Intel Core Ultra 200S: 104 Days Later – Final Review

1. It's review time for Intel Core Ultra 200S2. Performance and Testing: CPU Tests3. Performance and Testing: Games4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

KitGuru recently gave an update about the fixes Intel has put in place for its troubled family of Core Ultra 200S CPUs. After a fair amount of testing we delivered a video that clearly struck a chord with our audience so we went away and did even more testing. And now, finally, months after the original launch, we are ready to review the Core Ultra 9 285K, Core Ultra 7 265K and Core Ultra 5 245K.

You can read our original report on the launch of Core Ultra 200S HERE

and our report after three months of updates is HERE

Time stamps
00:00 Intro
01:10 Architectural recap/pricing
07:01 Retesting and hardware
10:33 Cinebench 2024 Multi Core
11:41 Cinebench 2024 Single Core
12:33 Geekbench 6 Multi Core
13:02 Geekbench 6 Single Core
13:34 CPU power consumption
14:22 7-ZIP V24 Benchmark
15:12 AIDA64 Memory Bandwidth
16:01 Memory latency
16:46 3DMark TimeSpy
17:28 Far Cry 6
18:13 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
18:55 Assassins Creed Mirage
19:20 Total War Pharaoh
20:08 Cyberpunk 2077
20:53 Leo’s considers the platform

Performance and Testing: CPU Tests

Test Systems:
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake
Motherboard: MSI MEG Z890 Ace
Memory: 48GB G.Skill Trident Z5 CK CUDIMM DDR5-8200

CPU: Intel 14th Gen Raptor Lake
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X
Memory: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DR5-6800

CPU:  AMD Ryzen 9000
Motherboard: MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
Memory: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DR5-6000

Common components:
Graphics Card: MSI RTX 4090 Ventus 3X 24GB
Storage: 1TB Crucial T700 PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD
CPU Cooler: MSI MAG CoreLiquid I360 AIO
Power Supply: Seasonic Vertex ATX 3.0 GX-1200 Gold
Operating System: Windows 11 24H2

Geekbench 6 Multi Core

In Geekbench 6 Multi Core we start with a win for Core Ultra 9 285K which is closely followed by Core Ultra 7 265K. Moving half way down the chart we find Core Ultra 5 245K which beats Core i5-14600K by a reasonable margin.

Geekbench 6 Single Core

In Geekbench 6 Single Core the results are dominated by AMD Ryzen with the three Intel Core Ultra 200S models sitting in the middle of the chart.

CPU Clock Speeds and Power Draw

When we stress test the CPUs in Cinebench 2024 we see that Core Ultra 9 285K and Core Ultra 7 265K use ten percent less power than Core i9-14900K and Core i7-14700K while running at slightly higher clock speeds. Core Ultra 5 245K uses considerably less power but in general we see that AMD Zen 5 runs on less power than Intel.

AIDA64 Memory Bandwidth

One interesting quirk of Core Ultra 200S is support for DDR5 CU-DIMMs which include a control chip on the module that allows higher memory clock speeds. On paper this gives the new CPUs an unfair advantage as we were able to test them with DDR5-8200 where Intel 14th Gen used DDR5-6800 and AMD  had DDR5-6000 memory. You can see how that plays out in the AIDA64 Memory Bandwidth test, but despite this clear advantage things are going to get weird in our gaming tests.

Performance and Testing: Games

Far Cry 6

In our first gaming test, Far Cry 6 things start poorly for Core Ultra 200S. The new CPUs are beaten by 14th Gen Raptor Lake and regular AMD Zen 5 CPUs and absolutely crushed by Ryzen 7 3D.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Thankfully in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora we see signs of improvement for Intel as Core Ultra 200S is in a straight fight with 14th Gen Raptor Lake. We see a small win for Core Ultra 200S in the 1% lows which is likely thanks to the fast DDR5 memory. Nonetheless, AMD takes the top spot with Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

Assassin's Creed: MIrage

There is a change in fortunes for Core Ultra 200S in Assassin's Creed: MIrage as the new CPUs slump behind Raptor Lake such that Core Ultra 9 285K only narrowly beats Core i5-14600K. Up at the top of the chart we see the AMD Zen 5 and Zen 4 Ryzen 7 3D chips.

Cyberpunk 2077

Our chart for Cyberpunk 2077 shows the most grunty AMD CPUs leading the way, however Core Ultra 200S does a decent job with Core Ultra 9 285K effectively in a dead heat with Ryzen 9 9950X. It is interesting to see 14th Gen Raptor Lake falling a distance behind in this game.

Total War Pharaoh

Total War Pharaoh sums up the problems faced by Intel. The king of this particular heap is AMD and then we see 14th Gen Raptor Lake beating Core Ultra 200S. The gap between Ultra 9/Core i9, Ultra 7/Core i7, and Ultra 5/Core i5 is around 10fps which is not huge but also is not what we expect. In any sane and normal world the new CPUs should be better than the older CPUs.

Intel's false start with Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake has given AMD time to launch the Ryzen 7 9800X3D which has proven to be utterly dominant in the gaming market. The snag here is that while Intel has fixed a number of problems, mainly with Windows 11 24H2, the news about their relative weakness compared to AMD does not yet seem to have sunk in with the financial people. The result is that prices have remained high in the face of tragic sales and that hurts the prospects of the three CPUs that we have on review.

You can make the argument that Core Ultra 9 285K is a decent all-round CPU but once you factor in the cost of a Z890 motherboard and the latest CU-DIMMs the appeal pretty much evaporates.

Thankfully the Core Ultra 7 265K delivers most of the benefits of Core Ultra 9 at two thirds the price, and that means we can just about recommend this CPU. We know full well that some people will only ever buy Intel and won't touch AMD and to that select group we say ‘Core Ultra 7 265K is for you.'

Finally we have the Core Ultra 5 245K which is a junior processor that fails to deliver the budget performance we have come to expect from Core i5 in recent years. Gaming, in particular, was a real disappointment on the Core Ultra 5.

Core Ultra 9 285K

Pros:

• Multi-core performance matches Ryzen 9 9950X
• Single core performance is decent
• Power draw is slightly improved from 14th Gen

Cons:

• The price is far too steep
• Gaming performance is hit and miss
• Memory performance exhibits high latency

 

Core Ultra 7 265K

Pros:

• Decent all-round performance that sticks closely to Ultra 9 285K
• Very pleasant gaming experience
• The price of the CPU is reasonable

Cons:

• The future of LGA1851 is vague and may have no upgrade path
• Gaming performance struggles to match Core i7-14700K

 

Core Ultra 5 245K

Pros:

• General performance matches Ryzen 7 9700X
• Power consumption is low compared to other Intel CPUs
• Memory bandwidth is impressive with the latest DDR5 CU-DIMMs

Cons:

• Gaming performance is on a par with Ryzen 5 9600X
• Total cost of the platform is too high for mediocre performance

KitGuru Says:  Intel has rolled out a stack of updates for Core Ultra 200S that have fixed a number of problems. The single largest remaining issue is that prices remain too high.

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