In a disappointing turn of events, Intel's latest flagship processor, the Core Ultra 9 285K, has failed to impress in PC gaming performance. Despite running cooler and more efficiently than its predecessor, the CPU falls behind its 14th Gen chips in many gaming titles. This underwhelming performance is a significant setback for Intel, particularly as AMD's 7800X3D CPU comfortably outperforms it in gaming.

The Core Ultra 9 285K is the first enthusiast desktop CPU with a built-in neural processing unit (NPU) for accelerating AI tasks. It also boasts improved power efficiency, drawing less power than the 14th Gen chips it was designed to replace. However, in gaming benchmarks, the CPU delivered frame rates that were 8-20% lower than the 14900K in several titles.

Intel attributes the performance issues to its focus on performance per watt, rather than raw gaming performance. The company also suggests that Windows 11's virtualization-based security features may be contributing to the performance gaps.

The launch of the Core Ultra 9 285K marks a new motherboard chipset and socket, with existing coolers supporting the new LGA 1851 socket. However, with rumors of an Arrow Lake-S refresh being canceled, the future of the LGA 1851 socket is uncertain.