Intel has introduced its new Core Ultra 200S Plus series processors, which the company says deliver its fastest gaming performance yet. The lineup includes two new CPUs that Intel claims provide up to 15 percent higher geomean gaming performance compared with the current Core Ultra 2 series chips.
The announcement comes at a time when upgrading a gaming PC can be expensive due to rising prices of components such as RAM, SSDs, and graphics cards. Intel says its new processors aim to provide an upgrade option that remains relatively affordable.
Two New Processors in the Lineup
The new lineup includes the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, priced at $200, and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, priced at $300.
Both processors introduce upgrades over the earlier 245K and 265K models, starting with additional efficiency cores. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus features a 6P plus 12E configuration, while the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus offers an 8P plus 16E setup.
By comparison, the previous models used 6P plus 8E and 8P plus 12E configurations.
Gaming and Multi-Thread Performance
Intel says the additional cores significantly improve performance in tasks that rely on multiple threads.
According to the company, the 250K Plus can deliver twice the multi-threaded performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X in workloads related to content creation, such as Blender rendering and Cinebench testing. The Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor released in 2024 with a launch price of $280.
Faster Interconnect and Memory Support
The new processors operate at similar core frequencies to the earlier non-Plus models. However, Intel has increased the speed of other components inside the chip.
Memory interconnects now run 900MHz faster, which the company says reduces latency.
The processors also support faster DDR5 memory. While earlier models supported memory speeds up to 6400 MT/s, the new Plus CPUs can handle 7200 MT/s DDR5 and up to 8000 MT/s when the Boost BIOS profile is enabled.
Game Optimization Tool
Intel also introduced the Binary Optimization Tool alongside the processors.
The tool analyzes game code and optimizes it to run more efficiently on Intel CPUs. Intel says this approach works similarly to GPU driver updates that deliver game specific optimizations.
Through software updates, Intel plans to add profiles that improve performance for individual games over time.
Compatibility and Future Upgrades
The Core Ultra 200S Plus processors are compatible with existing motherboards using Intel’s 800 series chipset.
Intel also said new motherboards are in development that will support 4 Rank CUDIMM memory modules capable of storing up to 128GB each. Using two of these modules would allow a system to reach up to 256GB of RAM.
These new motherboards are expected to arrive later this year.
Availability
Intel said the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus will become available starting March 26. Pre built PCs using the processors will launch at the same time.
The company has already sent review samples to media outlets, and early reviews are expected to appear a few days before the official release.
Intel also indicated that more Plus models may appear in the future as part of its strategy to offer higher performance versions of each processor generation without requiring users to replace their motherboard.
