Core Ultra 5 Is Pointless — Here’s Why

Summary

In this comprehensive review of Intel’s budget processors, the focus is on the Core i5 14th-gen and Core Ultra series, comparing their performance, power consumption, and value for money. The Core i5 14600K stands out as a versatile and solid option for gaming and content creation, while the Core Ultra 5245K offers decent performance at a higher price and power draw. The Core i5 14400F is a cost-effective choice but lags in gaming performance. Despite Intel’s price cuts, AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series, especially the Ryzen 7 9800X 3D, is still seen as a superior value for enthusiasts. The testing also highlights some strange results with Intel ARC B580 graphics cards.

Takeaways

• 😀 Intel's budget processors, including Raptor Lake and Arrow Lake series, were tested for their gaming and application performance.
• 😀 The **Core i5-14600K** remains one of the best mid-range processors despite its age, outperforming many in both gaming and multi-core tasks.
• 😀 The **Core i5-14400F** is a highly affordable budget processor, priced at around £119, offering good performance despite its lack of integrated graphics.
• 😀 The **Arrow Lake Ultra 5245K**, although priced higher at £282, provides good all-round performance but consumes a significant amount of power (140W under load).
• 😀 Intel's **Ultra 5225F** and **Ultra 5235** are more energy-efficient, with power consumption of just 65W, but they offer lower performance compared to the Ultra 5245K.
• 😀 AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series is favored by many enthusiasts, with the **Ryzen 7 9700X** offering strong competition in terms of price-to-performance ratio.
• 😀 Power consumption plays a major role in processor performance: 65W Intel processors like the **Core i5-14400F** perform very well without excessive power demands.
• 😀 In gaming tests, the **Core i5-14600K** performed well, especially with high-end graphics cards like the **RTX 4090**, while the **Ultra 5245K** performed poorly in some gaming scenarios, particularly with lower-end Intel graphics.
• 😀 The **Ultra 7265K** provides impressive performance in multi-core tasks but draws a significantly higher power (220W under load), which can be problematic for smaller PC builds.
• 😀 Despite a strong price-to-performance ratio, some Intel processors like the **Core i5-14400F** often underperform in gaming compared to other options in the market.
• 😀 Ultimately, despite Intel's improvements and price cuts, AMD is still considered the best choice for gaming and productivity by many enthusiasts, particularly with the Ryzen 9000 series and Zen 5 chips.

Q & A

Why did Intel send the reviewer several budget processors before Computex 2025?

Intel wanted the reviewer to evaluate their new budget-oriented Core i5 and Core Ultra 5 processors and position them as strong price-to-performance options for entry-level systems.

What are the main differences between the Core i5-14600K and the Core i5-14400F?

The 14600K has 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores with higher clocks and a 125W TDP, while the 14400F has 6 P-cores, 4 E-cores, no integrated graphics, slower clocks, and a 65W TDP.

How do the Arrow Lake Core Ultra 5 processors differ from each other?

All three (5245K, 5235, 5225F) have 6 P-cores but differ in E-core count, TDP, turbo limits, NPU scores, and integrated graphics availability. The 5245K is 125W, while the 5235 and 5225F are 65W.

Why does the reviewer find the pricing of the Ultra 5235 confusing?

Because the Ultra 5235 is priced almost identically to the more capable Ultra 5245K, making the cheaper model unattractive relative to the performance offered by the K-variant.

What is the reviewer’s testing methodology for evaluating these CPUs?

He uses high-end motherboards, strong power supplies, and fast DDR5 memory to eliminate system bottlenecks, retesting the five Intel CPUs with both an RTX 4090 and an Intel Arc B580 GPU while referencing past data for other CPUs.

How do the Arrow Lake CPUs behave under load in Blender?

The 5245K sustains high clocks with a 159W power profile, the 5235 boosts to around 121W but drops to 65W under sustained load, and the 5225F boosts to 95W but maintains higher per-core clocks when power-limited because it has fewer E-cores.

Which processor delivers the best value in Cinebench 2024 when considering cost only?

The Core i5-14400F, due to its very low price, despite delivering the lowest performance in the multicore test.

Why do the gaming results with the Intel Arc B580 GPU appear unusual?

The Core Ultra 5225F unexpectedly tops some gaming charts, and the Core Ultra 5245K consistently falls to the bottom, a behavior the reviewer cannot explain despite repeated testing.

What impact do Intel's recent price cuts have on the Core Ultra 7 lineup?

The price cuts make the Ultra 7265K (and KF) nearly the same price as the Ultra 5245K, offering significantly stronger performance at similar cost, which disrupts Intel’s own product stack.

What final recommendations does the reviewer give for budget PC builders?

He suggests that the Ryzen 9000 series, especially Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 options, currently offer the best overall value for enthusiasts, while the Core i5-14600K remains solid but aging. The Arrow Lake midrange lineup is considered confusing and poorly priced.

Under what circumstances might the Ultra 7 be preferable to the Ultra 5 models?

The Ultra 7 may be preferred if higher sustained performance is required and the system can handle the increased power draw (around 200W CPU power), particularly in builds that are not extremely constrained by cooling or PSU size.