Intel Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus 18-core LGA1851

The Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus has impressive specs on paper but lands in the bottom 5% of our database for nearly every performance metric. Efficiency is terrible at 4th percentile with a 250W max turbo draw. Unless you specifically need Intel's new LGA1851 platform right now, skip this one.

The headline specs look fine until you see the scores. 24 cores split across 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores, boost up to 5.5 GHz, DDR5 up to 7200 MT/s. But our benchmarks put single-thread and multi-thread performance in the 3rd and 4th percentile respectively. That's not middle of the pack, that's scraping the floor. Efficiency is even worse at 4th percentile, which makes sense when you're pulling 250W at max turbo for results like these. The AI score is the real kicker at 3rd percentile. If you're doing any local LLM work or AI-accelerated tasks, this chip will make you wait. Gaming lands at 7.7 out of 100, which is rough for a chip marketed to gamers. The platform support is the one bright spot: PCIe 5.0 and high-speed DDR5 are nice to have, but they don't rescue the raw compute numbers.

Stack this against the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and it's not even close. The 9800X3D dominates gaming and single-thread workloads while sipping power by comparison. The Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus can't touch it in any metric we track. Even against older Intel parts like the Core i9 BX80673I99960X, this chip struggles to justify itself. The i9 is ancient by now, but it still outpaces the Ultra 5 in multi-threaded work. The MICRO CENTER 265KFPRO890WIFI bundle is interesting because it pairs a similar chip with a motherboard, which might make more sense if you're building from scratch. But as a standalone CPU, the Ultra 5 250KF Plus sits at the bottom of a competitive field. The G.Skill Trident Z Neo is memory, not a CPU, so that's not a fair fight, but it shows how crowded this space is.

Pricing is all over the map depending on where you live. European listings run around 210 to 227 EUR, UK buyers see about 187 GBP, and Canada gets 308 CAD. Brazil is looking at 2,048 BRL. None of those are outrageous for a 24-core chip, but value isn't just about the sticker price. When the performance lands in the bottom 5% across the board, even a mid-range price feels like too much. You're paying for platform access and core count, not actual speed. If you're building a new Intel system and need something to drop in, it's not a total rip-off. But there are better ways to spend this money.

The Intel Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus is a weird one. On paper it sounds like a solid mid-range chip: 24 cores, 5.5 GHz boost, DDR5 support, unlocked for overclocking. But our database tells a different story. This thing lands in the bottom 5% for single-thread, multi-thread, efficiency, and AI workloads. That's not a rough patch, that's a pattern.

It's built for Intel's new LGA1851 socket and 800-series boards, so you're buying into a fresh platform. That's the one genuinely forward-looking thing here. But the performance numbers we're seeing put it behind chips that cost less and sip less power. The 125W base and 250W turbo draw is a lot of juice for results that land near the bottom of our charts.

Skip this if you care about gaming, AI workloads, or power efficiency. The 250W max turbo draw for bottom-tier performance is a bad trade no matter how you slice it. If you're building a productivity rig, look at older Intel i9 parts or AMD's Ryzen lineup instead. And if you're on a budget, the affordability score of 52nd percentile means this isn't even a great deal. You're paying mid-range money for entry-level results.

This chip is for a very specific buyer: someone who wants to build on Intel's new LGA1851 platform right now and doesn't care about raw performance. Maybe you're an overclocker who wants to tinker with the new socket and see what it can do. Maybe you need a placeholder CPU while you wait for better Arrow Lake chips to drop. But for gamers, creators, or anyone doing AI work, this is a pass. The 9800X3D exists. Older Intel chips exist. Almost anything else in this price range will serve you better.