Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus — the U9 285K refresh turned out to be 10% faster

Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus — U9 285K Refresh Turns Out to Be 10% Faster

Fresh leaks from the Geekbench database confirm that Intel is preparing to release an update to the Arrow Lake lineup, codenamed Arrow Lake Refresh. The flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus processor has already appeared in tests, showing a noticeable performance increase compared to the current leader, the 285K.

According to the latest entries (from early February 2026), the processor was tested on an ASUS ROG Strix Z890-E motherboard. In the single-core test, the newcomer scored 3,535 points (an increase of ~10.5% compared to the 285K's 3,200), and in the multi-core test — 25,106 points (an increase of ~11.3% compared to the 285K's 22,560).

This makes the 290K Plus the fastest consumer processor (without overclocking) in the Geekbench database at the moment.