Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus shows a major performance leap

Intel may finally have a desktop flagship that delivers a clear, across-the-board performance win.

New entries in the Geekbench database reveal fresh benchmark results for Intel’s upcoming Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, part of the Arrow Lake Refresh (Core Ultra 200S Plus) lineup. The scores show a substantial uplift over Intel’s current flagship and, more importantly, a measurable lead over AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

Geekbench results: Intel takes the lead

According to the leaked data, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus achieved:

• Single-core: 3,535 points
• Multi-core: 25,106 points

That represents an 11% improvement over the existing Core Ultra 9 285K. More notably, Intel’s new chip appears to pull ahead of AMD’s top-tier Ryzen part:

• +4% in single-core performance vs Ryzen 9 9950X3D
• +13% in multi-core performance vs Ryzen 9 9950X3D

The test system used an ASUS ROG STRIX Z890-E motherboard paired with 64 GB of DDR5-6800 memory, suggesting the CPU was not constrained by platform limitations.

What’s driving the gains

Early indications suggest the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus will retain the familiar 24-core / 24-thread configuration seen in previous Arrow Lake flagships. The performance gains are therefore unlikely to come from additional cores.

Instead, the uplift is expected to be driven by:

• significantly higher clock speeds
• more aggressive boost behavior
• potentially increased power limits (TDP)

In other words, Intel appears to be pushing Arrow Lake harder rather than redesigning it – a classic refresh strategy, but one that seems to be paying off in benchmarks.

For several generations, Intel’s desktop CPUs have struggled to decisively outperform AMD’s X3D lineup in a balanced way. These early numbers suggest the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus could finally reverse that narrative, delivering leadership in both single-threaded responsiveness and heavy multi-core workloads.

If these results hold in real-world testing, Arrow Lake Refresh may represent Intel’s most competitive flagship desktop CPU in years.

Based on early Geekbench data, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus looks like a genuine step forward, not just for Intel, but for high-end desktop CPUs overall. Higher clocks, stronger multi-core scaling, and a clear edge over Ryzen 9 9950X3D put Intel back in contention at the very top of the performance charts.

Final judgment will depend on thermals, power consumption, and pricing – but on raw performance alone, Intel finally appears to have a true heavyweight again.

Sources: Geekbench database listings