A hardware enthusiast on the overclock.net forum has partially succeeded in running an Intel Core 9 273PQE CPU with 12 P-cores on an unsupported consumer motherboard. The mod, made with the help of AI, allowed the Bartlett Lake chip to be detected by the board, but booting into Windows remains impossible.
Intel’s Core 9 273PQE primarily targets embedded and edge computing, but its 12 P-core design, with no E-cores, makes it highly intriguing for enthusiasts who wonder how a full P-core design would perform in gaming. After all, no LGA1700 desktop CPU offers such a configuration. Even the high-end Core i9-14900KS only packs eight P-cores, albeit complemented by 16 E-cores.
In an attempt to find out how it would perform, forum member kryptonfly has shared their attempts at making Intel’s P-core-only Bartlett Lake processor run on a consumer Asus Z790-AYW OC WIFI motherboard. With official Intel support out of the way, kryptonfly installed this CPU into an electrically compatible LGA1700 socket before starting to tinker with the motherboard’s BIOS code. With the help of Claude AI, the modder began injecting the required/missing CPU microcode into the motherboard’s firmware to make the CPU recognisable. After some fruitless attempts, the system was finally able to complete the POST process with a Core 9 273PQE installed.
Unfortunately, this is as far as kryptonfly is able to go for now, as trying to access the BIOS settings or boot into an OS results in black screens, but they’re not giving up just yet. Many members of the community are also participating in this endeavour, so it’s just a matter of time until someone finds the missing bit. Despite the lack of a full boot, this mod shows that the processor can work on consumer platforms given the correct microcode, and that the current limitation may be purely present for product segmentation.
While kryptonfly wasn’t able to benchmark the Core 9 273PQE, we have some test results from other users who installed the CPU in officially compatible motherboards. One of these is from GPUsAreMagic on X, who shared some Cinebench test results. These put the Core 9 273PQE slightly behind the Core i7-14700K, shifting up or down depending on the power target and software version. This sounds about right considering the 14700K’s 8P+12E design, as all its cores can be fully utilised by such tests. In gaming, the 273PQE may gain more ground as its extra P-cores could help.
Regardless of its performance, it’s a shame Intel locked Bartlett Lake for consumer platforms. We hope kryptonfly, or someone else, succeed in making it work, even if it’s just to see if we’re really missing out on anything.
