Intel Core Ultra 7 255U vs Ultra 7 165U

We compared two 12-core laptop CPUs: the 2.0 GHz Intel Core Ultra 7 255U against the 1.7 GHz Ultra 7 165U. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

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
NanoReview Final Score
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between 165U and 255U
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 7 255U
  • More modern manufacturing process – 3 versus 7 nanometers
  • Newer - released 1 year and 1 month later
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5-8400 RAM
  • 6% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.2 GHz vs 4.9 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)

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 999.4 MB/sec 991.6 MB/sec
Clang compilation 75.6 Klines/sec 69.9 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 267.7 pages/sec 238.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 334.8 Mpixels/sec 284.5 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 240.5 pages/sec 239.3 pages/sec
Background blur 46.6 images/sec 41.7 images/sec
Photo processing 80.8 images/sec 93.7 images/sec
Ray tracing 12 Mpixels/sec 14.3 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2]12 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 65.3 GOps/sec 56.6 GOps/sec
Floating point math 45.7 GOps/sec 39.8 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 63M Primes/sec 66M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 21.3M Strings/sec 20.6M Strings/sec
Data encryption 12.4 GBytes/sec 11.6 GBytes/sec
Data compression 196.1 MBytes/sec 182.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 1137 Frames/sec 1116 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 10.8B Matrices/sec 10.2B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4]649 & 1485 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 34.3 PPW 34 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 670.5 PPW 651.1 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 1191.6 PPW 1110.5 PPW
Blender / Watt - 7.53 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 7 255U and Ultra 7 165U

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released January 6, 2025 December 14, 2023
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Arrow Lake Meteor Lake
Model number 255U 165U
Integrated GPU Arc Graphics (4-Cores) Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
Rival Equivalent - - AMD Ryzen 7 8840U
Successor - - Intel Core Ultra 7 265U
Intel CPU rating (120th and 148th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 2 2
P-Threads 4 4
Base Frequency (P) 2.0 GHz 1.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.2 GHz 4.9 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 10 10
E-Threads 10 10
Base Frequency (E) 1.7 GHz 1.2 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 4.2 GHz 3.8 GHz
Total
Total Cores 12 12
Total Threads 14 14
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 20x 17x
L1 Cache 112K (per core) 112K (per core)
L2 Cache 2MB (per core) 2MB (per core)
L3 Cache 12MB (shared) 12MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Fabrication Process 3 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 12-15 W (configurable) 12-15 W (configurable)
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 57 W 57 W
Socket FCBGA-2049 FCBGA-2049
Peak Temperature 110°C 110°C
Laptop processors ranking (159th and 196th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Arc Graphics (4-Cores) Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 2100 MHz 2000 MHz
Shading Units 512 512
TMUs 32 32
ROPs 16 16
Execution Units 64 64
TGP 14 W 14 W
iGPU FLOPS
2.2 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5-8400
- LPDDR5x-8400
- DDR5-6400
- LPDDR5-7467
- LPDDR5x-7467
- DDR5-5600
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 96 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth - 89.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 7 255U official page Intel Core Ultra 7 165U official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
3 (75%)
1 (25%)
Total votes: 4

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core Ultra 7 165U or Ultra 7 255U?
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