The Core Ultra 9 285K processor from Intel’s new Arrow Lake-S series is making waves in the industry. In particular, the processor has attracted attention by taking the top spot in PassMark’s single-threaded performance tests. Here are the details…

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K: Top in single-threading, behind in multi-threading

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K scored 5,268 points, beating the Core i9-14900K and Apple’s M3 processor. But all is not so rosy, because the tables are turned in multi-threaded tests. Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K processor comes with 24 cores.

16 of them are efficiency-oriented Skymont cores and 8 are high-performance Lion Cove cores. The impressive performance in single-threaded tasks is made possible by the collaboration of these cores. But when it comes to multi-threaded performance, the processor suffers due to the lack of hyperthreading support.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 66,702 in multi-threaded tests, beating Intel’s new processor. The Core Ultra 9 285K scored just 46,872, falling behind both AMD’s Ryzen 9 and its predecessor, the Core i9-14900K.

It’s worth noting that the benchmark results for Intel’s next-generation Arrow Lake-S processor are not yet fully representative of the actual product. The tested models are considered to be engineering samples. Once the final product is released, performance gains are expected to improve even further.

While the new processor stands out as an ambitious option, especially in gaming and single-threaded tasks, it shows that users may turn to other options in scenarios where multi-threaded performance is important.

Intel’s new move is a step in the right direction in balancing performance and energy efficiency.