Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra 5 250K Plus or Core i5 8600K: what's better?

Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs i5 8600K

84 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
VS
34 out of 100
Intel Core i5 8600K
Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Intel Core i5 8600K

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 4.2 GHz Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus with 18-cores against the 3.6 GHz i5 8600K with 6-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
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Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click “Calculate".
Currency
VS
169.6
(Excellent)
Value Index
44.7
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 8600K and Plus
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
  • Newer - released 8 years and 6 months later
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 14 nanometers
  • More powerful Intel Arc iGPU (4-Cores) integrated graphics: 1.9 vs 0.4 TFLOPS
  • Has 21 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Has 12 more physical cores
  • Around 72.6 GB/s (170%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Supports up to 256 GB DDR5-7200 RAM
  • 2x faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3225 vs 1605 points
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • 23% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.3 GHz vs 4.3 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
vs
Core i5 8600K

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 575 -
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 7413 -
Cinebench Scores (#39th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
File compression 1600 MB/sec 473.5 MB/sec
Clang compilation 211.6 Klines/sec 40.5 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 485.7 pages/sec 144.1 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 588 Mpixels/sec 191 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 400 pages/sec 156.7 pages/sec
Background blur 95.2 images/sec 39.9 images/sec
Photo processing 170.8 images/sec 62.7 images/sec
Ray tracing 39.7 Mpixels/sec 7.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1138 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 125.4 GOps/sec 27.7 GOps/sec
Floating point math 163.3 GOps/sec 23.8 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 487M Primes/sec 42M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 69.3M Strings/sec 17.2M Strings/sec
Data encryption 42.2 GBytes/sec 3.1 GBytes/sec
Data compression 570.1 MBytes/sec 140.7 MBytes/sec
Physics 3481 Frames/sec 722 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 44.7B Matrices/sec 12.5B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 254 & 3889 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 14.8 PPW 3.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 171.2 PPW 64.4 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 413.9 PPW 106.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 3.68 PPW 0.95 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-05-20 (sparehobos)Cinebench 2024150 / 2004
Add View all (1)
Intel Core i5 8600K
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2025-03-16 (london)Cinebench 202463 / 342
Add View all (1)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and i5 8600K

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released March 12, 2026 October 5, 2017
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Arrow Lake Coffee Lake
Model number 250K+ i5-8600K
Integrated GPU Arc iGPU (4-Cores) UHD Graphics 630
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 5 9600X - AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
Successor - - Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
Intel CPU rating (#11th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 6 6
Base Frequency (P) 4.2 GHz 3.6 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.3 GHz 4.3 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 12 -
E-Threads 12 -
Base Frequency (E) 3.3 GHz -
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.6 GHz -
Total
Total Cores 18 6
Total Threads 18 6
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 42x 36x
Bus Bandwidth - 8 GT/s
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 3MB (per core) 256K (per core)
L3 Cache 30MB (shared) 9MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Transistors 17.8 billions -
Fabrication Process 3 nm 14 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 95 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 159 W -
Socket FCLGA-1851 LGA-1151
Peak Temperature 105°C 100°C
Desktop CPU ranking (19th and 164th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Arc iGPU (4-Cores) Intel UHD Graphics 630
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 350 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1900 MHz 1150 MHz
Shading Units 512 192
TMUs 32 24
ROPs 16 3
Execution Units 64 24
TGP 14 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra 5 250K Plus +375%
1.9 TFLOPS
Core i5 8600K
0.4 TFLOPS
More info: UHD Graphics 630 compared to Arc iGPU (4-Cores)

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR5-7200 - DDR4-2666
Max. Memory Size 256 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 115.2 GB/s 42.6 GB/s
ECC Support Yes No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus official page Intel Core i5 8600K official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 3.0
PCI Express Lanes 24 16

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Competitors

1. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
2. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Intel Core i5 14600K
3. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus
4. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Intel Core i5 13600K
5. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 5 245K
6. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Intel Core i5 12600K
7. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 7 265K
8. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i5 8600K or Ultra 5 250K Plus?
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