In this video I’m putting Intel’s new Ultra 5 250K Plus and Ultra 7 270K Plus through a proper set of benchmarks—gaming, synthetic, power and thermals—because after the slightly underwhelming 200 series, I wanted to see if Intel have actually “bought the heat” with this refresh. The pricing is the headline: $199 for the 250K Plus and $299 for the 270K Plus, and the 270K Plus in particular is interesting because it’s the same 24-core/24-thread config as the much more expensive 285K, but at a way more sensible price. I also cover the software side, because Intel aren’t just relying on raw clocks this time. Intel Application Optimization (APO) and Intel Binary Optimization can give real gains in supported titles—think of it a bit like DLSS, but for CPU efficiency—though support is still limited right now (21 titles for APO, 12 for Binary Optimization). In Geekbench 6, the 270K Plus with the platform package absolutely rockets, even edging past the 285K, and the 250K Plus sees a big uplift too. For gaming, AMD’s X3D parts still dominate most charts (that big L3 cache is just silly), but Intel’s strength is being a proper hybrid: strong mixed workloads and productivity, with the 270K Plus landing very close to 285K-level performance without the top-end price. I also break down the real-world trade-offs: DDR5 cost, this being the last gen on LGA1851, and who these CPUs actually make sense for.