Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus “Arrow Lake Refresh” CPU to feature 5.8 GHz TVB boost
The last breath for the LGA-1851 socket.
Intel is now set to introduce its Arrow Lake Refresh next year, likely as a last push before moving to the LGA-1954 socket for Nova Lake. There is still no clear communication on the launch date for that successor. For now, Arrow Lake Refresh is shaping up as the final upgrade for the LGA-1851 platform.
The first Arrow Lake desktop series did not leave a strong impression with gamers. Intel even confirmed in its own slides that Arrow Lake can be slower than Raptor Lake in gaming, and later rolled out special boost features that pulled extra performance outside the original spec. Those tweaks helped, but required extra steps and were not part of the standard out-of-box profile.
With the refresh, Intel is baking some of these gains directly into the silicon and official specs. For the flagship, the change is tiny on paper. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus keeps the 8P+16E configuration of the 285K but lifts Thermal Velocity Boost to 5.8 GHz, up from 5.7 GHz. E-core turbo also climbs to 4.8 GHz, while base clocks and power limits stay the same at 125W base and 250W max turbo.
Core Ultra 200K Plus (overview)
- Core Ultra 9 285K ➡️ 290K Plus : + 100 MHz P-Core (Max)
- Core Ultra 7 265K ➡️ 270K Plus : + 4 E-Cores
- Core Ultra 5 245K ➡️ 250K Plus : + 100 MHz P-Core (Max), + 4 E-Cores
The bigger changes sit in the Ultra 7 and Ultra 5 lines. The Ultra 7 270K Plus moves to an 8P+16E layout, matching the core count of the 9-series parts and giving the upper mid-range more E-core throughput than current Ultra 7 SKUs. Its top clocks reach 5.5 GHz Turbo Boost Max and 5.4 GHz P-core turbo, which lines it up close to the 265K but with more cores to feed.
The Ultra 5 250K Plus also gets a core count bump. It now ships with 6P+12E, compared to 6P+8E on the Ultra 5 245K. P-core turbo increases from 5.2 GHz to 5.3 GHz, while E-core turbo stays at 4.7 GHz. Intel keeps the same 125 W base and 159 W max turbo ratings, so the extra cores and clocks come without a higher official power target, though sustained behavior will still depend on motherboard limits.
All Arrow Lake Refresh desktop parts also gain faster memory support on paper. The Plus models push official DDR5 support up to 7200 MT/s , compared to 6400 MT/s for the current 285K, 265K and 245K. At the same time, recent CUDIMM modules have already shown Arrow Lake running at up to 9000 MT/s in the right conditions, so the new spec mostly aligns the datasheet with what high-end boards and memory kits are already doing.
New SKUs or replacements?
So, Intel is not reusing the same numbers for the upgraded parts. The 290K Plus sits above the 285K, the 270K Plus appears next to the 265K, and the 250K Plus joins the 245K. It is not clear yet if these chips will fully replace the existing SKUs or ship alongside them as higher tier options on the same socket. History shows that Intel does not EOL its chips after announcing successors or update, we expect all Arrow Lake variants to remain on the market.
| Arrow Lake vs Arrow Lake Refresh | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz.com | Ultra 9 290K Plus🆕 | Ultra 9 285K | Ultra 7 270K Plus🆕 | Ultra 7 265K | Ultra 5 250K Plus🆕 | Ultra 5 245K |
| Cores (P+E) | 8P+16E | 8P+16E | 8P+16E | 8P+12E | 6P+12E | 6P+8E |
| TVB | 5.8 GHz | 5.7 GHz | – | – | – | – |
| Turbo Boost Max | 5.6 GHz | 5.6 GHz | 5.5 GHz | 5.5 GHz | – | – |
| P-Core Turbo | 5.6 GHz | 5.5 GHz | 5.4 GHz | 5.4 GHz | 5.3 GHz | 5.2 GHz |
| E-Core Turbo | 4.8 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 4.6 GHz |
| P-Core Base | 3.7 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 4.2 GHz | 4.2 GHz |
| E-Core Base | 3.2 GHz | 3.2 GHz | 3.2 GHz | 3.3 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 3.6 GHz |
| Memory Support | DDR5-7200 | DDR5-6400 | DDR5-7200 | DDR5-6400 | DDR5-7200 | DDR5-6400 |
| Base Power | 125 W | 125 W | 125 W | 125 W | 125 W | 125 W |
| Max Turbo Power | 250 W | 250 W | 250 W | 250 W | 159 W | 159 W |
Source: VideoCardz
