Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Dominates Single-Core Performance, But Multi-Core Scores Lag
Intel's upcoming flagship desktop CPU, the Core Ultra 9 285K, has appeared on PassMark, showcasing impressive single-core performance but disappointing multi-core results.
The 24-core processor, part of Intel's new Arrow Lake-S lineup, achieved a remarkable single-threaded score of 5,268, exceeding its predecessor, the Core i9-14900K (4,743), Apple's M3 (4,777), and AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X (4,739). This signifies a significant 11% single-core performance improvement over the i9-14900K.
Hyperthreading's Absence Impacts Multi-Core Performance:
However, the Core Ultra 9 285K's multi-core performance falls short of expectations. With a score of 46,872, it lags behind the Ryzen 9 9950X (66,702) and even its predecessor, the i9-14900K (60,305). The reason for this discrepancy is the lack of hyperthreading support on the Core Ultra 9 285K's 8 performance cores, effectively limiting it to 16 threads instead of the 32 threads offered by the i9-14900K.
While the tested CPU is likely an engineering sample, and final performance might improve, it highlights a potential trade-off Intel has made with Arrow Lake-S, prioritizing single-core performance over multi-core capabilities. It remains to be seen how this will impact real-world performance in applications and games that rely heavily on multi-threading.
