Intel's Core Ultra 200HX Plus chips offer modest gaming boost for high-end laptops

Intel is expanding its Core Ultra 200HX line of mobile chips for high-performance laptops with two new "Plus" branded processors. Laptops with the new Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus and Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus are available starting today, and they bring… a modest performance boost.

On paper, the new processors don't look all that different from the Core Ultra 9 285HX and Core Ultra 7 265HX that launched last year. But Intel says they feature new technologies that should bring up to an 8 percent improvement in gaming performance.

That's probably not worth trading in a laptop with last year's best Intel processor for. But users should see much bigger gains if they're upgrading from a laptop that's a few years old.

Processor Specifications

Here's how the new chips compare to their predecessors:

Processor	Cores / Threads	Base / Max Freq	Intel Graphics (iGPU)	NPU TOPS
Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus	24 (8P + 16E) / 24	2.7 GHz / 5.5 GHz	4 cores, up to 2 GHz	13
Core Ultra 9 285HX	24 (8P + 16E) / 24	2.8 GHz / 5.5 GHz	4 cores, up to 2 GHz	13
Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus	20 (8P + 12E) / 24	2.4 GHz / 5.3 GHz	4 cores, up to 1.9 GHz	13
Core Ultra 7 265HX	20 (8P + 12E) / 24	2.6 GHz / 5.3 GHz	4 cores, up to 1.9 GHz	13

Performance Improvements

Intel released a bunch of graphics showing that when compared with a laptop powered by an Intel Core i9-12900HX processor, a newer laptop with a Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor delivers up to a 62% boost in gaming performance and even bigger gains for some AI and content creation… but it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison, because the older laptop was equipped with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics while the newer model had RTX 5090 graphics.

As for the modest speed boost compared with last year's chips, Intel says it comes from a few areas:

• Frequency adjustments: The new chips have lower base frequencies but higher max turbo frequencies for their Efficiency cores
• Die-to-die frequency increase: Up to 900 MHz increase in die-to-die frequency, allowing for a faster connection between the CPU and memory controller to reduce system latency
• Binary Optimization Tool: This brings an improvement in processor instructions per cycle for certain workloads

Memory Support Changes

One other interesting thing to keep in mind though, is that while the new chips support up to 256GB of DDR5-6400 dual-channel memory, like the Core Ultra 7 265HX and Core Ultra 9 285HX, the new 200HX Plus chips do not support ECC memory, while the non-plussed (pun intended) models do.

This could be a consideration for users who need error-correcting memory for professional workloads or mission-critical applications.

Should You Upgrade?

For most users, the 8% performance improvement in gaming and modest gains in other workloads probably don't justify an upgrade if you already have a recent laptop with a Core Ultra 200HX processor. The real-world difference between these chips and their predecessors will likely be minimal in everyday use.

However, if you're upgrading from a laptop that's several years old, the combination of these new processors with the latest graphics cards and other components could provide a much more substantial performance boost. The improvements in gaming performance, content creation, and AI workloads could be quite noticeable when moving from older generation hardware.

The new Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus and Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus are now available in laptops from various manufacturers, targeting the high-end gaming and content creation market segments.