The new Arrow Lake processors have undergone a bit of a rebrand, ditching the “Core i” for the “Core Ultra” This makes things a little difficult to compare, but it’s simple when you learn the new system. As for now, the Core Ultra 7 has been spotted on Geekbench 6 landing up high on single-core charts. On the flip side, its multi-core setup seems out of the ordinary.
We’d say that we’re still a couple of months or so off the release, so these may not represent the final performance, but we all know what just happened with AMD. This leak comes via BenchLeaks on X (formally Twitter), and it details the specifics of the benchmark run.
Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF with no multi-threading affects performance
At first glance, the scores look okay, until you realize that this is supposedly a 14700KF successor. Sure it has 20 cores but only 20 threads, meaning Intel is ditching multi-threading in a very bold move. We know for sure that this will have a detrimental effect on potential performance.
If you compare these scores to the 14700KF, you will see that the Core Ultra 9 doesn’t quite manage to beat it in mult-core tests. The Core Ultra 9 scored 19,433 points, whereas the 14700K managed 19,583. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what your angle is, a generational uplift is expected, and when the supposed next generation fails to outperform the last, you have a serious problem on your hands. It looks like the 13th and 14th-generation issues aren’t the only thing Intel has to worry about right now.
Intel’s decision to drop hyperthreading is obviously affecting performance quite a bit, and though we don’t have any solid specifications to work with, we can assume that the decision was made to make the new Arrow Lake chips more efficient.
It’s not all bad for the Core Ultra 9 265KF, however, as it does manage to beat the KF in the single-core performance benchmarks by about 4% give or take. the 14700KF scored 3,005 points in the single-core benchmarks, whereas the Core Ultra managed around 3,219. Which is an uplift, and should represent better gaming performance.
Intel has an opportunity here to claw back something for themselves and take advantage of the shoddy AMD launch. A rebranding and a decision to supposedly drop hyperthreading is a bold move anyway, so it really needs a win with this launch. Intel could be spending the next couple of years on the back foot if it gets this launch wrong.
