Tuesday, March 31st 2026
Intel Readies Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus for April 3, Save $15 if You Don't Need iGPU
Intel earlier this month debuted the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus desktop processors at launch prices of $299 and $199, respectively. At the time, the company hadn't launched "KF" variants of the two chips, which lack integrated graphics and are priced around $15 less than their regular "K" variants. It turns out, that Intel is planning to launch the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus, while there's no sign of a "Core Ultra 7 270KF Plus." The 250KF Plus is almost identical to the 250K Plus, except it comes with the iGPU disabled—something you don't need if you plan on using a graphics card.
As with most "KF" SKUs from the past, the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus will be priced around $15 less than the regular Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. Intel's own 1,000-unit tray quantity pricing for the chip ranges between $174 and $184. Given how tight memory pricing is, and given that you'll need an aftermarket cooler, the $15 saving might come in handy. Then of course the integrated graphics is nice to have if your graphics card is bricked due to a burnt power connector, and you need something to light your screen up for troubleshooting or during RMA. The Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus is based on the "Arrow Lake" microarchitecture, and packs a 6P+12E core configuration, with 3 MB of L2 cache per P-core, 4 MB of shared L2 cache for each of the three E-core clusters, and 30 MB of L3 cache shared among the six P-cores and three E-core clusters. The Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus should start selling from April 3, 2026.
As with most "KF" SKUs from the past, the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus will be priced around $15 less than the regular Core Ultra 5 250K Plus. Intel's own 1,000-unit tray quantity pricing for the chip ranges between $174 and $184. Given how tight memory pricing is, and given that you'll need an aftermarket cooler, the $15 saving might come in handy. Then of course the integrated graphics is nice to have if your graphics card is bricked due to a burnt power connector, and you need something to light your screen up for troubleshooting or during RMA. The Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus is based on the "Arrow Lake" microarchitecture, and packs a 6P+12E core configuration, with 3 MB of L2 cache per P-core, 4 MB of shared L2 cache for each of the three E-core clusters, and 30 MB of L3 cache shared among the six P-cores and three E-core clusters. The Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus should start selling from April 3, 2026.
11 Comments on Intel Readies Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus for April 3, Save $15 if You Don't Need iGPU
Around my neck of woods the difference between F and the iGPU model is usually $30 or even more depending on the CPU.
Which is sometimes just about enough to make the jump a tier higher like say from a i3 with an iGPU to a F i5 and its similar with the core ultra CPUs for example the ultra 5 225 is ~$193 while the 245KF is ~ $209 so I would rather spend that extra $10-15 and get the better CPU with no iGPU. 'Boxed cooler makes no difference since I always use an aftermarket cooler regardless'
Personally the last time I've had an iGPU was the one in my i3 4160 and I've never needed it and I would rather pick up a cheapo second hand GPU on the second hand marketplace and then toss it in a box/drawer just in case I ever need it if my main GPU kicks the bucket.
Intel bumped the prices after glowing reviews.
250K is now 219 and 270K is 329.
So -15 actually comes to at 204.
Maybe you never need it but maybe at some point your GPU fails just while you need your rig for work, school, working from home etc. Maybe this even happens during a chip crysis (these things seems to happen frequently these days...
Its always good to have an iGPU and the recent Xe and of course also the ones from team red, have become quite good over the last few generations.
I've been DIY'ing for the past 20 years and i have two working dGPU's. I could have even more, but i got rid of some of my older stuff.
So personally to me the need for an iGPU for emergencies has always seemed redundant.
Las time i even needed to use one of my extra dGPU's was back in the GeForce 8 days with the whole bumpgate scandal and dGPU's dying and brought back to life in ovens.
So in terms of CPU's i hate that pretty much all consumer CPU's now include useless silicon that just sits there just in case it's ever needed.
Instead that space could be utilized for daily tasks like more cache, more cores or dedicated accelerators (not the useless NPU).
Franky i dont understand why with today's powerful CPU's and caches cant the CPU simply emulate an iGPU if needed to display 2D and accelerate video.
I mean it's not like you're playing anything new/demanding on an iGPU anyway with it's few compute units...
Before you say that's impossible - there have been videos of Threadripper running Crysis entirely on the CPU without any GPU.
And of course I have been in the game for a lot longer than 20 years. But I tend to sell my old stuff als long as its worth something.
iGPUs make even more sense when the hardware gets older. An i5 with an iGPU still makes a decent and energy efficinent office maschine for the family or a customer on craigslist,when removing gaming dGPU and 1000W PSU
For such tasks a dGPU is a waste of energy if the iGPU is capable enough for what is requited, also outside of things like the Arc A310 and A380 and the PCIe powered RTX 3050 6GB, you won't find much else thst's modern and low power (PCIe power only) in the dGPU space nowdays.