Intel Core Ultra 5 225 review: Arrow Lake’s forgotten CPU needs a price cut

Although Intel made some strides with Arrow Lake Refresh, this previous generation of CPUs has been a bit of a dud on the gaming front. Given that the Core Ultra 5 225 is the lowest-specced SKU of an already disappointing gaming generation, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that gaming performance is lackluster overall. At around $180 where the Core Ultra 5 225 lives, there are several better options.

All of our gaming tests are run with an RTX 5090 at 1080p with a mixture of High and Ultra settings depending on the title. The RTX 5090 helps isolate CPU performance as much as possible by giving us plenty of GPU headroom. Most games have ray tracing disabled, short of F1 2024 and Doom: The Dark Ages, and we don’t use any upscaling or frame generation features.

Compared to its main competition, the Ryzen 5 9600X, the Core Ultra 5 225 is 14% behind in our 17-game geomean. Worse, it’s also 7% behind the Ryzen 5 7600X, as well as the Core Ultra 5 245K. Spending an extra $40 for the 250K Plus will net you nearly a 19% boost in performance. And if gaming is your only focus, the Ryzen 5 7600X3D delivers 31% higher average frame rates for $20 to $50 more, depending on where you buy it.

The gen-on-gen comparisons are still solid, however. Intel is able to outclass the Core i5-14400 by 8% with the Core Ultra 5 225, and the 12400F by 13.6%. As we’ll return to multiple times throughout this review, the 225 would look much more attractive with a sub-$150 price. The options are few and far between below $150, and compared to what’s currently available in that price bracket, the Core Ultra 5 225 is compelling.

Unfortunately, the chip is still priced at around $180. The Ryzen 5 7600X delivers slightly better gaming performance for less money, while the Ryzen 5 9600X is much better in games at around the same price. The proximity to $200 is what really sets the Core Ultra 5 225 back, however. An extra $20 or $30 will rarely make or break a PC build, but in the case of the Core Ultra 5 225, that extra money makes all the difference.

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Although performance is lackluster overall, the Core Ultra 5 225 scores well in other metrics. Looking at efficiency, it’s able to match the Ryzen 5 7600X3D, which is a feat considering just how efficient Zen 4 CPUs with 3D V-Cache are in games. The Core Ultra 5 225 drew just 50.2W on average throughout gaming tests, 10W less than the Core i5-14400, and a full 36W less than the Ryzen 5 9600X.

Temperatures averaged just 46 degrees Celsius on a 360mm AIO (more on the test benches later in the review). You could keep the Core Ultra 5 225 cool with just about anything. We’re seeing just above idle temperatures under load here.

Outside of average performance, however, the most important geomean we have is value, which we calculate by dividing the average frame rate by price, giving us frames per dollar spent. On the value side of things, the 225 is surprisingly decent. AMD still offers a better value with its two Ryzen 5 offerings, but the Core Ultra 5 225 narrowly beats out the Core Ultra 5 245K.

This brings us back to that $150 price point that’s so important for the 225. At current prices, you’re getting about 0.75 frames per dollar, but at $150, that jumps up to 0.9 frames per dollar, outclassing the Ryzen 5 9600X. Of course, you can make any CPU look better simply by slashing the price, but the Core Ultra 5 225 is uniquely positioned for a price decrease. We’ve seen Intel become much more aggressive on pricing with Arrow Lake Refresh, and prices on Ryzen 5 chips from the last two generations have continually slipped. The Core Ultra 5 225 needs a readjustment to fit in the current market.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Benchmarks

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2023 game of the year winner Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the most important benchmarks in our suite. Here, the Core Ultra 5 225 just narrowly misses the performance of the Ryzen 5 7600X while falling 9.3% behind the Ryzen 5 9600X. The Core Ultra 5 225 manages a 10.2% lead over the Core i5-14400. However, AMD is clearly ahead in this title, and even more so when an X3D CPU is brought into the mix.

Borderlands 4 Benchmarks

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Borderlands 4 tends to favor Intel CPUs, particularly at the low-end, where we don’t become bound by the GPU. Even with a buff for Team Bluie, the Core Ultra 5 225 just managed to muster the average performance of the Ryzen 5 7600X, falling a few frames behind the Ryzen 5 9600X.

Crimson Desert Benchmarks

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Crimson Desert is the newest game in our test suite, and it scales well on the CPU, even up to high-end chips. Although Intel’s Raptor Lake chips hold up well compared to X3D chips in this game, the Core Ultra 5 225 places poorly. It’s only marginally faster than the Core i5-14400, falling behind the Ryzen 5 7600X.

Counter-Strike 2 Benchmarks

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Counter-Strike 2 is a latency-sensitive game, so it benefits greatly from AMD’s homogenous architecture. The Core Ultra 5 225 gets hit on two points here, not only due to its relatively tame peak clocks, but also its SoC-like architecture that introduces die-to-die latency. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus overcomes those issues with better die-to-die frequencies, but you can’t manually tweak the frequencies of the Core Ultra 5 225.

Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmarks

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The lower-tier Core i5 chips don’t do particularly well in Cyberpunk 2077, and the Core Ultra 5 225 carries on the lineage, even falling a frame behind the Core i5-12600K on average. The Ryzen 5 7600X is 7.1% faster, while the Ryzen 5 9600X is 11% ahead.

Doom: The Dark Ages Benchmarks

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Doom: The Dark Ages is the only game in our test suite that uses the Vulkan API, and it features always-on ray tracing. The Core Ultra 5 225 holds up well in this title, finally claiming a lead over the Ryzen 5 7600X. Still, the 225 is 6.5% behind the Ryzen 5 9600X and 13.3% behind the Core Ultra 5 245K.

F1 24 Benchmarks

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AMD CPUs perform well in F1 2024, so it’s no surprise to see the Core Ultra 5 225 so behind here. What is surprising is how close the Core Ultra 5 225 is to the Core i5-14400 (and even lower-specced CPUs in our test pool, for that matter). Arrow Lake chips are already weak in this title, and the Core Ultra 5 225 only exaggerates that.

Far Cry 6 Benchmarks

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Far Cry 6 also favors AMD CPUs, but not as dramatically as F1 2024. And, the Core Ultra 5 225 offers a decent gen-on-gen improvement, outclassing the Core i5-14400 by 6.4%. Still, the Ryzen 5 9600X is in a completely different performance category in this title.

Final Fantasy XIV Benchmarks

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Final Fantasy XIV sees some issues with Intel’s hybrid architecture, with the P-core-only Core i3 models outclassing their heterogeneous Core i5 counterparts. The Core Ultra 5 225 doesn’t run into the same issues as the Core i5-14400 and Core i5-13400F, but it’s still only marginally faster and leagues behind AMD.

Flight Simulator 2024 Benchmarks

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The scales are more balanced in Flight Simulator 24, with the Core Ultra 5 225 claiming a small lead over the Ryzen 5 7600X and falling behind the Ryzen 5 9600X by 10.4%.

Hitman 3 Benchmarks

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The Core Ultra 5 225 manages a 9.5% lead over the Core i5-14400 in Hitman 3, nearly matching the Ryzen 5 7600X and falling behind the Ryzen 5 9600X by 8%. This game greatly benefits from 3D V-Cache, however, with the Ryzen 5 7600X3D offering a large 30% jump over the Core Ultra 5 225.

Hogwarts Legacy Benchmarks

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Marvel Rivals Benchmarks

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The Unreal Engine 5-based Marvel Rivals is one of the most popular shooters around right now, and while it’s normally bound by the GPU, we can see clear scaling at the lower end of CPUs. That doesn’t benefit the Core Ultra 5 225, which still manages to come in marginally behind the Ryzen 5 7600X.

Minecraft RTX Benchmarks

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Minecraft is one of the more demanding benchmarks in our suite due to using a 96 render chunk distance. Intel chips struggle in this game, especially at the low end, and our data makes that clear. Particularly with the Core i3s and lower-tier Core i5s, our first run would see much better performance, but subsequent runs would cut performance down by about a third. As usual, we do between three and five test passes of each title and pick the median result specifically to spot these kinds of performance issues that don’t show up immediately.

Spider-Man 2 Benchmarks

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The CPU-intensive Spider-Man 2 is the only game we tested where the Core Ultra 5 225 managed a lead over the Ryzen 5 9600X. This is probably how Intel likes to think about the 225 given its price, marginally outclassing or matching the 9600X. Unfortunately, that narrative is only true here, not in the other titles we tested.

Starfield Benchmarks

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The Last of Us Part One Benchmarks

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