Home > CPU Comparison > Core Ultra X9 378H or Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus: what's better?

Intel Core Ultra X9 378H vs Ultra 9 290HX Plus

75 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra X9 378H
VS
86 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus
Intel Core Ultra X9 378H
Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 2.0 GHz Intel Core Ultra X9 378H 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
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
🔌 Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between Plus and 378H
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra X9 378H
  • More powerful Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics: 7.7 vs 2 TFLOPS
  • More modern manufacturing process – 2 versus 3 nanometers
  • Around 51.2 GB/s (50%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus
  • Supports up to 256 GB DDR5-6400 RAM
  • Has 18 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Has 8 more physical cores
  • 10% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.5 GHz vs 5 GHz)
  • 10% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 3198 vs 2915 points

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core Ultra X9 378H
vs
Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) 535 588
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) 5201 9708
Cinebench Scores (89th 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 - 1660 MB/sec
Clang compilation - 217.2 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser - 495.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer - 584.4 Mpixels/sec
Text processing - 342.8 pages/sec
Background blur - 84 images/sec
Photo processing - 160.2 images/sec
Ray tracing - 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 92.6 GOps/sec 165.3 GOps/sec
Floating point math 114.5 GOps/sec 201.5 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 357M Primes/sec 514M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 44.6M Strings/sec 80M Strings/sec
Data encryption 29.8 GBytes/sec 50 GBytes/sec
Data compression 386.6 MBytes/sec 656.5 MBytes/sec
Physics 3404 Frames/sec 3361 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 31.3B Matrices/sec 51B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 1 & 165 samples

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 52.8 PPW 44.2 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 659.8 PPW 392.4 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 1531.9 PPW 1077.7 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core Ultra X9 378H and Ultra 9 290HX Plus

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released May 13, 2026 January 17, 2026
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Panther Lake Arrow Lake
Model number 388H 290HX+
Integrated GPU Arc B390 Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
Intel CPU rating (26th and 4th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 4 8
P-Threads 4 8
Base Frequency (P) 2.0 GHz 2.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 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) 3.8 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 3MB (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 (29th and 11th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel Arc B390 Arc Graphics (4-Cores)
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 2500 MHz 2000 MHz
Shading Units 1536 512
TMUs 48 32
ROPs 24 16
Execution Units 12 64
TGP 30 W 14 W
iGPU FLOPS
Core Ultra X9 378H +285%
7.7 TFLOPS
Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus
2 TFLOPS
More info: Arc iGPU (4-Cores) compared to Arc B390

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9600 - DDR5-6400
Max. Memory Size 96 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 X9 378H official page Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 12 24

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
0 (0%)
0 (0%)
Total votes: < 1

Competitors

1. Intel Core Ultra X9 378H vs AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470
2. Intel Core Ultra X9 378H vs Intel Core Ultra X7 368H
3. Intel Core Ultra X9 378H vs Intel Core Ultra X7 358H
4. Intel Core Ultra X9 378H vs AMD Ryzen AI Max 390
5. Intel Core Ultra X9 378H vs Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)
6. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (5)
7. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
8. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Apple M4 Ultra
9. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs Apple M5 Pro (15-Core)
10. Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus vs AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus or Ultra X9 378H?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
EnglishРусский