Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra 9 386H or Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus: what's better?

Intel Core Ultra 9 386H vs Ultra 9 290HX Plus

69 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
VS
86 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus
Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.1 GHz Intel Core Ultra 9 386H with 16-cores against the 2.7 GHz Ultra 9 290HX Plus with 24-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
NanoReview Final Score
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Key Differences

What are the key differences between Plus and 386H
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
  • More modern manufacturing process – 2 versus 3 nanometers
  • Around 51.2 GB/s (50%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More powerful Intel Xe3 Graphics integrated graphics: 2.6 vs 2 TFLOPS
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus
  • Has 18 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Supports up to 256 GB DDR5-6400 RAM
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • 12% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.5 GHz vs 4.9 GHz)
  • 13% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3198 vs 2838 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra 9 386H
vs
Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 502 588
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 4687 9708
Cinebench Scores (104th and 8th 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 1420 MB/sec 1660 MB/sec
Clang compilation 118.2 Klines/sec 217.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 426.1 pages/sec 495.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 483.8 Mpixels/sec 584.4 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 286.3 pages/sec 342.8 pages/sec
Background blur 65.7 images/sec 84 images/sec
Photo processing 157.6 images/sec 160.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 24.3 Mpixels/sec 46.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 87.7 GOps/sec 165.3 GOps/sec
Floating point math 109.4 GOps/sec 201.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 347M Primes/sec 514M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 43.6M Strings/sec 80M Strings/sec
Data encryption 27.8 GBytes/sec 50 GBytes/sec
Data compression 365.2 MBytes/sec 656.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 3086 Frames/sec 3361 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 30.2B Matrices/sec 51B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 156 & 165 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 49.6 PPW 44.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 668.2 PPW 392.4 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 1446.8 PPW 1077.7 PPW
Blender / Watt 9.76 PPW -
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra 9 386H and Ultra 9 290HX Plus

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released January 5, 2026 January 17, 2026
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Panther Lake Arrow Lake
Model number 386H 290HX+
Integrated GPU Xe3 Graphics Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 -
Intel CPU rating (43rd and 4th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 8
P-Threads 4 8
Base Frequency (P) 2.1 GHz 2.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.9 GHz 5.5 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores 12 16
E-Threads 12 16
Base Frequency (E) 1.6 GHz 1.8 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) 3.7 GHz 4.7 GHz
Total
Total Cores 16 24
Total Threads 16 24
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 20x 27x
L1 Cache 192K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 2560K (per core) 3MB (per core)
L3 Cache 18MB (shared) 36MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Fabrication Process 2 nm 3 nm
TDP (PL1) 15-25 W (configurable) 45-55 W (configurable)
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) 80 W 160 W
Socket FCBGA2540 FCBGA-2114
Peak Temperature 100°C 105°C
Laptop processors ranking (55th and 11th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Xe3 Graphics Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 2500 MHz 2000 MHz
Shading Units 512 512
TMUs 32 32
ROPs 16 16
Execution Units 4 64
TGP 25 W 14 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra 9 386H +30%
2.6 TFLOPS
Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus
2 TFLOPS
More info: Arc iGPU (4-Cores) compared to Xe3 Graphics (4-Core)

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600
- DDR5-7200		 - DDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 256 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 102.4 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Intel Core Ultra 9 386H official page Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 24

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
5 (31.3%)
11 (68.8%)
Total votes: 16

Competitors

1. Intel Core Ultra 9 386H vs Intel Core Ultra 5 225H
2. Intel Core Ultra 9 386H vs Apple M4 (10-Core)
3. Intel Core Ultra 9 386H vs AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 475
4. Intel Core Ultra 9 386H vs Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
5. Intel Core Ultra 9 386H vs AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
6. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX
7. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Apple M4 Ultra
8. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus
9. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (5)
10. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus or Ultra 9 386H?
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