Preliminary benchmarks at PassMark put Intel's new Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 9 275HX 7% ahead of AMD's Ryzen 9 7945HX3D processor in CPU Mark. Moreover, despite a 400 MHz clock deficit, the 275HX manages to land 34% faster than last generation's i9-14900HX, with a solid 9% lead when looking at single-threaded performance. Because this test is based on only one sample of the processor, it is suggested to wait for in-depth, independent reviews before jumping to conclusions. Gaming laptops equipped with Intel's Arrow Lake-HX family are expected to launch soon, most likely hitting shelves next month with the launch of Nvidia's RTX 50 mobile series.
Arrow Lake-HX CPUs act as desktop replacements, employing an architecture similar to Core Ultra 200S chips on desktop, but in a BGA package. There are some minor differences between these CPUs and Arrow Lake-H, including the elevated TDPs and the lack of LPE cores on the SoC tile. These are Intel's highest-performing laptop chips this year, designed to be paired with a dedicated GPU, with a PBP (Processor Base Power) of 55W, going as high as 160W depending on the use case.
The Core Ultra 9 275HX in question is only second to the flagship 285HX, both offering 24 cores (8P + 16E) and 24 threads. The 275HX clocks at a maximum of 5.5 GHz on the performance cores, a 400 MHz deficit versus the last generation, and 100 MHz slower than the 285HX. Nonetheless, Intel has managed to extract somewhat decent efficiency and performance gains thanks to the newer TSMC N3B process and updated Lion Cove and Skymont architectures.
In the single-threaded benchmark at PassMark, the 275HX leads the pack; up to 16% faster than the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. This is not an exact apples-to-apples comparison as AMD's new Zen 5-based Fire Range chips are just around the corner, so we aren't sure if Intel can maintain its performance throne for long. In any case, this lead extends to 34% against the i9-14900HX in CPU Mark; PassMark's proprietary tool for estimating a CPU's performance. Despite a near 7% reduction in boost clocks, the Arrow Lake chip still lands roughly 9% ahead in terms of single-core performance.
The Core Ultra 9 285H (Arrow Lake-H based) delivered lackluster efficiency numbers in a recent user review. While this could simply boil down to the dated Meteor Lake SoC tile, which shouldn't carry over to Arrow Lake-HX, it's best to hold off until detailed reviews are available to get a clearer picture.
Given the TDP of these chips, performance will largely depend on the laptop's thermals and power delivery capability. The integrated GPU has been updated to Alchemist+ with support for XMX supporting DPAS instructions. None of Intel's Arrow Lake chips are compliant with Microsoft's CoPilot+ requirements, except for Lunar Lake. Laptops packed with Intel's Arrow Lake-HX chips are slated for a late Q3 launch, so you'll probably see a handful of these on shelves next month.
