cards can now be cut up amongst three units (x8, x4, x4), in comparison with simply two with the LGA 1700.
Like AMD’s AM5 socket, the Arrow Lake structure is all about DDR5 SDRAM, dropping help for the older DDR4. So, in case you’re upgrading to the Core Ultra 9 285K, you’ll want to select up some new RAM. The most RAM capability stays at 192GB, and whereas these chips don’t help DDR4, they’ll deal with quicker DDR5 reminiscence as much as 6,400MT/s proper now. The chipset can theoretically help modules as much as 9,200MT/s, which is a pleasant step up from the earlier technology’s 7,200MT/s.
As for coolers, the brand new socket is suitable with current ones and makes use of the identical mounting {hardware}. However, for the reason that hotspot on the die has shifted barely towards the highest, some cooler producers would possibly suggest a brand new mounting equipment. If you’re utilizing an excellent liquid or AIO cooler with a well-designed water block, try to be simply high-quality—except you’re going all out with overclocking.
The new Intel Z890 chipset is designed for the upcoming Intel Core Ultra processors and comes full of spectacular options to spice up efficiency and connectivity for high-end desktop programs.
One standout is native Thunderbolt 4 help, guaranteeing lightning-fast knowledge switch and versatile connectivity on your peripherals. Plus, it contains help for Wi-Fi 6E, with motherboard producers additionally providing Wi-Fi 7 choices for even quicker wi-fi web and improved community efficiency.
Storage choices have additionally gotten an improve, with PCIe 5.0 help for M.2 slots to facilitate quicker SSD efficiency. The chipset boasts a complete of 60 HSIO lanes (High-Speed I/O), offering loads of enlargement choices for graphics playing cards and storage units. You may reap the benefits of Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology, which accelerates knowledge entry and helps RAID for knowledge redundancy.
Intel has built-in a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) inside choose Core Ultra processors, considerably enhancing AI and machine studying duties. The Z890 chipset helps varied overclocking options, permitting customers to squeeze out much more efficiency from their CPUs and reminiscence.
Overall, the Z890 chipset is a strong selection for anybody trying to construct a strong gaming rig or workstation that may deal with intense duties, making it a worthy addition to Intel’s lineup of chipsets.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Our check bench
For our testing setup, we used the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K paired with the Gigabyte Z890 AORUS Elite WiFi7 Gaming Motherboard, kindly offered by Gigabyte. To hold issues cool, we opted for the AORUS Waterforce X II 360 AIO cooler, guaranteeing we squeezed each little bit of efficiency from the chip. For reminiscence, we went with a 96GB setup utilizing two 48GB G.Skill Trident Z5 sticks rated at DDR5 6400MT/s.
For Graphics, we had the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4080 Super, which boasts 16GB of GDDR6X reminiscence. Everything was powered by an AORUS Elite 1000W Platinum modular energy provide, that includes an 80 Plus Platinum ranking.
Like different Okay-series Intel Arrow Lake CPUs, the 285K is prepared for overclocking proper out of the field, however we determined to maintain issues easy and examined it at manufacturing facility settings. We did allow XMP from the BIOS to make sure the RAM carried out at its peak.
Intel is banking on delivering the perfect efficiency on the highest thermal effectivity with its Core Ultra 200 sequence. Therefore, Intel’s new Adaptive Performance Optimization (APO) expertise, which is designed to boost energy administration and efficiency tuning throughout varied workloads, turns into vital. We subsequently additionally had APO enabled. APO often comes enabled straight out of the field, because it allows the processors to intelligently regulate energy consumption, and optimise efficiency for each gaming and productiveness duties.
As for our selection of the motherboard, we selected the Z890 AORUS Elite WiFi7 for a number of causes. Its AORUS AI SNATCH and AI SNATCH Engine options enable for one-click AI-driven overclocking, optimizing efficiency simply. And with a strong 16+1+2 section VRM setup, stability is assured.
On prime of that, the motherboard is tremendous user-friendly. Features like WiFi EZ-Plug simplify antenna connections, and the EZ-Debug Zone with diagnostic LEDs makes troubleshooting simpler. There’s additionally a PCIe EZ-Latch Plus button for hassle-free GPU elimination, and all 4 M.2 slots are tool-free, making the construct course of clean and easy.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Performance
With the Core 200 Desktop CPUs, Intel is focusing every little thing on effectivity and efficiency per watt — they’re aiming to ship extra efficiency whereas utilizing much less energy and producing much less warmth in comparison with the earlier 14th Gen chips and for probably the most half, they’ve hit the mark,
When it involves gaming, issues get a bit difficult, however extra on that later.
A key function of the Core Ultra 9 285K is its 13 TOPS NPU, however likelihood is you’ll pair this CPU with a strong graphics card just like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 or a 4090. In these circumstances, the NPU won’t appear all that helpful.
Having stated that, it does give a pleasant enhance to AI efficiency in comparison with simply utilizing the CPU.
For instance, within the Procyon AI Vision benchmark, the Core Ultra 9 285K scored 144 factors when solely the CPU was examined. But when the NPU comes into play, that rating jumps to 373 factors.
While the NPU can velocity up AI duties, it doesn’t maintain a candle to what a devoted graphics card can do. Intel claims that the NPU is there to deal with background AI duties whereas the GPU is busy, however actually, there aren’t many duties proper now that may actually reap the benefits of it.
When it involves artificial CPU benchmarks, the Core Ultra 9 285K holds its personal. In Geekbench the Core Ultra 9 outperforms the 14900K in single-core efficiency solely to lose out in Cinebench R23’s single-core benchmark. Meanwhile, in Cinebench R23’s multi-core efficiency, the Core Ultra 9 285K is available in quicker than the 14900K. We see considerably of an analogous story in Cinebench 2024. However, in Geekbench 6, the Ultra 9 285K is outscored on the multi-core entrance.
Surprisingly, Pugetbench doesn’t sit effectively with Ultra 9 285K because it was handily overwhelmed by the 14900K in each, Photoshop and Premiere. Maybe the subsequent Adobe replace will begin utilising every little thing that the Ultra 9 285K has to supply.
Even with some much less spectacular outcomes, the Core Ultra 9 285K nonetheless shines in multi-core efficiency.
However, on the subject of gaming, the Core Ultra 9 285K takes a slight hit in comparison with the 14900K. The efficiency isn’t horrible, nevertheless it’s not topping the charts like a number of the earlier chips. Intel had said that with the brand new CPUs, they aren’t trying to make large jumps in gaming efficiency. However, seeing a dip, as marginal as it might be, is usually a bit flustering for some.
Don’t get me flawed, the numbers put up by the Core Ultra 9 285K aren’t disappointing or dangerous in any means. Intel is delivering precisely what that they had stated. But, why can we not see that huge a soar in gaming efficiency with Arrow Lake? There are a number of elements at play, and it’s not only one factor inflicting the drop in efficiency.
For starters, the Core Ultra 9 285K has a decrease most P-core clock velocity (5.7 GHz vs. 6.0 GHz), and the ring bus connecting the cores to the shared L3 RAM is slower too (3.8 GHz versus as much as 5.0 GHz). This decrease clock velocity seemingly explains a number of the gaming efficiency dips, nevertheless it additionally helps with the improved power effectivity we’re seeing in Arrow Lake.
Plus, the P-cores don’t have hyperthreading anymore; the upgraded E-cores are actually taking on the duties that the outdated P-core hyperthreading used to handle.
There are a whole lot of adjustments taking place underneath the hood with Arrow Lake, and determining precisely why there’s a efficiency hole will take some digging.
To be honest to Intel, they’ve been upfront about their give attention to power effectivity with these Arrow Lake Desktop CPUs. The huge query is: have they delivered on that promise?
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Power consumption & thermals
Short reply is, sure. During our assessments, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K sometimes peaked round 240 watts, whereas the i9-14900K may hit between 270 and 280 watts at instances.
When it involves temperatures, the 14900K may attain as excessive as 95 levels Celsius underneath peak workloads, often settling across the 90 to 92-degree mark throughout sustained use. In distinction, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K managed to remain cooler, hardly ever exceeding 86 levels and sometimes settling between 82 and 84 levels throughout our testing.
Given that the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is constructed on a very new design and method to chip manufacturing, the effectivity positive aspects for a first-generation product are fairly spectacular. That stated, there’s nonetheless loads of room for enchancment, particularly concerning the facility draw.
Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Review: Verdict
There is little question about the truth that the Core Ultra 9 285K is a combined bag — we acquire some noticeable efficiency in sure areas, and take a small hit in others, particularly once we examine it to the outgoing set of CPUs, each from AMD and Intel.
What I’m actually impressed by is the numerous effectivity positive aspects that Intel has made and the intelligent means Intel has managed to pack in 24 threads, that too when giving up on hyperthreading.
In my thoughts, this may be Intel’s Ryzen second — when AMD moved away from their FX sequence processors to a complete new structure and went on to mount a formidable resurgence.
But for that to occur Intel has to construct on the inspiration that they’ve laid with the Core Ultra 9 285K. It might not promote within the volumes that Intel needs it to, or in reality even wants it to, nevertheless it certain is a begin of one thing contemporary, one thing new.
But as a lot as I’m rooting for Intel, the actual fact of the matter is, upgrading to this technology of Intel CPUs, solely is smart if in case you have an Intel eleventh or twelfth Gen system or maybe even older, and for some purpose wouldn’t wish to go for one thing from AMD. If you’re a gamer, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D remains to be king, because of its 3D V-Cache
For everybody else, the one means the brand new price of the platform and the brand new CPUs make sense is that you just run your PC all through the day, and actually need to chop down in your energy payments.
