Intel unveils $200 Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and $300 Core Ultra 7 270K Plus CPUs

Intel recently introduced its fastest gaming processors with the Core Ultra 200S Plus series. The series has two new CPUs that promise 15% faster geomean gaming performance than the current Core Ultra 2-series CPUs.

Upgrading your gaming PC is a difficult task in 2026 with the crazy prices of RAM and SSDs. Finding something good with a GPU is equally challenging. The new Plus CPUs, however, are reasonably priced and support all existing motherboards with the 800 series chipset.

New Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus CPUs

The Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is $200, while the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is $300. They have several improvements over the 245K and 265K starting with four E cores. The 250K Plus has a 6P+12E configuration and the 270K Plus has an 8P+16E configuration. For reference, the 245K and 265K were 6P+8E and 8P+12E, respectively.

Game performance improvements: 250K Plus • 270K Plus

With these additional cores, Intel says the 250K Plus will have twice the performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X. That’s a 6-core, 12-thread CPU launched in 2024 for $280. This refers to what Intel calls “content creation” – it provides Blender and Cinebench, for example.

Multi-threaded performance boost and test optimization

It’s not just more cores, though. The cores themselves run at the same frequencies as non-Plus CPUs. However, some parts of the CPU, especially the memory connection, use 900MHz faster, which significantly reduces latency.

Now is probably not the best time for it, but you can pair Plus CPUs with faster RAM. Previous models support 6400 MT/s RAM, while Plus CPUs can handle 7200 MT/s DDR5 – even 8,000 MT/s if you enable the Boost BIOS profile.

Then there is the special sauce called Intel Binary Optimization Tool. In short, this takes game code that might have been developed for other platforms, like a console for example, and makes it run faster on an Intel CPU. The above results use this tool.

The new Intel Binary Optimization Tool

This sounds similar to how GPU drivers deliver game-specific improvements with every update – Intel will add game profiles that improve the performance of a particular title, so it will improve old and new titles alike.

We mentioned that the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus support all current motherboards with the 800 series chipset. And they do. However, Intel has developed motherboards in the works that will provide the first support for 4-Rank CUDIMM memory, which can pack up to 128GB per module. With two of these, you can have 256GB on one plan. These motherboards are coming later this year.

Future motherboards will provide initial support for 4-Rank CUDIMM RAM

As for the two Plus CPUs, they will be available from March 26. If you like, pre-built systems with new CPUs will also be available at the same time. Intel has sent samples to reviewers for testing and says they expect reviews “a few days” before the March 26 launch.

Also, Intel says there will be more “Plus” CPUs in the future – they will be the final versions of that generation’s CPU technology and will give you an upgrade path that won’t require ditching your motherboard.

The source