Intel’s next desktop CPU architecture is only a few months and, sans any delays, the Arrow Lake release date should fall sometime in October. This means we are in the prime season for pre-release Arrow Lake performance leaks. To that end, the successor to the Intel Core i5-14600K, the 14-core Core Ultra 5 245K has now been tested with Geekbench 5.

The Core Ultra 5 245K under discussion was featured inside a Colorful iGame Z890 Ultra motherboard with a base and boost clock of 4.2 and 5.14 GHz respectively. However, it must be mentioned that this Arrow Lake CPU is unlikely to be a retail sample. So, take the performance with a grain of salt.

Intel Core Ultra 5 245K vs Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X

Since we have now reviewed the Zen 5 Ryzen 5 9600X, we can compare the Core Ultra 5 245K Arrow Lake CPU directly to Zen 5.

Per the valid Geekbench 5 listing, the Core Ultra 5 245K manages single-core and multi-core scores of 2,248 and 18,354 respectively. According to our testing of the Ryzen 5 9600X, the Arrow Lake CPU is 11% slower in the single-core department while being an astounding 44% faster than the Zen 5 chip in the multi-core test.

More impressively, the Core Ultra 5 245K is seemingly 26% ahead of the 8-core Ryzen 7 9700X (Available on Amazon).

Core Ultra 5 245K vs Core i5-14600K

The Core Ultra 5 245K in the current example is also ahead of the Core i5-14600K by a delta of 11% and 5% in the single-core and multi-core benchmarks respectively. Considering that the Arrow Lake CPUs lack Hyperthreading and Intel is reportedly focusing on efficiency, the noticeable single-core performance and marginal multi-core bump can be considered impressive. But, we’ll have to wait for the retail chips to draw any final conclusions.

All in all, based on the latest Geekbench numbers, Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra 5 245K could handily beat its Zen 5 competitors in multi-core performance despite lacking HT. Combined with the potential efficiency upgrade, Intel can finally be competitive with AMD again, especially since fans aren’t looking too enthusiastic for the Zen 5 chips.