Last week alongside our Framework Desktop review with the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 “Strix Halo” SoC I posted benchmarks of the Strix Halo performance compared to the Ryzen 9 9950X / 9950X3D socketed desktop processors. For those wondering similarly how the top-end Strix Halo SoC in the Framework Desktop competes with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K “Arrow Lake” flagship in performance and power efficiency, here are those comparison benchmarks.
Today’s article builds off the Framework Desktop (with AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395) against Ryzen 9 9950X / 9950X3D data from last week to also see how the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K competes in both performance and performance-per-Watt to the very intriguing Strix Halo in desktop form factor.
The Intel Arrow Lake desktop processor was tested under the same Ubuntu 25.04 conditions as the AMD processors with using the Linux 6.14 kernel and Mesa 25.0 graphics drivers, GCC 14.2, and other Ubuntu 25.04 defaults.
The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K as a reminder has 24 cores made up of 8 P cores and 16 E cores, 5.7GHz max turbo frequency, 32MB Intel Smart Cache, and a 125W base power with a 250W maximum turbo power rating. There are Intel Graphics with the Core Ultra 9 285K providing four Xe cores and clocking up to 2.0GHz. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 meanwhile features 16 Zen 5 cores, 5.1GHz maximum boost clock, 64MB L3 cache, 55 Watt default TDP with cTDP up to 120 Watts, and the Radeon 8060S Graphics with 40 graphics cores and clocking up to 2.9GHz. Unfortunately I don’t have any Intel Arrow Lake HX review hardware like the Core Ultra 9 275HX / 285HX which is why such mobile processors aren’t part of this comparison.
