Intel and AMD’s approach to CPU design has diverged considerably since the introduction of Ryzen in 2016. AMD opted for a chiplet style with homogeneous cores on discrete Core Complex Dies. Intel meanwhile introduced the concept of big and little cores with Alder Lake’s hybrid architecture, dubbed Performance and Efficiency Cores, on a single monolithic die. As their names suggest, E-cores are for background and lower priority tasks, whereas P-cores are tailored to high-priority heavy compute workloads that warrant more juice.

While P-Cores operate semi-independently, E-Cores are organised in clusters of four with shared L2 cache. This makes them ideal for handling multiple similar threads with cached data relevant to all of those threads.

Unlike prior generations however Arrow Lake is notable for its lack of Hyperthreading. This technology - a proprietary implementation of simultaneous multithreading (SMT) that’s been part of Intel’s desktop strategy since 2002’s Pentium 4 era - allowed for better load scheduling in system configurations with relatively few high-performance cores. With the introduction of up-to 16 E-cores to handle much of the heavily threaded load, Hyperthreading was deemed to be a waste of valuable silicon area and power resources.

There will be a trade-off to this approach. The most heavily multithreaded applications and software configurations will suffer, i.e. those that generate and optimally process more than 24 threads in parallel. Other workloads should benefit however, particularly lightly-threaded ones that scale with faster individual cores.

As a ‘K’ processor the Core Ultra 9 285K is fully unlocked for overclocking, with much greater flexibility on the platform compared to Raptor Lake-R and other recent Intel processors. The tools available suit both casual and enthusiast overclockers alike, and include both automated ‘activate and forget’ systems as well as means for bypassing platform voltage limits. Even low temperature overclocking gains enhancements in the form of voltage limitation bypassing as temps reduce.



While we’re reviewing the Ultra 9 285K today, each member of the 200S-series fits an intriguing niche. At an MSRP of almost $400 the Ultra 7 265K specialises less towards the raw multithreaded performance of the 285K but, by retailing all 8 P-cores it should have plenty of horsepower for premium gaming content while also operating a plethora of background tasks. A significant step down for content creators but likely only a minor deduction for all others.

At around the $300 mark the Ultra 5 245K is the most affordable of the CPUs launching today. It boasts just 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores as well as a significantly reduced maximum turbo of just 5.2GHz. This model is very much aimed at mainstream gamers and potentially gameplay streamers, particularly as (like all Arrow Lake designs) it supports hardware encode/decode of relevant video codecs including the nascent AV1 codec.

Finally, the platform costs are not out of step with Intel's rivals. At the time of writing AMD’s cheapest X870 motherboard is $199 from Newegg.com whereas the equivalent Z890 is just $175.99. Features including I/O will differ a little between the two in this configuration but the take-home is that Intel look to be offering marginally better bang for your buck, particularly if the mainstream Arrow Lake SKUs can live up to their billing.