The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 is neck and neck against the unlocked Core i9-14900K, based on leaked benchmarks over at Geekbench. As highlighted by Benchleaks on X, the Core Ultra 9 285 is an upcoming Arrow Lake processor with a TDP of 65W, falling in the non-K category of CPUs. Despite being power-limited, the Core Ultra 9 285 easily catches up to the last generation's flagship Core i9-14900K.
The Core Ultra 9 285 packs 24 cores, divided into eight P-cores based on Lion Cove and 16 E-cores based on Skymont. Much like its unlocked counterpart, the 285 hosts a total of 76MB of total cache (40MB L2 + 36MB L3). In line with a previous benchmark, the Core Ultra 9 285 has a boost clock of 5.6 GHz, which is quite the feat as it is just 100 MHz lower than its K-equivalent.
The test bench sports GIGABYTE's Z890 UD motherboard and 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory, which should increase to DDR5-6400 if you opt for CUDIMM sticks, so there's still room for improvement.
The Core Ultra 9 285 amasses 3,247 points in the single-core category, beating the Core Ultra 7 265K. Compared to its predecessor, the Core i9-14900, the Core Ultra 9 285 is roughly 12% faster and 5% faster than the Core i9-14900K. In multi-core, the Core Ultra 9 285 breaches the 20k barrier by scoring 20,204 points, a 13% lead over its last-generation equivalent.
This is an awe-inspiring result, no matter how you look at it. The Core Ultra 9 285 has a PL1 of 65W, which can temporarily reach 182W (performance preset PL2). Even so, Intel's pivotal selling point with Arrow Lake is efficiency, and initial results hold onto that promise. These non-K CPUs should be great for power-conscious gamers and OEM machines. Likewise, seeing how well Arrow Lake scales with the 35W "T" family will be exciting whenever it launches or gets leaked.
It also indicates that Arrow Lake might have a lot of room for tuning and undervolting, giving enthusiasts another fun toy with which to tinker. The Core Ultra 200S K-series lineup will hit shelves on October 24. Following tradition, Intel might be eyeing CES 2025 to launch the mobile and non-K Arrow Lake lineups.
