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Intel announced its newest desktop processors this week, the Intel Core Ultra 200 series, the first desktop processor with a built in NPU for AI workloads.
The new processor series, previously known by its codename, Intel Arrow Lake, has been entirely rearchitected to focus on efficiency and performance-per-watt and features the same multi-module die architecture as Intel Meteor Lake laptop processors.
The new processors are a major change for Intel’s desktop portfolio, featuring new performance and efficiency core architecture.
The new Skymont efficiency cores have a claimed 32% instruction-per-clock (IPC) increase over the previous generation Gracemont cores featured in Intel Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh.
Intel also says that its Lion Cove performance core architecture has a 9% IPC uplift over its previous-gen Raptor Cove performance cores.
In addition to the new P-core and E-Core architecture, the new Core Ultra 200 series processors will feature Intel Xe-LPG graphics architecture, the same architecture that powers Intel’s Arc Alchemist graphics cards.
This gives the CPU’s integrated GPU powerful new hardware-accelerated ray tracing support, as well as Intel XeSS support built right into the CPU.
While this won’t replace the best graphics cards in a desktop system, for more budget-oriented desktops or all-in-one PCs, the new Core Ultra 200 series processors will bring significantly better graphics performance than the iGPU found in Intel Raptor Lake processors currently on the market.
The Core Ultra 200 series will also be the first desktop processors to feature integrated neural processing capabilities that previously required a dedicated graphics card. And while the 13 TOPS NPU in the Intel Core Ultra 200 series isn’t as powerful as the recently released Intel Lunar Lake laptop processors, for AIO desktops, this NPU will empower a number of new features that simply aren’t possible on a previous-gen Intel desktop chip.
The entire chip architecture is capable of 36 TOPS spread across the CPU, NPU, and iGPU, and the sky is the limit when you factor in dedicated GPUs, which have much more powerful neural network capabilities.
The new processors will go on sale later this month, with five SKUs available at launch.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | CPU Cores/Threads | CPU Max Frequency | GPU Cores | NPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core Ultra 9 285K | 24 (8P+16E) / 24 | 5.7 GHz | 4 | 13 TOPS |
| Intel Core Ultra 7 265K | 20 (8P+12E) / 20 | 5.5 GHz | 4 | 13 TOPS |
| Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF | 20 (8P+12E) / 20 | 5.5 GHz | N/A | 13 TOPS |
| Intel Core Ultra 5 245K | 14 (6P+8E) / 14 | 5.2 GHz | 4 | 13 TOPS |
| Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF | 14 (6P+8E) / 14 | 5.2 GHz | N/A | 13 TOPS |
Significantly improved power efficiency without sacrificing performance
One of the biggest issues with the past few generations of Intel desktop processors has been their relatively high power consumption. The Intel Core i9-14900K, the best processor of the previous generation, regularly pulled down more than 300W of power during intensive workloads.
While this translates into best-in-class performance (as well as record-breaking speeds in excess of 6.0 GHz out of the box), for many this level of performance wasn’t worth the extra investment needed in terms of cooling and PSU support.
In terms of performance, recent benchmark leaks have shown that the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor likely won’t beat the gaming performance of the previous-gen Core i9-14900K, but it will come within a hair of that previous-gen performance at a substantially lower TDP.
Intel says that the new flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor will deliver about 8% better single-core performance over the Core i9-14900K, and about 4% better performance than the recently released AMD Ryzen 9 9950X.
In terms of multi-core workloads, the new Core Ultra 285K will deliver up to 15% faster performance over the 14900K, and up to 13% better performance over the Ryzen 9 9950X. The latter is especially notable as the 9950X features two threads per core, compared to the single thread per core of the Intel Core Ultra 200 series.
Intel says it will be able to deliver this performance at substantially lower power. For lightly-threaded workloads like Zoom calls, the new Core Ultra 9 285K will use up to 58% less power, with up to 42% less power on intensive single-core tasks like video and 3D rendering (as tested in CineBench R24).
Intel says that the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K will be able to deliver about 95% of the gaming performance of the Intel Core i9-14900K with up to 188W lower power consumption and about 15° C lower temperature, meaning a quieter system with a smaller cooling solution.
- This story is developing…
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