Unannounced Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus Surfaces on Geekbench
Benchmark findings for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, a high-end Arrow Lake Refresh processor for the LGA-1851 platform, were found in the Geekbench database. The designation of "Plus" indicates that this is an overclocked version of the standard model. Its appearance in the benchmark leaks without a formal announcement in international events like CES 2026 indicates that Intel might go for a silent release for the new product.
Processor Specs & Test System
The benchmark was run on a high-end machine, giving a whole lot of insight into processor performance. The specifications were as follows:
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z890 Aorus Tachyon Ice
- Memory: 48GB of DDR5-8000
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
- Core Configuration: 8 Performance-cores and 16 Efficient-cores
- Base Clock: 3.7 GHz
- Boost Clock: 5.8 GHz
Performance Scores and Comparison
The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus managed to score;
- Single-Threaded Score: 3,456 points
- Multi-Threaded Score: 24,610 points
When contrasted with the scores from the Core Ultra 9 285K (which scores about 3,202 and 22,580 respectively), the newly introduced "Plus" chip is about 8% faster in single-threaded work and about 9% faster in multi-threaded workloads.
Possible Existence of a 'Plus' Series
This is not the first mention of a "Plus" model in leaks; a Core Ultra 7 270K Plus was also rumored. This indicates that Intel could be preparing to launch a family of factory-overclocked processors. The chips were never confirmed for a launch date.
