A desktop CPU made for AI PCs, but is it any good? – Firstpost

Pros
– Massive gains in efficiency
– Manages heat well
– Strong multitcore performance, despite no hyperthreading
– First series of desktop CPU to have an NPU from Intel
– Solid performance gains in creative workloads
– Comes with much-improved iGPU

Cons
– New socket means investing in new motherboard & RAM
– Gets beaten by previous-gen CPUs in gaming performance
– NPU is under-utilised in Windows

Rating: 3.75/5

Intel’s Core i5 line has long been the go-to choice for budget-conscious PC builders who still want reliable gaming performance. But with the introduction of Arrow Lake, Intel is turning a new page in its story, and not without some growing pains. This generation sees Intel adopting a chiplet design instead of the usual tile-based structure, and they’re also adding an NPU directly into the CPU, which marks a significant shift.

Traditionally, the Core i5 lineup — now rebranded as Core Ultra 5 — has been the dependable workhorse of the PC world, offering a solid balance of gaming power, productivity capabilities, and decent power efficiency, all in a neat mid-range price point. The new Core Ultra 5 245K does deliver on some fronts, with noticeable productivity boosts and great efficiency. But when it comes to gaming, it hits a rough patch. In some cases, performance takes a step back compared to last-gen models, and while there are some minor speed improvements and new features, they don’t completely make up for the regression.

Intel’s focus on power efficiency and incremental upgrades might have been expected, but it leaves the Core Ultra 5 245K in an awkward position. For gamers or upgraders who need to invest in an entirely new platform to accommodate this chip, the value proposition just isn’t strong. It’s hard to ignore the price factor, especially when AMD’s lineup and even some of Intel’s own 14th-gen CPUs present a better overall deal.

Sure, the Core Ultra 5 245K’s efficient cooling and power management could make it appealing for budget builds or compact systems, but when you look at the bigger picture, there are simply more attractive options out there. The performance trade-offs and platform upgrade costs make it difficult to recommend this chip wholeheartedly, despite Intel’s attempts to innovate.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K Review: Specifications and features

When it comes to architecture, the Core Ultra 9 285K and Core Ultra 5 245K don’t differ much. We’ve already covered the new Arrow Lake CPUs in detail in our review of the Core Ultra 9 285K, but here’s a quick recap.

Intel’s Arrow Lake architecture introduces some noteworthy changes, starting with a chiplet-based design that’s reminiscent of AMD’s approach but with added efficiency and complexity. At the heart of it, there’s a foundational package made up of various tiles: a base tile, compute tile, I/O tile, SoC tile, GPU tile, and a filler tile. Each of these tiles is crafted using different manufacturing processes, with the compute tile using TSMC’s 3-nanometer process and the graphics tile on a 5nm process.

A significant change is that Intel has disabled Hyper-Threading, so all cores are single-threaded now. While previous models had Performance Cores (P-Cores) that could handle two threads, the improved communication between the cores means that multi-core performance remains strong.

After the power efficiency and thermal issues faced with the Raptor Lake CPUs, Intel is claiming a 40% improvement in performance per watt compared to the 14th Gen processors, thanks to this new architecture.

The Core Ultra 5 245K mirrors the previous-gen Core i5 14600K with 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores, totaling 14 CPU cores. However, without Hyper-Threading, it now has just 14 threads.

In terms of clock speeds, we see some upgrades. The base clock speeds for the Core Ultra 5 245K are now 4.2GHz for the P-Cores and 3.6GHz for the E-Cores, compared to the 3.5GHz and 2.6GHz in the Core i5 14600K.

Boost clock speeds have also seen some changes. The Core Ultra 5 245K can hit a peak of 5.2GHz on the P-Cores and 4.6GHz on the E-Cores, whereas the Core i5 14600K reached 5.3GHz on the P-Cores and 4GHz on the E-Cores.

However, there’s a slight reduction in L2 Cache for the Core Ultra 5 245K, and with lower clock speeds and less L3 cache, the maximum power limit is set at 159 watts. Overall, these changes suggest a move towards more efficient processing while maintaining solid performance.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K Review: Compatibility & chipset

Like its elder singling, the Core Ultra 9285K, the new Core Ultra 5 245K uses the LGA 1851 socket, which means they aren’t compatible with any previous-gen motherboards. At launch, the new socket only supports one chipset: the Z890. Again, in case you haven’t seen our review of the top-of-the-line of what Arrow Lake has to offer, here’s a quick recap.

The Z890 chipset delivers impressive upgrades, featuring 20 PCIe 5.0 lanes (x16 for expansion cards and x4 for storage) and an additional 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes for storage. A significant enhancement is the ability to split the PCIe lanes for expansion cards among three devices (x8, x4, x4), compared to just two with the LGA 1700.

With the Arrow Lake architecture, DDR5 SDRAM is the standard, meaning you’ll need new RAM if upgrading to the Core Ultra 9 285K. The maximum RAM capacity remains at 192GB, and these chips support faster DDR5 memory up to 6,400MT/s, with theoretical support for modules up to 9,200MT/s, a nice increase from the previous generation.

The new socket is compatible with existing coolers but may require a new mounting kit due to a slight shift in the die’s hotspot. However, quality liquid or AIO coolers should work well unless you’re overclocking heavily.

The Z890 chipset also includes Thunderbolt 4 for fast data transfers and Wi-Fi 6E, although motherboard manufacturers can use Wi-Fi 7 for improved connectivity. Storage options benefit from PCIe 5.0 support for M.2 slots and 60 HSIO lanes for plenty of expansion.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K Review: Our test bench

We used the same testing bench for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K that we did for the Core Ultra 9 285K — a Gigabyte Z890 AORUS Elite WiFi7 Gaming Motherboard, which was kindly provided by Gigabyte, the AORUS Waterforce X II 360 AIO cooler, 96GB of DDR5 6400MT/s RAM using two 48GB G.Skill Trident Z5 sticks. For Graphics, we had the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4080 Super, with 16GB of GDDR6X memory, and for our PSU, we went with AORUS Elite 1000W Platinum modular power supply.

Here, our cooler might be an overkill for someone with a really tight budget. Anyone planning to buy the 245K should be fine with a 240mm, dual fan-radiator AIO, or a good, beefy air cooler like the Noctua NHD12

Like with every other CPU test that do, we did not overclock the Core Ultra 5 245K, even though it supports overclocking right out of the box. We did enable XMP from the BIOS to ensure the RAM performed at its peak.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K Review: Performance

As we said in our review of the Core Ultra 9 285K, Intel is really focusing on efficiency and getting the most out of each watt with the new Core 200 Desktop CPUs. Their objective is to deliver more horsepower while using less energy and generating less heat compared to the 14th-generation CPUs, and for the most part, they’ve done a solid job.

However, gaming performance is where things get a bit tricky, but we’ll dive into that in a moment.

A key feature of the Core Ultra 9 285K is its 13 TOPS neural processing unit (NPU). However, anyone planning to get this CPU is more than likely to pair it with mid-range GPU like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 or 4060 Ti. Some might even be tempted to get the 4070. In such a scenario, one has to wonder, just how useful will the NPU really be. This becomes especially true since Windows doesn’t have a lot of features that can truly take advantage of a dedicated NPU over a GPU right now.

That said, the NPU does provide a nice boost in AI performance compared to just using the CPU.

Coming to the performance of the Core Ultra 5 245K, when we look at synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 245K, like its elder sibling, the Core Ultra 9 285K, has a mixed bag of results. It does quite well in Cinebench R24, outshining the Core i5-14600K, and it holds its own in Cinebench R23 for both single and multi-core tests.

However, in Geekbench 6’s multi-core tests, it doesn’t fare as well as the Core i5-14600K. And of course, throughout our test suite, it faired poorly against the i7-14700K.

Similarly, the Core Ultra 5 245K struggles with Pugetbench Photoshop tests but manages to outscore the 14600K in Premiere Pro.

Now, when it comes to gaming, things are again a bit of a hit-or-miss. The Core Ultra 5 245K typically takes a small step back compared to the 14600K in most games, with the only standout being its performance in Formula 1 2022.

While the performance isn’t bad, it doesn’t quite reach the heights of some previous chips. Intel has been clear that they’re not aiming for massive jumps in gaming performance with these new CPUs, but a slight dip can be frustrating for gamers.

Don’t get me wrong — the Core Ultra 5 245K’s performance numbers are not bad by any means. Intel is delivering what it promised, especially when you look at the power draw and thermals. But considering the investment needed to upgrade to Intel’s new socket, it would have been nice to see a bit more improvement in performance.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K Review: Power consumption & thermals

The case that Intel makes for their new line of Desktop CPUs is that it runs cooler and sips of power rather than guzzling on it, when compared to the last-gen CPUs, in similar tasks. So, do the new desktop chips really offer that big a difference?

The answer to that would be an emphatic yes.

During our tests, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K typically peaked around 152 watts, while the i7-14700K would often hit between about 250W. The 14600K would stay at around 170W

When it comes to temperatures, the 14700K could reach as high as 86 degrees Celsius under peak workloads, usually settling around the 82-84-degree mark during sustained use. In contrast, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K managed to stay cooler, rarely exceeding 72 degrees. The Core i5 14600K would often sit around 80-82 degrees.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K Review: Verdict

The Core Ultra 5 245K delivers a mixed experience, with improvements in some performance areas but setbacks in others, especially when compared to existing CPUs from Intel and AMD. It’s not a simple “must-have” upgrade, given the trade-offs involved.

For starters, heating was a well-known issue with the 14th Gen Core i7 and i9 processors, while the Core i5 held its ground quite well. Unless lowering power usage is crucial for you, there doesn’t seem to be a compelling reason to choose the Core Ultra 5 245K over the Core i5-14600K.

And when you factor in the additional cost of upgrading to this new platform, the choice gets even murkier. The only scenario where this CPU really makes sense is if you’re coming from a significantly outdated system and need hardware that will stay current for five to seven years. But even then, Intel faces tough competition from AMD’s strong Ryzen 7000 series and the newly launched 9000 series.

Reflecting on the Core Ultra 9 285K, this release could be a pivotal moment for Intel, somewhat like the turnaround AMD experienced when they revamped their lineup, leaving behind the old FX series and debuting a fresh architecture that revived their fortunes. Intel could be gearing up for a similar reinvention, but success hinges on whether they can capitalise on the foundation set by this latest generation.

To truly transform the landscape, Intel needs to continue evolving from this fresh start. Like its elder sibling, the Core Ultra 9 285K, the Core Ultra 5 245K may not fly off the shelves or break sales records, but it’s the beginning of something new. It marks a shift in approach. Whether or not this leads to a comeback like we saw from AMD’s, remains to be seen.