Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus benchmark surfaces, rivals desktop 285K and AMD Ryzen

Early performance data for Intel’s upcoming Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus has quietly appeared online, offering a first glimpse at what the Arrow Lake Refresh lineup could deliver for high-end laptops. While the benchmark entry is limited, it hints at a notable uplift over Intel’s current mobile flagship, Core Ultra 9 285HX.

The processor has surfaced in the PassMark database for the first time, suggesting testing is already underway ahead of an expected launch later this year. Although unofficial, the listing provides insight into how Intel’s refreshed HX-series chip may position itself against both mobile and desktop-class competition.

According to the benchmark, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus achieves a single-thread score of 5,009, placing it surprisingly close to Intel’s desktop-oriented Core Ultra 9 285K. For a mobile processor, that proximity is notable and points to strong per-core performance improvements. Compared with Intel’s existing Core Ultra 9 285HX, the new chip shows an uplift of roughly 7.5 per cent in single-threaded workloads, indicating that Arrow Lake Refresh is more than a minor frequency tweak.

Multi-threaded performance also appears promising. The PassMark entry lists a score of 66,203, positioning the 290HX Plus alongside high-end desktop processors in the same chart. The result lands close to Intel’s own 285K and is also comparable to AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D, while outperforming Ryzen 9 9955HX3D. The 9955HX3D has put up 62,113 points for those wondering.

These figures suggest Intel is aiming to narrow the gap between flagship laptops and traditional desktops, at least in heavily threaded workloads.

Furthermore, the benchmark run shows the processor boosting to 5.45GHz and paired with Samsung DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM memory. System details indicate the test platform was an MSI laptop, equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. That said, this remains a single data point. Laptop performance can vary widely depending on cooling, power limits, firmware tuning, and memory configurations, so real-world results may differ once retail systems arrive.

It will be interesting to see how AMD's own offerings, the new Ryzen AI 400 series, and Ryzen AI Max/Max+ SKUs stack up against it.

Via: @x86deadandback (X)

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Posted Monday 19 January 2026 at 11:40 am AEST (my time).

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