I retested the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, and this gaming CPU is no longer a lemon

It's not often that a company the size of Intel gets it wrong these days, but at the end of 2024, the company's new Arrow Lake gaming CPU lineup genuinely shocked me with its poor game performance. It wasn't just a little slower - the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K was catastrophically behind the pack in some tests. Fast forward to now, and after several new BIOS, ME, driver, and game updates, plus the new 200S Boost mode, I thought it was time to revisit the 265K and put it back on the test bench. Could it be rescued?

The answer isn't a resounding "yes" in every area - there are definitely better CPUs for gaming, but I can now confidently say that the Intel 265K is no longer a complete lemon. In fact, in some tests it even beats every other CPU I've benched, and yes, that even includes a game test. No, it doesn't beat the Ryzen 7 9800X3D as a gaming CPU, but its gaming performance is now at least more competitive, and its performance in productivity software is superb. Is that enough for a place on our best gaming CPU guide now? Let's take a look.

To maintain consistency, I've rebenched the 265K on exactly the same test bench that I used for my original Core Ultra 7 265K review, with an Asus TUF Z890-Plus WiFi motherboard, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, 32GB of G.Skill TridentZ 6,000MT/s CL28 RAM, and a WD Black SN850X SSD containing the same Windows install I used the first time. The only differences are that I've flashed the motherboard BIOS to the latest version, including the latest Intel Management Engine (ME), updated Windows, and updated all the drivers.

Cinebench

I'll start off with one of the big wins, which is Cinebench, particularly when it comes to single-threaded performance. In my original Core Ultra 7 265K review, this CPU only produced a single-threaded score of 117, but it now scores 136, making it even quicker than the Core 19 14900K. What's more, if you engage the new 200S Boost mode, it scores 138, meaning it even beats the mighty AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D. That's a tremendous result.

The Cinebench R24 multi-core result gets a boost too, from 1,995 back in 2024 to 2,045 now (or 2,056 with 200S Boost enabled). That puts it in front of the last-gen 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, and it's not far behind the 24-core Core i9 14900K - that's not bad for a CPU with eight P-Cores and 12 E-Cores. Impressively, the CPU only peaked at a maximum temperature of 78°C while running this test too, which is startling considering the fast performance.

Total War: Warhammer III

Next comes a big game win in Total War: Warhammer III, where the 265K is now the lead CPU in the Battle benchmark, averaging 220fps with a 182fps minimum. That now beats all of the AMD X3D CPUs, and it's substantially quicker than the 202fps average and 158fps minimum the same chip managed at the end of 2024.

The chip coped less well in the Mirrors of Madness benchmark in the same game, where loads of characters are flung into the air and spun round, but it still held its ground, with its 119fps average outpacing the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, even if it can't catch the latest Zen 5 X3D CPUs. Enabling 200S Boost in both these tests increased the frame rate by 1fps, which is within the margin of error.

Cyberpunk 2077

Next up is Cyberpunk 2077 (with the P-Cores prioritised in the Utilities menu), which beat the 256K into a silicon pulp back in 2024. Testing the game at 1,920 x 1,080 with the Ultra ray tracing preset, the 265K only averaged 117fps in this test in 2024, being significantly slower than the Core i9 14900K (148fps) and 7800X3D (153fps). I rebenched all the CPUs for this test, as several updates over the last year mean the results are no longer directly comparable, and the gap has now closed significantly.

I'm not going to say the 265K does well in this game - it's clearly still in last place in the below graph, but it's no longer lagging seriously behind the rest of the pack. Its 124fps average is in the same league as the Core i5 14600K now, when it used to be 17fps behind it. The X3D chips are clearly still much better gaming CPUs in this game, but at least the 265K isn't embarrassingly awful any more. Again, enabling 200S Boost in this game at these settings had no discernible impact on frame rates.

Far Cry 6

Likewise, in Far Cry 6, the 265K only averaged 157fps in our test in 2024, putting it in last place by a significant margin (the next result, from the 14600K, averaged 184fps). Updates to this game mean the latest results aren't comparable to the previous ones, as with Cyberpunk, so I've rebenched all the other CPUs to see how they stack up now. As you can see, the 265K is now only 6fps behind the 14600K on 164fps, and enabling 200S Boost pushes this figure up to 166fps. Again, you can't say the 265K is an outstanding gaming CPU here, but it's definitely not shameful any more.

F1 24

It's also worth bearing in mind that these test games respond particularly well to CPU power, which is why I've included them in our benchmark suite, but a lot of games are largely indifferent to CPU performance, with the GPU being by far the most important component. One example is F1 24, which I've again rebenched on every CPU at the Ultra settings, without DLSS enabled. As you can see, the X3D chips continue to have an advantage here, but the 265K is only 6fps behind (or 5fps with 200S Boost enabled), and the differences are marginal.

So there you have it. The Core Ultra 7 265K is no longer a terrible gaming CPU, and we are going to add it to our best gaming CPU guide as a great, thermally-efficient CPU for productivity that can now also handle gaming. If gaming is your top priority, then the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is still absolutely the best chip to buy, but the 265K won't seriously drag down your gaming performance - it just isn't as quick as the AMD CPUs, but it's not a massive bottleneck any more either. If you can find it on offer, then it's now absolutely worth considering.

If you're thinking of upgrading your rig, check out our guide to buying the best gaming motherboard, as well as our best CPU cooler guide, so you can ensure you get the most out of your chosen CPU.

Have you bought an Intel Arrow Lake CPU? If so, how do you find its gaming performance? Let us know your thoughts in our community Discord server.