Conclusion
In our benchmarking of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus versus Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, we found that the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is the top performer from this generation for Intel CPUs. Intel CPUs have had the unique ability to be able to run CUDIMM memory and operate at very high frequencies, such as 8800MT/s DDR5 speeds.
With the launch of the Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus desktop CPU Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs, the highest officially supported memory speed was moved up to 7200MT/s. However, this is not the stopping place, indeed there are RAM kits that exceed this quite easily on this platform. Therefore, MSI supplied us with the ability to test higher-speed memory from Kingston on the new Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and find out if higher-speed memory past 7200MT/s actually provides a benefit.
In our testing today, we took two Kingston Fury Renegade RAM Kits and utilized the built-in XMP profiles to set performance from 7200MT/s up to 8800MT/s. The Kingston Fury Renegade 7600MT/s DDR5 RGB UDIMM RAM Kit allowed us to utilize 7200MT/s and 7600MT/s with CL38 timings. The Kingston Fury Renegade 8800MT/s DDR5 RGB CUDIMM Kit allowed us to utilize 8400MT/s at CL40 and 8800MT/s at CL42 timings. We tested on the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, which has the highest performance from Intel on this desktop generation. We used the latest drivers, game patches, and all the data was refreshed and run anew for this review.
Final Points
The results quite honestly speak for themselves; timing and latency do matter with the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus. Though you can brute force your way up to much higher memory bandwidth with looser timings, this actually ends up becoming a detriment to performance. That extra bandwidth makes up for some of that and recovers some of that performance. Ultimately, if you can achieve a memory frequency at the lowest timings, better, below CL40, then you will experience the best performance on Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus desktop CPUs.
It was very clear from our testing that there is an advantage to running past 7200MT/s memory transfer rate, as long as you can keep the timings tight, or close to the same as that 7200MT/s XMP profile. Running 7200MT/s UDIMM at CL38, and keeping it at CL38 when running at 7600MT/s did provide a performance advantage throughout our testing. Whether it was synthetic benchmarks or gaming, 7600MT/s at CL38 seems to be the “sweet spot” for the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus.
There was a severe diminishing returns point past CL40, and looser timings, despite the mega transfer rate going way up. In order to overcome the looser timings, a much higher MT/s rate would be required, in excess of 9000+ MT/s at those same timings. It is clear that Intel moving the official supported speed up to 7200MT/s was advantageous for the Intel Core Ultra 200S and Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus CPUs. We can even see that moving beyond that, to 7600MT/s CL38, does provide a slight edge on performance, technically. Though if you look at it from a zoomed-out perspective, we are talking small potatoes, really. But hey, you are an enthusiast, and every percentage counts, right?
At the end of the day, faster RAM isn’t going to make your Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus CPU change your gaming experience. It can help in niche workstation situations where there might be certain known variables based on your specific workloads, where the bandwidth might help, if you are doing something specific that needs it. For gaming, it is not going to make a real-world difference, but if you want to ensure you are getting the most out of your CPU anyway, it looks like 7600MT/s CL38 is a sweet spot to target with the new Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus CPU. It seems Intel got it right, targeting the 7200MT/s memory transfer rate range with these CPUs.
