It's no secret that Intel's latest desktop CPUs, the Core Ultra 200S range, aren't the best for gaming. They're soundly beaten by AMD's Ryzen 9000-series, especially the X3D models. However, when it comes to all-round performance, they're still pretty good processors and, thanks to a second price cut in the same number of months, the Core Ultra 7 265K is perhaps the best value-for-money chip you can buy right now.
And if you go with iGPU-less version, the Core Ultra 7 265KF, then you'll get even more of a bargain, as that's now just $230 at Amazon.
Although we never received a Core Ultra 7 265K sample when Intel launched Arrow Lake last October, I've been using one in my main PC for most of this year. Yes, I know it's not the best for gaming—in some games, it's miles behind any equivalent AMD chip—but it does have some genuine positives to it.
First of all, you have 20 cores (8 P-cores, 12 E-cores), and while they're all single-threaded, you're getting a decent amount of processing power that you can throw at content creation tasks. For me, it's compiling Unreal Engine builds, and it chews through that very nicely, thanks to the serious improvements that Intel leveraged with its E-cores.
Secondly, Intel's Quick Sync video encoders are very good, and if you want to create high-quality clips, you're better off using those inside an Arrow Lake chip than the encoders in your graphics card. Sure, it'll be slower, but when you want the best video quality, speed has to take a back seat.
Unfortunately, the encoders are part of the integrated GPU, which is disabled in the Core Ultra 7 265KF, so if you're after a decent processor for video editing, then the Core Ultra 265K ($285 at Amazon) is the one to go for.
Intel has steadily improved the gaming performance of Arrow Lake through various BIOS, microcode, and Windows updates (though it wasn't a smooth journey to get here). However, so too has AMD, and the Ryzen 9000-series is as strong as it's ever been right now. That raw performance means they're in high demand, which in turn means AMD hasn't chopped down the price as much as Intel has with its Core Ultra 200S chips.
But if your PC is gaming first, content creation second, then the smarter choice is the Ryzen 7 9700X ($305 at Amazon), as it's only around $20 more expensive than the Core Ultra 7 265K.
For some PC users, the fact that most AM5 motherboards will readily take another AM5 processor (albeit with an appropriate BIOS update) will tip the balance even further in favour of AMD. It looks like Intel won't be releasing a new desktop CPU architecture until next year, but whenever it does appear, it almost certainly won't fit in the same LGA1851 socket that Arrow Lake uses.
Personally, I stick to the same platform for several years before upgrading the whole lot (CPU, motherboard, and RAM), so the longevity of LGA1851 isn't a problem for me, but socket support is a big deal for some PC enthusiasts.
The upshot of Intel's price cuts, though, is that the consumer has real choice in the CPU market, and now that there are AM5 and LGA1851 motherboards to suit every budget, it's not hard to build a powerful platform that will last you for many years.
I just wish I could say the same thing about graphics cards.
1. Best overall: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
2. Best budget: Intel Core i5 13400F
3. Best mid-range: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
4. Best high-end: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
5. Best AM4 upgrade: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
6. Best CPU graphics: AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
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