Intel Core Ultra 5 245K review: where Arrow Lake breaks down

Intel’s latest Arrow Lake CPUs haven’t been disconnected to a awesome start. What looked for illustration competitors to nan best processors money tin bargain person shape-shifted into a disappointment, arsenic inconsistent capacity and a complete deficiency of gaming gains person near nan CPUs successful nan particulate compared to nan AMD title and moreover Intel’s ain last-gen options. And unfortunately, nan value-focused Core Ultra 5 245K isn’t supra those issues.

This people of CPU is usually a workhorse — a value-packed spot that tin present awesome gaming performance, coagulated productivity prowess, and powerfulness ratio for astir $300. There are immoderate productivity gains here, and powerfulness ratio is excellent. However, location are besides large regressions successful gaming, making nan Core Ultra 5 245K reliable to justify, moreover stacked up against nan problematic 14th-gen options from Intel.

Intel Core 5 245K specs

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The Core Ultra 5 245K features Intel’s latest Arrow Lake architecture, which is built astir nan aforesaid 2 halfway designs arsenic nan mobile Lunar Lake chips. You tin publication each astir Arrow Lake and really it useful successful my Core Ultra 9 285K review, but nan short of it is that Intel stuck pinch a hybrid architecture combining capacity (P) cores and businesslike (E) cores, but it ditched its long-standing Hyper-Threading technology, giving each halfway entree to only a azygous thread.

As you tin spot from nan array below, nan Core Ultra 5 245K and nan last-gen Core i5-14600K some travel pinch 14 cores, divided crossed six P-cores and 8 E-cores, but nan Core Ultra 5 245K only has entree to 14 threads. The individual cores connected nan Core Ultra 5 245K are much powerful, however, pinch nan E-cores being nan main driver connected performance. As I’ll get into pinch my testing below, nan Core Ultra 5 245K doesn’t struggle pinch heavily-threaded applications.

Elsewhere, nan comparisons are much interesting. First, cache. Intel really reduced nan full magnitude of cache connected nan Core Ultra 5 245K compared to nan erstwhile generation, apt to prevention powerfulness and space. Cache accounts for a ample information of dice space. It mightiness beryllium a smart move for efficiency, but arsenic we’ve seen pinch CPUs for illustration nan Ryzen 7 7800X3D, much cache has large implications for gaming — an area wherever nan Core Ultra 5 245K has superior problems.

The ratio perspective makes consciousness erstwhile you look astatine nan powerfulness requirements. Both processors travel pinch nan aforesaid 125 watts of guidelines power, but nan Core Ultra 5 245K tops retired astatine 159W. The caller Arrow Lake scope is very businesslike based connected my testing, but that’s only successful nan discourse of Intel’s much caller power-hungry CPUs for illustration nan Core i5-14600K and Core i5-13600K. Compared to nan title from AMD, Intel is providing akin powerfulness efficiency.

Test configurations

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I kept to identical trial configurations for each of nan CPUs I tested for this review, only swapping retired nan motherboard and CPU. That intends nan aforesaid graphics card, nan aforesaid kit of memory, nan aforesaid cooler, and moreover nan aforesaid SSDs and powerfulness supply. Although I did each of my testing for nan Core Ultra 5 245K connected nan Asus Z890 ROG Maximus Hero, I besides spot-checked nan spot connected nan MSI Z890 Unify-X to make judge capacity was similar.

All of nan information successful this reappraisal is caller — moreover for older CPUs, I reran each of nan tests to relationship for nan latest Windows and BIOS updates.

There are a mates of things to support successful mind here. First, nan Core Ultra 5 245K scales good pinch higher-speed memory. DDR5-6000 representation is still nan astir communal (and cost-effective) representation you’ll find, but caller CUDIMMs alteration overmuch higher speeds, and nan Core Ultra 5 245K shows immoderate capacity improvements successful definite apps pinch nan faster memory.

In addition, I tested pinch nan caller BIOS updates for nan LGA 1700 CPUs. If you recall, high-end Intel CPUs for illustration nan Core i9-14900K and Core i9-13900K struggled pinch instability issues for months, and nan astir caller BIOS updates aimed astatine addressing those issues tin trim performance. The capacity driblet isn’t large — little than 5% astatine most, and only successful immoderate apps. Thankfully, that shouldn’t impact nan Core i5-14600K overmuch considering it wasn’t majorly impacted by nan instability problems.

Productivity performance

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Just for illustration nan Core Ultra 9 285K, nan Core Ultra 5 245K has a beautiful wide scope of performance. As you tin spot supra successful Cinebench R24, location are workloads wherever nan Core Ultra 5 245K seems to propulsion disconnected nan impossible, outclassing a current-gen CPU for illustration nan Ryzen 7 9700X for $100 cheaper. But past location are others wherever nan CPU can’t moreover muster capable spot to hit its last-gen counterpart, nan Core i5-14600K.

On that side, you person apps for illustration Photoshop and Premiere Pro. The Core Ultra 5 245K is capable to outclass nan six-core Ryzen 5 9600X owed to a higher halfway count, but it still falls short of nan Ryzen 7 9700X, and worse, nan Core i5-14600K successful Premiere Pro. And successful Photoshop, it’s a bloodbath, pinch nan Core Ultra 5 245K falling down each different CPU I tested.

What’s interesting, and disappointing, is that nan Core Ultra 5 245K performs good successful immoderate very circumstantial applications, specified arsenic video transcoding. You tin spot successful Handbrake supra that nan Core Ultra 5 245K not only thumps nan title from AMD, it perfectly crushes each different CPU I tested. The aforesaid is existent successful Blender, which is simply a renderer for illustration Cinebench wherever nan Core Ultra 5 245K really shines.

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And successful a multi-faceted trial for illustration Geekbench 6, nan Core Ultra 5 245K trades a spot of single-core capacity that we tin spot pinch nan Ryzen 9000 CPUs for overmuch amended multi-core performance, moreover outclassing nan last-gen Core i5-14600K — an awesome feat considering nan capacity I’ll excavation into successful nan adjacent section.

Although impressive, looking astatine immoderate different tests for illustration 7-Zip and Y-Cruncher paints a different picture. The capacity of nan Core Ultra 5 245K is each complete nan place. It has immoderate advantages, peculiarly successful transcoding and rendering, but some nan Ryzen 9000 title and nan last-gen Core i5-14600K supply overmuch much accordant capacity crossed apps, moreover if that intends sacrificing a spot of velocity successful circumstantial tasks.

Gaming performance

The Core Ultra 5 245K is really difficult to justify. When looking astatine a flagship, you tin equilibrium gaming capacity pinch productivity performance, but for a CPU successful this value range, nan weight heavy swings successful nan guidance of gaming. That’s not to opportunity location aren’t shoppers who want productivity capacity connected a budget, but alternatively that buying a flagship from a mates of generations backmost will mostly propulsion much weight than a caller midrange processor for illustration nan Core Ultra 5 245K. These processors really gain their stripes pinch gaming performance.

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Or, astatine least, that’s what usually happens. It’s not nan lawsuit present pinch nan Core Ultra 5 245K, which is embarrassingly slow successful games. Take Cyberpunk 2077 as a premier example. The Core i5-14600K is 13% faster, and it’s still nan second-lowest performer retired of nan CPUs I tested. Even worse, nan $330 Core Ultra 5 245K is 17% slower than nan Ryzen 5 7600X — a six-core CPU that you tin prime up for $215 correct now.

Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t a cherry-picked example, either. You tin spot nan Core Ultra 5 245K astatine nan bottommost of nan heap in Final Fantasy XIV, and in Hitman 3, the Core Ultra 5 245K thumps nan Ryzen 5 7600X but still falls short of its last-gen counterpart. That’s bad news. You tin find nan Core i5-14600K for astir $250 — that’s a CPU that’s $80 cheaper and provides amended gaming performance.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Things are a spot amended in F1 2022, where nan Core Ultra 5 245K manages to astatine slightest lucifer nan last-gen Ryzen 5 7600X and really hit nan Core i5-14600K. Looking astatine nan Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X from nan existent generation, however, nan Core Ultra 5 245K gets curbed.

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Ashes of nan Singularity is likewise disappointing. Once again, nan Core Ultra 5 245K is capable to declare a lead complete nan Ryzen 5 7600X, but it falls short of its last-gen counterpart.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The only crippled wherever nan Core Ultra 5 245K showed immoderate benignant of starring capacity was Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, but it’s only a triumph connected a technicality. The Core Ultra 5 245K, Core i5-14600K, and Ryzen 5 9600X are each wrong a fewer frames of each different — I would telephone nan capacity identical. Still, nan Core Ultra 5 245K technically won, truthful I should fto nan CPU person its flowers.

Rounding retired nan database are Returnal, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and Black Myth: Wukong. These are each graphically-intensive games, truthful there’s very small activity erstwhile isolating nan CPU. The Core Ultra 5 245K wins successful immoderate titles and loses successful others, but nan capacity model successful these games is very constrictive and mostly comes down to your graphics card.

Not nan worth punch

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Even successful a procreation wherever Intel delivers a lateral activity successful performance, specified arsenic 14th-gen CPUs, nan Core i5 people is usually a bully proposal based purely connected nan ratio betwixt value and performance. That’s not nan lawsuit here. The Core Ultra 5 245K takes large swings, arsenic do each Arrow Lake CPUs, and unluckily it misses much often than it hits.

The Core i5-14600K roundly outperforms nan Core Ultra 5 245K, and it’s disposable for adjacent to $80 less. Similarly, nan Ryzen 7 9700X and moreover nan weaker Ryzen 5 9600X connection amended capacity crossed apps, which are some competitory pinch Intel connected price. Usually I tin find an separator lawsuit wherever moreover a anemic CPU is worthy buying, but that conscionable isn’t nan lawsuit here. From some Intel and AMD, location are amended options than nan Core Ultra 5 245K.