When the rumor mill for Intel's "Arrow Lake Refresh" began, we expected three SKUs: Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, and a flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus. However, we later discovered that Intel is not launching the flagship SKU and will only release the Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 models. Instead, Intel chose to focus on delivering value with its Core Ultra 7 270K Plus SKU, which features 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores with a maximum turbo boost of 5.5 GHz. For individual boosting frequency, P-Cores reach up to 5.4 GHz, with a base speed of 3.7 GHz. E-Cores have a maximum boost frequency of 4.7 GHz and a base speed of 3.2 GHz. The main reason for canceling the flagship SKU is product overlap, as the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus would have the same core configuration as the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, just with slightly higher clock speeds. Consequently, Intel decided not to launch this SKU. It has now been confirmed by Intel Germany for PC Games Hardware that Intel will definitely not introduce this SKU at any point in the future.

Florian Maislinger, Tech Communication Manager, Intel GermanyIntel is excited to deliver exceptional value with our Intel Core Ultra 200S Plus series processors. The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus are positioned to deliver outstanding gaming performance and incredible value compared to our competition. Our objective was to maximize performance for the desktop SKUs that are most widely available. As a result, Intel is not launching a U9 290K Plus SKU.

Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake Refresh" Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processor has made its debut on HP's website, as discovered by @momomo_us. HP has installed this unreleased processor in its HyperX OMEN desktop gaming PC. The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus represents the pinnacle of the "Arrow Lake Refresh" generation, featuring 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, along with 36 MB of shared L3 cache. However, it operates at slightly lower clock speeds than the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K. Recently, a new rumor suggested that Intel might unveil the full specifications of these chips on March 11, with reviews following on March 23. Retail availability of the new generation is expected shortly after.

This is the top SKU that will appear with the "Arrow Lake Refresh," as Intel has reportedly decided not to launch the rumored "Core Ultra 9 290K Plus," which would have been a more powerful version of the 285K with even higher clock speeds. The main reason for canceling this SKU is product overlap. The flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus would have had the same core configuration as the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, just with slightly higher clock speeds. Additionally, Intel already offers a Core Ultra 9 285K SKU from the regular "Arrow Lake" family, which means the company would have three similar SKUs at the top of the stack. By maintaining only two products, Intel can simplify manufacturing and supply chain logistics, allowing more focus on preparing for the next-generation "Nova Lake" launch later this year.

We've known for a while now, that Intel's early-2026 refresh of its Core Ultra series-2 "Arrow Lake" desktop processor lineup could see a refresh with the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, with reviews tentatively going live on March 23. VideoCardz reports that the company could unveil these chips close to two weeks earlier than that, on March 11. This would probably be when the company announces the two chips and reveals some of their specs. Reviews could remain on track for March 23, with retail availability of the chips shortly after. There's no confirmation yet on whether the two chips have "KF" variants lacking integrated graphics, but that's fairly likely.

Both SKUs see increases in CPU core counts and L3 cache sizes compared to current SKUs leading the Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 brand extensions. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is a 6P+12E chip, with a generous 30 MB of shared L3 cache; while the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus maxes out the "Arrow Lake-S" silicon, enabling all 8 P-cores, and all 16 E-cores, with all 36 MB of shared L3 cache available; albeit with slightly lower clock-speeds than the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K. Intel reportedly dropped plans to launch the fabled "Core Ultra 9 290K Plus," which would have been a supercharged variant of the 285K with even higher clock speeds.

Intel's "Arrow Lake Refresh" has not even been released, but the company has already canceled its flagship SKU planned for this refresh cycle, according to a report from VideoCardz. Two sources close to the media note that Intel's flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus might not roll out at all, despite the massive hype and leaked benchmarks indicating that Intel is releasing this CPU SKU as part of the "Arrow Lake Refresh" generation expected to arrive in March or April. Reportedly, Intel will instead focus on delivering value with its Core Ultra 7 270K Plus SKU, which carries 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores and a 5.5 GHz maximum turbo boost. For individual boosting frequency, P-Cores top out at 5.4 GHz, while the base runs at 3.7 GHz. For E-Cores, the boost frequency is set to a maximum of 4.7 GHz, while the base is set at 3.2 GHz.

As for a possible reason why Intel would cancel this SKU, the sources close to VideoCardz note that product overlap is the main issue, as the flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus would have the same core configuration as the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, just with slightly higher clock speeds. Additionally, Intel already maintains a Core Ultra 9 285K SKU from the regular "Arrow Lake" family, meaning that the company would have three similar SKUs at the very top of the stack. This way, it would only have to maintain two products, which would simplify manufacturing and supply chain logistics, allowing Intel to spend more time preparing for the next-generation "Nova Lake" launch later this year.

Intel's next desktop "Arrow Lake Refresh" CPU upgrade is inching closer to reality. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has been spotted in a new Geekbench run, adding to the evidence that the "Arrow Lake Refresh" will indeed offer a meaningful performance improvements over its predecessors. The test system used an ASUS ROG Strix Z890-E Gaming Wi-Fi board with 64 GB of DDR5-6800 memory. The processor achieved scores of 3,535 in the single-core test and 25,106 in the multicore test. Compared to the Core Ultra 9 285K's typical scores of around 3,200 and 22,560, this represents improvements of approximately 10.5% and 11.3%, respectively. These results place the 290K Plus at the top of Intel's consumer CPU rankings in Geekbench's database. An earlier leak on different hardware showed slightly lower results, suggesting that this newer test run benefits from better optimization rather than just faster memory.

The 290K Plus SKU keeps the same 24-core layout as its predecessor with 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores, plus identical power limits of PL1 of 125 W and PL2 of 250 W. The gains come from higher clock speeds. According to rumors, the efficiency cores now boost to 4.8 GHz, up 200 MHz, while the performance cores get an extra 100 MHz on both turbo and thermal velocity boost. The benchmark registered the chip running at 5.7 GHz during testing. Intel has confirmed the ARLR is coming but has stayed quiet on specific models and dates. Leaks suggest a March or April release, and since these chips use the same LGA 1851 socket, they should work as drop-in upgrades for current Z890 motherboards. As with any pre-release numbers, may not reflect final CPU performance, so final performance data and gaming results that come from third-party reviews will show the real-world situation.