Final Thoughts on the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Processor
Well this has been an interesting one, like I said at the beginning of this review it has been a while since I’ve really done a deep dive on an Intel processor. The big takeaways for me are that you are going to get great multi-core performance and efficiency, but gaming performance is likely to be lacking from previous generations.
So let’s unpack that. Since Intel’s 12th generation Core processors efficiency and heat have been an issue and this only got worse with the 13th and 14th generation. This was of course pushed by wanting to have the “fastest gaming processor”. It seemed that to even run these chips you needed a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler and if you planned on any overclocking you needed something more powerful for that. While for some people this was fine, but for a vast majority they didn’t want a massive case or have to spend quite a lot for a simple cooling solution for their processor.
So with this generation not only from Intel, but also from AMD that they really focused on efficiency. Going into this review I really thought I would see the high temperatures like I saw on previous generations, but that was not the case at all! I mean at full load with a 360mm AiO we were only at 60C! That is compared to 76C and 82C on the two previous chips we tested. And at full load the chip only pulls 129W compared to the 170W of the Core i9-12900K.
While we always want massive generational IPC gains, this I feel is a step in the right direction. I don’t know about you, but I would rather my PC not sound like a rocket engine when I’m gaming or doing something CPU intensive. Enthusiasts won’t be happy and are going to make a big deal that previous generations are better at gaming, but Intel knows they can’t please everyone. I would assume we’ll see a highly binned special edition of this processor in the future specifically for enthusiasts.
I think the biggest thing to be excited about beyond not needing massive cooling for these chips is the platform itself. Intel’s Z890 chipset brings with it a hell of a lot of connectivity including Thunderbolt 4 and lots of PCIe lanes. So you can run a graphics card at full speed and still get Gen 5 NVMe SSD speeds and connect super-fast devices to your system no problem. All of the new motherboards coming out are great and you’ll be happy building a system you don’t have to worry about overheating.
Right now you can pick up the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor at our favorite online retailer for $589.
Pros:
– Great multi-core performance
– Impressive thermals & efficiency
– Support for higher speed DDR5
– 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes
– Integrated Thunderbolt 4 controller
Cons:
– Gaming performance is lacking
– No hyperthreading support
