Intel has officially confirmed that it will not be launching the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus 24-Core CPU to become the next top Arrow Lake SKU. Industry insiders had previously made it known that samples were in circulation for testing, but rumors accompanying them suggested that they would never make it to consumers. Intel is in the midst of releasing its Arrow Lake Refresh CPU lineup and has finally launched its first “Big Battlemage” GPUs, so the question regarding the potential launch of the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus remained, but Intel has now answered that via a statement to PC Games Hardware.
“Intel is excited to deliver exceptional value with our Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus series processors. The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus are positioned to deliver outstanding gaming performance and incredible value compared to our competition. Our objective was to maximize performance for the desktop SKUs that are most widely available. As a result, Intel is not launching a U9 290K Plus SKU.“
– Florian Maislinger, Tech Communication Manager, Intel Germany
The ongoing theory is that Intel chose to cancel the flagship processor as it would’ve created too much product overlap in having three 24-core product SKUs. The recently launched 270K Plus is already getting positive reviews and, in some specific use case scenarios, has been seen to outperform the 285K. Intel is also emphasizing the price/performance value of its Core Ultra 5 250K Plus with 18 cores / 18 threads based on six Lion Cove P-cores and 12 Skymount E-cores, a 5.3 GHz boost clock, and available at a competitively low price of $200. The chip manufacturer is definitely confident in its current lineup and obviously sees no need to add more at the top of the stack. Below is an overview (per Tom’s Hardware) of the Arrow Lake lineup, where the only SKUs with identical core counts are the 285K and 270K Plus. The most noticeable differences between the two are faster memory compatibility and a much lower price for the 270K Plus.
| CPU | Street (MSRP) | Cores / Threads (P+E) | P-Core Base / Boost (GHz) | E-Core Base / Boost (GHz) | Cache (L2 + L3) | TDP / MTP | Memory |
| Core Ultra 9 285K | $530 ($589) | 24 / 24 (8+16) | 3.7 / 5.5 | 3.2 / 4.6 | 76 MB | 125W / 250W | 6400MT/s |
| Core Ultra 7 270K Plus | $300 | 24 / 24 (8+16) | 3.7 / 5.4 | 3.2 / 4.7 | 76 MB | 125W / 250W | 7200MT/s |
| Core Ultra 7 265K | $270 ($394) | 20 / 20 (8+12) | 3.9 / 5.4 | 3.3 / 4.6 | 66 MB | 125W / 250W | 6400MT/s |
| Core Ultra 5 250K Plus | $200 | 18 / 18 (6+12) | 4.2 / 5.3 | 3.3 / 4.6 | 60 MB | 125W / 159W | 7200MT/s |
| Core Ultra 5 245K | $200 ($309) | 14 / 14 (6+8) | 4.2 / 5.2 | 3.6 / 4.6 | 50 MB | 125W / 159W | 6400MT/s |
| Core Ultra 5 225 | $180 ($246) | 10 / 10 (6+4) | 3.3 / 4.9 | 2.7 / 4.4 | 42 MB | 65W / 121W | 6400MT/s |