The first benchmark results for an Intel Core Ultra 9 QS (Qualification Sample) have been shared. With the chip running at 250W, the upcoming Core Ultra 9 processor outperformed the Core i9-14900K in the Cinbench R23 nT test by 17.5%. However, adding other benchmark results to the equation reduces the performance uplift to just 4% on average.

Jaykihn shared the results via X, stating that the chip was a qualification sample running at 250W. The model's name wasn't disclosed, but considering it was an 8+16C CPU, it can only be the Core Ultra 9 285K or the 275K (most likely the former).

Image credit: @harukaze5719

The Engineering Sample 2 (ES2) results shared before showed lower performance than Raptor Lake's flagship Core i9-14900K CPU. However, the outlook has improved significantly with the QS version, showcasing a 4.3% performance boost over Intel's current flagship CPU. In Cinebench R23 and Geekbench, the scores are even more promising, outperforming the Core i9 by around 16% in multi-core workloads. On the other hand, the single-core performance looks pretty much the same.

Compared with the Ryzen 9 9950X results that have been shared, Intel's CPU was ahead by a mere 2% when AMD's CPU was running at 160W, but it lagged by 6.5% when compared with AMD's chip running at 230W.

Although this is just an Arrow Lake-S QS, these typically offer a performance closely mirroring the final silicon. As such, don't expect any massive difference between these scores and the retail sample results. The official release date hasn't been shared, but rumours point to an announcement in September and a release in October.

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KitGuru says: Note that these are synthetic benchmarks and may not translate well to real-world cases, like gaming. As such, waiting for more benchmarks before drawing conclusions is better.

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