A fresh CPU benchmark has surfaced just days ahead of Intel’s expected Arrow Lake Refresh launch, and it points to a new performance leader in the company’s mid-range desktop lineup: the Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus.
The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus has now appeared in PassMark for the first time, posting an early multi-threaded score of 50,478 points and a single-core score of 4,854 points. Since this is currently based on a single listing, it’s worth treating the results as an early indicator rather than a final verdict. Still, the numbers suggest a meaningful jump over the current Core Ultra 5 245K.
Compared with the existing Ultra 5 245K, the early PassMark data shows around a 3% uplift in single-core performance and roughly a 16.6% gain in multi-threaded performance. That kind of improvement is especially relevant for creators, streamers, and anyone who leans on heavier workloads like rendering, compiling, or running multiple demanding apps at once.
Performance-wise, these results place the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus neatly between the Ultra 5 245K and the Ultra 7 265K. The reason is straightforward: the refreshed Ultra 5 model reportedly adds four additional Efficient cores, helping it pull ahead in multi-threaded tasks by a noticeable margin. This same approach—boosting E-core counts—is also expected elsewhere in the Arrow Lake Refresh stack.
As for specs, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is expected to reach boost clocks up to 5.3 GHz. Intel is also preparing a closely related model called the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus, which is said to share the same core configuration and performance target, but without integrated graphics—an option typically aimed at users who will pair the chip with a dedicated GPU anyway.
The big remaining questions are pricing and gaming performance. If Intel keeps pricing in line with the previous generation, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus could become a highly attractive mid-range desktop CPU for buyers who want stronger productivity performance without stepping up to a higher-tier Ultra 7. Gaming benchmarks will ultimately matter most to many shoppers, since gaming performance often drives CPU buying decisions in this segment. For productivity and multitasking, though, Arrow Lake has already been competitive, and these early scores suggest the refreshed lineup could be even better suited for heavier multi-threaded workloads.
