Intel confirms that its Core Ultra 9 290K PLUS CPU will not be released

Intel confirms that it’s never going to release its Core Ultra 9 290K PLUS CPU

When Intel released its Core Ultra 5 250K PLUS and Core Ultra 7 270K PLUS CPUs (see our review here), a lot of people had a simple question: Where’s the Core Ultra 9 290K PLUS? The simple answer is that there isn’t one. Intel has confirmed that it is not launching its Core Ultra 9 290K PLUS.

With its Core Ultra 200S PLUS series CPUs, Intel has delivered tremendous value to its users. With the Core Ultra 9 290K PLUS, Intel couldn’t deliver the same value. The CPU features the same core count as their Core Ultra 270K PLUS, but boasts higher clock speeds. While it was faster, it wouldn’t be the Ultra 9 upgrade that buyers would expect. Intel’s plan was to maximise performance within the desktop CPU market and deliver excellent value. That goal could be achieved with their new Ultra 5 and Ultra 7 PLUS CPU models.

Below, Intel made it clear to PCGamesHardware that the company “is not launching a U9 290K Plus SKU”.

Intel is excited to deliver exceptional value with our Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus series processors. The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus are positioned to deliver outstanding gaming performance and incredible value compared to our competition. Our objective was to maximize performance for the desktop SKUs that are most widely available. As a result, Intel is not launching a U9 290K Plus SKU.

Florian Maislinger, Tech Communication Manager, Intel Germany to PCGamesHardware.de

By offering nothing more than a clock speed bump over its Ultra 7 PLUS counterpart, it is easy to see why launching a new Ultra 9 model would be a bad idea. It would undermine Intel’s other products, as its premium price would make it seem like poor value. The reviews for the Ultra 9 would be simple. They would tell buyers that the Ultra 7 delivers more value for money and nearly the same performance levels. As such, the Ultra 9 290K had little reason to exist. In fact, it undermined Intel’s goals with the Core Ultra PLUS series.

As it stands, we do not expect Intel to release any new flagship K-series CPUs for its LGA-1851 platform. The next time we hear about new K-series CPUs from Intel, I expect them to be for a next-generation CPU socket and to use a next-generation CPU architecture.

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