Intel Cancels Core Ultra 9 290K Plus Due to Slim Performance Gains Over 270K

Intel has canceled the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, a planned flagship processor for the Arrow Lake refresh lineup. The decision came after benchmarks of a prototype showed only marginal performance gains over the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus.

Prototype benchmarks show minimal advantage

The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus share the same 24-core configuration (8P+8E) and support DDR5-7200 memory. According to Tom's Hardware, the prototype delivered roughly 2% faster gaming performance and almost 4% faster productivity performance than the 270K Plus. Specific benchmarks include a 2.84% lead in CPU-Z multi-core and a 0.69% lead in Cinebench R24 single-core.

The slim performance margins likely led to the cancellation to avoid lineup imbalance. With such small gains, the higher-tier chip would have offered little reason for consumers to choose it over the more affordable 270K Plus.

Tom's Hardware reported the benchmark results and the cancellation. Intel has not confirmed the cancellation or commented on the reasoning.