Intel's upcoming flagship Core Ultra 9 285K appears to have been tested in Cinebench R23 multi-core, where it exhibits a strong lead over the last generation despite having eight fewer threads. A screenshot of the CPU's benchmark results has leaked via a hardware enthusiast on Facebook, where the processor is seen sipping up to 250W of power but that is offset by its performance.
We are unaware of the test bench used and the settings applied so this benchmark might not be indicative of the final performance of the 285K. Moreover, it is mentioned that these results were obtained after some tweaking in the BIOS - though the settings were not specified.
In this leak, the Core Ultra 9 285K scores 45,563 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core while consuming roughly 250W of power. This puts it 13% faster than the Core i9-14900K; an impressive outcome as Arrow Lake skips out on Hyperthreading. The temperature also remained relatively cool, at 76 degrees Celsius, so the CPU wasn't thermal throttling.
Interestingly, despite using an optimized profile, the Core Ultra 9 285K falls short of the Ryzen 9 9950X which scores roughly 47,500 points with PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) and Curve Optimizer settings applied. This puts the Ryzen 9 9950X 4% ahead of the 285K, at least in Cinebench. It is pertinent to mention that Cinebench is a synthetic benchmark and this is a leaked sample of one. However, Cinebench is based on Maxon's commercial Cinema 4D rendering app so can give a good indication of real-world performance in this niche content creator workload - if the result is genuine.
Ultimately, efficiency will play a key role in determining Arrow Lake's success. So far, the leaked 65W Core Ultra 9 285 has been able to catch up to last-generation's unlocked i9-14900K in multithreading - proving that Arrow Lake can shine in power-limited scenarios.
Arrow Lake, on paper, should be slightly better than Zen 5 in efficiency. But will this compensate for the expensive packaging and outsourced TSMC wafers? Despite a complete architectural overhaul, the slow ring bus frequencies and the disaggregated chiplet approach could stagger Arrow Lake's gaming potential.
The review and sale embargo on Intel's Core 200S CPUs will be lifted this Thursday. We suggest users wait for independent reviews here on Tom's Hardware, as we'll cover everything about these processors, in depth. Furthermore, the mobile and non-K Arrow Lake family should arrive by the next CES.
