Intel Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPUs To Bring Big Multi-Thread Performance Uplifts, Leak Shows Up To 18% Gain Over 14900K at 250W

The numbers leaked by Jaykihn are allegedly for the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU which is the top chip in the Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPU family. Two variants of the chip are tested, one in the ES2 state and one in the QS state, against the Core i9-14900K. The QS chip should be closer to the final retail CPUs.

It is stated that the Arrow Lake-S QS was running at a 250W TDP for the workloads which include Cinebench R23, Geekbench 5, SpeedoMeter, WebXPRT4, and CrossMark. For comparison, the i9-14900K has a peak PL2 rating of 253W. But before we get into the tests, let’s take a quick look at the specifications of the flagship.

Starting with the details, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is listed as an Arrow Lake CPU with a 125W TDP which should be the PL1 target. The process node is mentioned as 7nm but that just shows that the version of CPU-z can’t identify the technology yet. The CPU itself is supposed to be based on either TSMC’s N3B process node or Intel’s 20A with the former being the more likely candidate based on reports.

The CPU features 24 cores in an 8+16 configuration with 8 Lion Cove P-Cores and 16 Skymont E-Cores. The cache pool includes 36 MB of L3, 40 MB of L2, and 2.4 MB of L1. That’s a total of 76 MB Smart Cache.

Earlier, we had reported a clock speed of up to 5.5 GHz in the ES chips and followed up with the 5.7 GHz clocks reported for the QS chips. With a 5.7 GHz clock, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K should sit a tad bit behind the Core i9-14900K and Core i9-13900K but considering that this is a brand new CPU architecture and a new node (N3B as rumored), it’s a good start for Intel and we can expect further clock speed bumps in refreshes which are already planned for the Arrow Lake lineup. Following is how the clock speeds compare against previous Core i9 releases:

• Core Ultra 9 285K – 5.70 GHz (Max)
• Core i9-14900KS – 6.20 GHz (Max)
• Core i9-14900K – 6.00 GHz (Max)
• Core i9-13900KS – 6.00 GHz (Max)
• Core i9-13900K – 5.80 GHz (Max)
• Core i9-12900KS – 5.50 GHz (Max)
• Core i9-12900K – 5.20 GHz (Max)

In terms of performance, the Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra 9 285K Desktop CPU scores up to an 18% uplift in the Cinebench R23 multi-threaded tests which should be enough to outpace the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X “Zen 5” flagship at its stock configuration but the Zen 5 chip does run at around 170W by default so it won’t be wise comparing that to the 250W Arrow Lake-S config.

Intel Arrow Lake “Core Ultra 9 285K” vs Raptor Lake “Core i9-14900K” CPU Leak (Source: @jaykihn0)

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K “Arrow Lake” CPU should be among the launch lineup which is expected in October 2024. These chips will include three unlocked SKUs, the Core Ultra 9 285K, Core Ultra 7 265K, and Core Ultra 5 245K. All three chips will be compatible with the latest Z890 motherboards featuring the LGA 1851 socket.

Intel Arrow Lake-S Desktop CPU Lineup (Preliminary):