Intel’s Arrow Lake CPUs have faced tough competition against processors from both AMD and Intel’s own lineup. However, a recent unexpected update has provided a significant performance boost, specifically for Cyberpunk 2077. This patch, released by CD Projekt Red, promises up to a 33% performance improvement for Arrow Lake processors in the game. This is welcome news for gamers, as these CPUs initially underwhelmed in gaming benchmarks.
This substantial 33% increase is attributed to optimizations in the game’s threading system. More specifically, the update prioritizes Intel’s P-cores, maximizing performance. This raises the question of whether similar improvements might be seen on older Intel CPUs that utilize P-cores, but further testing is needed to confirm this.
Performance of the Core Ultra 9 285K in Cyberpunk 2077.Benchmark results of the Core Ultra 9 285K in Cyberpunk 2077 before the update. (Jacob Roach / MaagX)
Prior benchmarks showed the Core Ultra 9 285K slightly trailing the Core i9-14900K, achieving 200 frames per second (fps) in Cyberpunk 2077. While this was a relatively strong result for the chip, placing it on par with the Ryzen 9 7950X in some titles, it still lagged behind the Ryzen 7 7800X3D by 18 fps in the same game.
If the 33% performance boost translates directly to fps, the Core Ultra 9 285K could potentially reach 266 fps. This impressive jump would place it 22% ahead of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and even surpass the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which averaged 232 fps in our Cyberpunk 2077 testing.
However, it’s important to wait for further benchmarks with the new update to verify the actual performance gains. Intel is also reportedly working on microcode updates for Arrow Lake, expected to release this month, which could further influence these results.
It remains to be seen how these updates will affect the overall gaming performance of Intel Arrow Lake processors. While the Cyberpunk 2077 boost is a positive sign, broader performance improvements across a wider range of games will be crucial for Intel to regain a competitive edge.
