Amazon has discounted the Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus to its lowest price ever, with Tom's Hardware reporting a price of $154 (a 30% cut) and Wccftech reporting $153 (a $47 discount). Both outlets agree this is the cheapest the CPU has been since launch, though they differ slightly on the exact sale price.
The chip originally launched at $199 (per Wccftech) or $200 (per Tom's Hardware), but its street price climbed to over $200, with Tom's Hardware noting the recommended price rose as high as $220. Tom's Hardware explains the 250K Plus, along with the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, was released as a refresh effort to salvage Intel's Arrow Lake lineup after the original launch underperformed.
Specs-wise, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is a 20-core, 20-thread chip built from six Lion Cove P-cores and 12 Skymont E-cores, without Hyper-Threading, according to Tom's Hardware. It boosts up to 5.5 GHz with a 125W/250W PL1/PL2 power configuration. As an unlocked K-series chip, it can be overclocked using a Z-series motherboard, though Tom's Hardware notes there is no locked version of this SKU. Wccftech attributes the CPU's improved gaming and productivity performance partly to added cores and a better die-to-die frequency from the architectural refresh, which Tom's Hardware specifies includes a 900 MHz die-to-die frequency increase and a 400 MHz memory fabric speed bump built into the chip.
According to Tom's Hardware's benchmark testing, the CPU performs well above its sale price in multithreaded workloads, running 33% faster than AMD's Ryzen 7 9700X (which costs twice as much) and 80% faster than the similarly priced Ryzen 5 9600X. In single-threaded performance, it reportedly outpaces every AMD chip tested, including the Ryzen 9 9950X, though Intel's own Core i9-14900K—priced nearly three times as much—is described as slightly faster. In gaming, Tom's Hardware says the chip performs similarly to the Core i5-14600K, marginally ahead of the Ryzen 5 9600X but about 3% behind the Ryzen 7 9700X; the Ryzen 5 7600X3D is said to be roughly 10% faster in gaming, but Tom's Hardware notes Intel's chip is about $100 cheaper at the current sale price.
Wccftech adds that the deal includes two bundled games, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Star Wars: Galactic Racer, and cautions that the sale may not last long since the chip has historically sold quickly once it dips below $200. Separately, Wccftech reports that the Core Ultra 5 225F, a 10-core CPU normally priced around $155-$165, has dropped to $99 on Amazon—also its lowest price since launch—making it, according to Wccftech, the cheapest 10-core processor available and better value than AMD's Ryzen 5600 in the same price range.