Everything we know so far about the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Updated: Sep 23, 2024 3:01 pm WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more Table of Contents Table of Contents Intel’s Core Ultra Arrow Lake-S CPUs are seemingly right around the corner, with an Intel event scheduled for October 10th, the latest rumors suggest an announcement of the Arrow Lake-S chips. And with an event on the same date, it’s hard to exclude the possibility that the two are connected. Specifically, we’re concerned with the Core Ultra flagship, the 285K, which is essentially the 15900K if the name change wasn’t a thing. With this being the flagship, you can expect the best performance and the highest price. If the latest benchmark leaks are to be believed, it’s looking good for the flagship’s generational improvements, we reported on a 26% increase in V-ray performance over the 14900K. Article Summary Using historical data and a boatload of leaks, we assume that the Core Ultra 9 285K will be announced and launched between the 10th and 24th of October, however there is also the possibility of a shadow launch. We then predicted that the 285K will launch for around $589, but it could increase anywhere up to $609, again using leaks and historical data. There are a few significant changes in specifications that could make this a serious contender for one of Intel’s best CPUs, more below. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K release date rumors As of the time of writing, the consensus is that the release date for the 285K will fall on October 24th, as TechPowerup mentions here. It was previously assumed that the October 10th date would be the launch of the CPU. However, with Intel staying quiet and not giving us anything concrete, we can never be 100% certain. We can take a look at some historical data to help us gauge when the Core Ultra 9 285K might be released. If we take the last few generation’s release dates into consideration we get: 14900K – Oct 17th, 2023 13900K – Oct 20th, 2022 (retail launch) 12900K – Nov 4th, 2021 Source: TechPowerUP As you can see, post-Covid Intel has a tendency to like to release flagships in or around October, which lines up with the leaks that we have seen popping up. Funnily enough, both the 14900K and 13900K were announced at the Intel Innovation event of their respective years, which is usually hosted at the end of September. However, Intel has postponed this Innovation event for 2024 until 2025. So we may not get an announcement at all, Core Ultra CPUs could shadow launch, on either October 10th or 24th. Unlikely, but it is a possibility. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K price prediction There’s no official word on the price of the 285K, but there have been a few leaks. These leaks are usually pretty quick to be corrected, as they are usually unintentionally leaked by retailers, but there’s one from a Canadian retailer, Shoprbc, that still stands. Shopbrc Core Ultra desktop SKUs listed On Shoprbc, the Core Ultra 9 285K is listed for $852 CAD, which directly converts to $628.65 USD. CPUs and other hardware rarely directly convert across different currencies, so it’s likely we’ll see the Core Ultra 9 launch at around $589 – $609. Although there is always the possibility that it will actually launch for more. We can use a little historical data to help back up our claims. If we look back to the same CPUs that we compared the 285K to before, we can get a better idea of the price that the 285K is likely to release. 14900K – $589 13900K – $589 12900K – $599 Source: TechPowerUP As you can see, the price has pretty much stayed the same for the flagship models over the last three generations, but a lot has happened this year that makes it likely we’ll see a small price increase. If not, well happy days, just better to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised. Taking advantage of the Core Ultra 285K release The release (or the run-up to the release) will likely cause prices to drop for the last couple of generations. This is sometimes done because the manufacturer or retailer wants to get rid of old stock – but, as we just saw with the RTX 4090 price increase in the German Market, that isn’t always the case. You can use this to your advantage if you want to snag an older 13th or 14th-generation CPU now that Intel has fixed the issues with them. Using Camelcamelcamel, we can observe this with the 12900K, as soon as the 13900K was released, we saw a massive drop of about $100, maybe even more. Camelcamelcamel price drop of 12900K when 13900K was released Interestingly, the 14900K, because of the generally bad reception of the 14th gen just being a refresh and very underwhelming, actually drove up the price of the 13900K. So it is clearly very dependent on the success of the CPU generation, as well as just the actual release of it. 14900K bad reception drove up the price of the 13900K briefly We saw a price increase likely because of the users still using 12th/11th/10th generation Intel CPUs opting to upgrade to the cheaper and better value for money 13th generation instead of the poorly reviewed 14th generation. Intel would have chosen to increase prices to pad the poorer sales of it’s new tech. Anyway, TLDR is if the Core Ultra CPUs bomb, then we might not see the same decrease in price as we did for the 12th gen when the 13th gen was released. Intel Core Ultra 9 285K predicted specifications There have been numerous rumors supposedly containing the specifications of the Cre Ultra 9 285K, even the box has supposedly been pictured. But without a clear announcement or confirmation from Intel, it’s all up in the air. One of the most detailed supposed specification leaks comes from @jaykihn0 on X, which reckons to detail the specifications of the entire Core Ultra lineup. Intel Core Ultra predicted specifications It’s unclear where this information came from, as no source was claimed so take this information with a pinch of salt. This isn’t your usual specs table, and a lot is going on here, so let’s break it down and focus on just the 285K. CPUSocketCoresP-core baseP-core boostE-core baseE-core boost TDPTVBTBMT 3.0TBT 2.0Core Ultra 9 285KLGA 18518P + 16E (24)3.7 GHz5.4 GHz3.2 GHz4.6 GHz125W5.7 GHz5.6 GHz5.5 GHzCore i9-14900KLGA 17008P + 16E (32)3.2 GHz 5.6 GHz2.4 GHz4.4 GHz125W6 GHz5.8 GHz5.6 GHz Core Ultra 9 predicted specs vs 14900K As you can see, Intel has not hyperthreaded any of the cores in the Core Ultra 9 285K, or any other Core Ultra CPU for that matter. This is a bold move, but it seems to have paid off as the Core Ultra 9 seems to outperform the 14900K quite readily. At least, that’s what preliminary benchmarks suggest. The highest logged CB r23 multi-core score so far for the Core Ultra 9 is 43,011, and the highest 14900K score sits at 40,400. The fact that the Core Ultra can achieve that with eight fewer logical processors is rather astounding. Some other differences according to NanoReview include the 7nm manufacturing process, compared to the 10nm process that the 14900K is built on, this is likely to create an IPC increase of around 10% – 15% if we were to make a guess. This is based on similar nm shrinkages on AMD offering the same range of performance benefits. As with anything that is rumored, take this information with a pinch of salt. Do you need a new motherboard for the Core Ultra 9 285K? Yes, you will need a new motherboard to house the Corer Ultra lineup of CPUs. This is because Intel’s latest lineup sits in a different socket. LGA 1851, whereas the current generation belongs to socket LGA 1700. These new motherboards should be released alongside the Core Ultra lineup because neither is useful without the other. As of right now, we expect the Z890 chipset to be released first, but we don’t know much about the features that are coming to these motherboards just yet. We assume that they are going to feature Gen 5 PCIe GPU connectivity and storage as standard, as well as newer USB 4 connectivity. We just assume that we have nothing to back that up so don’t take it as gospel. Final Word Though we do not have a fully confirmed release date or price for the Core Ultra 9 285K, we have a pretty good idea thanks to the combined force of leaks and historical data. These new CPUs are pretty hyped so we hope that they live up to the expectation. If not, we fear that the price of lower-end CPUs may suffer, as we outlined with the 13900K. Bear that in mind if you’re waiting for the Core Ultra 9 285K.
