Intel 290K shows up on Geekbench, pointing to Arrow Lake refresh plans

A Geekbench score for Intel's Core Ultra 9 290K PLUS CPU has emerged, revealing the CPU's peak clock speed of 5.8 GHz along with additional specifications. This CPU was evaluated on a Gigabyte Z890 AORUS TACHYON ICE motherboard paired with 48GB of DDR5-8000 RAM.

According to Geekbench, Intel’s Ultra 9 285K CPU achieves a single-threaded score of 3202 and a multi-threaded score of 22580. The freshly leaked Ultra 9 290K PLUS CPU boasts a single-threaded score that's nearly 8% greater and a multi-threaded score that's close to 9% higher. These are significant improvements for Intel's Arrow Lake Refresh.

Unlike other leaked Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs, the 290K PLUS does not have more CPU cores than its predecessor. As a result, all the performance enhancements seen in this new CPU model can be attributed to its increased core clock speeds and various design advancements. In the benchmarks revealed today, the CPU's utilization of speedy DDR5-8000 memory certainly contributes to its elevated performance.

Generally, Intel’s new PLUS series Arrow Lake CPUs present higher clock speeds and additional E-cores compared to their predecessors. However, the 290K PLUS stands out as it only provides faster clock speeds than the previous model.

Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake refresh will continue the trend of its CPUs benefiting from faster memory. Despite rising costs for high-end DDR5 due to a global NAND shortage, these new chips will support memory speeds up to DDR5-7200, with even higher speeds achievable through overclocking. Although Intel has yet to finalize a schedule or price point, these chips are expected to arrive shortly to better challenge the Ryzen 7 9850X3D from AMD.

As anticipation grows for the forthcoming Intel CPU, you won't have to wait long to experience exceptional gaming performance. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is already a renowned X3D powerhouse, providing excellent frame rates and impressive efficiency currently. As always, for the latest news on hardware launches and industry developments, be sure to follow our dedicated hardware coverage.