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Short of the retail-locked Ryzen 5 7600X3D, there hasn’t been a ton of compelling gaming CPUs around $200 over the past few generations. Intel bided its time with the Core i5-13400 family with Raptor Lake, and AMD stuck with a tried and true six-core configuration that we’ve had since the early days of Zen. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is something different, and it’s important to set the right context before discussing it.
Although this is Intel’s main Core Ultra 5, along the lines of a Core i5-14600K, it isn’t priced like one. It’s priced like the lower-tier Core Ultra 5 we see each generation, be it the Core i5-14400 or the newer Core Ultra 5 225. It is important to keep that in mind because, although the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is only marginally faster than the Core i5-14600K, it’s also much cheaper, both when looking at the list price and the current sale price of the Core i5-14600K.
The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is just 1% faster than its main competition from AMD, the Ryzen 5 9600X. Compared to the Core Ultra 5 245K, it’s 9% faster, which is slightly below the 13% jump Intel claimed. Part of that is a consequence of our test suite, where we include a few more recent games that show less aggressive scaling with different CPUs. Compared to the Ryzen 5 7600X3D, Intel is 9% behind, but once again, you can only buy that chip for $200 in-store at a Micro Center. Online, you’ll easily spend over $250 through third-party sellers.
Although Intel isn’t claiming any dominating lead with the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, it is offering competitive performance, especially at this price. It’d be one thing if the Ryzen 5 9600X and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus were on par in games and apps, but they’re not. Intel is matching AMD in games while offering far higher application performance, particularly in apps that can leverage its large core array.
Compared to the $300 Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, the 250K Plus offers 95% of the gaming performance while cutting a third off the price. It’s a similar dynamic we’ve seen in the past with Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9, with the former offering very close gaming performance for far less money. Here, however, that window has moved down to more aggressive prices.
Outside of frame rates, you can see in our other geomeans that Intel certainly bumped the power of the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. It consumed 22% more power in games compared to the 245K, but still managed to undercut the Ryzen 5 9600X and 7600X by a few watts. It’s less efficient than the Core Ultra 5 245K, but still manages to beat AMD’s competition. Of course, the X3D offerings run away with efficiency, far outclassing everything else in performance per watt.
Interestingly, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus maintained far higher clocks than the 245K, averaging out about 300 MHz ahead. Intel only minorly bumped turbo speeds on the 250K Plus, but the chip can clearly maintain those higher clock speeds in workloads like gaming. On the temperature front, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus ran shockingly cool under load, managing to shave three degrees off the 245K despite drawing more power.
For our tests, we turned iBOT on. We didn’t include specific games just because they have iBOT support, nor did we exclude others. This is the suite of games we’d use for any CPU review right now. Four of the games in our pool have iBOT optimizations, and we’ll call them out in the individual benchmarks below.
A Plague Tale: Requiem Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Starting with A Plague Tale Requiem, the 245K occupies the bottom of our test pool. With the 250K Plus, Intel manages to come within a point of the Ryzen 5 9600X. Intel boosted performance in this game by a respectable 11.5% compared to the 245K, without any assistance from iBOT.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Although Intel trailed in A Plague Tale: Requiem, it leads in Baldur’s Gate 3. The 250K Plus manages an 8.7% jump over the 245K, as well as a slight 4.4% increase compared to the Ryzen 5 9600X. More impressive is that the 250K Plus is within 2% of the 270K Plus. This game loves AMD’s X3D chips, however, allowing the Ryzen 5 7600X3D to claim a 19% lead over the 250K Plus.
Counter-Strike 2 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Counter-Strike 2 was one of the weaker games for Arrow Lake, and although there are solid leads with Intel’s refresh, Team Blue is still behind. The 250K Plus manages an impressive 17% lead over the 245K, even outclassing the 265K. Even with such a large jump, the 250K Plus is 4% behind the Ryzen 5 9600X and 7% behind the Ryzen 5 7600X3D.
Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Cyberpunk 2077 has iBOT optimizations, helping Intel claim a lead in a game that it was previously competitive in. The 250K Plus is about 10% ahead of both the 245K and 9600X, and 4.7% behind the Ryzen 5 7600X3D. It also manages a marginal improvement over the Core i5-14600K, Ryzen 7 9700X, and Core Ultra 7 265K, punching above its price range.
Doom: The Dark Ages Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Doom: The Dark Ages has a performance wall around 200 FPS where CPUs stop scaling, as evidenced by the fact that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus are tied – though, with the former carrying much better 1% lows. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is able to hang with the top dogs, improving on the 245K by 4.7% and outclassing the 9600X by 12%. It even manages a solid lead over the Ryzen 5 7600X3D.
F1 24 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Arrow Lake CPUs broadly struggle in F1 24, and that includes the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. Intel is offering a decent bump of 4.8% over the 245K here, but otherwise, the 250K Plus can’t even match the last-gen Ryzen 7 7600X. The Ryzen 5 9600X is 15.5% ahead, while the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is nearly 36% ahead.
Far Cry 6 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Far Cry 6 is another game with iBOT optimizations, and a game that Intel previously struggled with. With iBOT and Arrow Lake Refresh, Intel returns to a competitive position. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus improves upon the 245K by 20%, matching the Ryzen 5 9600X and beating the Core i5-14600K by 5.1%.
Final Fantasy XIV Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Final Fantasy XIV also has iBOT optimizations that push Intel into a more competitive position, though to a lesser degree than Far Cry 6. Despite nearly a 22% jump compared to the 245K, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is 9.6% behind the Ryzen 5 9600X and a staggering 30% behind the Ryzen 5 7600X3D.
Flight Simulator 2024 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Flight Simulator 2024 flips the script, with the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus now leading both the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 5 7600X3D, and doing so without any iBOT assistance. Compared to the 245K, the 250K Plus offers an 8% performance jump.
Hitman 3 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Hitman 3 is the only game we tested where the 24-core Core Ultra 7 270K Plus shows a clear advantage over the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, perhaps due to its larger cache pool. With iBOT, the 250K Plus offers a 5.5% jump over the 245K and a similar lead compared to the Ryzen 5 9600X.
Hogwarts Legacy Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Hogwarts Legacy has access to iBOT optimizations, allowing the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus to claim a high-level position in our test pool. It’s 18.5% ahead of the 245K, 11.4% ahead of the 9600X, and even 6.7% ahead of the 7600X3D. It manages to marginally outperform the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
Minecraft RTX Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
In Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus doesn’t improve on the base 245K at all, which is surprising given the jump we can see from the 265K to the 270K Plus. Still, Intel was previously competitive in this game against AMD, and it’s maintaining that position with the 250K Plus.
Monster Hunter Wilds Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Oblivion Remastered Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Starfield Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Starfield struggles on AMD’s six-core parts, which allowed Intel to earn a lead over the Ryzen 5 9600X with the Core Ultra 5 245K. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus furthers that lead, placing 17% ahead of the 9600X and falling just a few frames shy of the Ryzen 5 7600X3D.
The Last of Us Part One Benchmarks – Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Rounding out our gaming benchmarks is The Last of Us Part One. Previously, the Core Ultra 5 245K was competitive with the 7600X3D and 9600X, but the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus allows Intel to claim a firm win.
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