Reports of the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus’ demise may have been a gross exaggeration, with the processor making a surprise appearance in the Geekbench 6 database. While this sighting doesn’t confirm Intel has plans to launch the chip, it does provide us with a potential glance at what a proper Arrow Lake Refresh flagship might look like.
While the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has already appeared multiple times on Geekbench 6, delivering 10% gains over the Core Ultra 9 285K, Intel allegedly cancelled the chip prior to the launch of other Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs. However, these new results are markedly faster.
Comparing the results above to our own data, the 290K Plus now boasts a multi-core score that’s a whopping 15% faster than the 285K. Single-core gains aren’t bad either at 13%.
Beneficial as the 900MHz boost to die-to-die communication and faster E-cores are in bolstering the 290K Plus relative to the 285K, I suspect there’s more at play to create such a substantial jump in performance. More specifically, I believe we’re looking at results using a Binary Optimisation profile, which boosts baseline multi-core scores by up to 4% in our testing.
It’s entirely possible that this 290K Plus is one of a few select engineering samples, rather than a rogue mass-produced processor out in the wild. Still, given that there’s so much mounting evidence that points to the existence of the chip, I’m all the more curious as to why Intel decided not to launch the SKU.
Following the pricing pattern of other Arrow Lake CPUs, the 290K Plus could’ve proven a tantalising proposition for performance enthusiasts, creatives in particular, at $399. However, I’d need a wider range of results to know for sure, both productivity and gaming.
I sadly doubt we’ll see the 290K Plus hit the market, even if Intel has it reasons for concluding that’s for the best. Thankfully, the firm’s new Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus are both great additions to the CPU market. If the company can maintain this momentum with Nova Lake, then the desktop processor space should finally have a spell of welcome competition that’s been missing for too long.
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