Core Ultra 5 235 performance is comparable to the Core i5-14500 in early benchmark — Non-K Arrow Lake chip surfaces with 14 cores and 5 GHz boost clock

Raptor Lake CPU
Raptor Lake CPU (Image credit: Intel)

Intel's upcoming Core Ultra 5 235 Arrow Lake CPU was benchmarked in Geekbench 6. Discovered by Benchleaks on X, the Ultra 5 SKU pumped out multi-core and single-core results somewhat similar to those of its Core i5-14500 and Core i5-14600 counterparts.

The Core Ultra 5 235 yielded a single-core benchmark of 2,634 points and a multi-core benchmark of 13,293. These results were barely any better (if at all) than Intel's outgoing 14th Generation Core i5 counterparts, the Core i5-14500 and Core i5-14600. According to the Geekbench database, the Core i5-14600 scored 2,545 points and 13,288 points in Geekbech 6's single and multi-core benchmarks, respectively. The Core i5-14600 featured 2,600 points and 13,765 points in the same benchmarks.

This makes the Arrow Lake 235 successor a mere 1% faster than the Core i5-14600 and 3% faster than the Core i5-14500 in the single-core department. In multi-core performance, the Arrow Lake CPU loses out, with the Core i5-14600 being 4% faster and the Core i5-14500 virtually equaling the 235's score.

The only previous-generation Core i5 that the Core Ultra 5 235 manages to beat by any noticeable margin is the Core i5-14400. The Arrow Lake chip is 10% faster in single-core and 18% in multi-core than the vanilla Core i5-14400 variant.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
CPUsSIngle-CoreMulti-Core
Core Ultra 5 2352,63413,293
Core i5-146002,60013,765
Core i5-145002,54513,288
Core i5-144002,39511,288

These results aren't fantastic, but as with all of these Geekench results, take them with a grain of salt. Geekbench is just one benchmark and won't reveal the CPU's real-world performance. The Core Ultra 5 235 could also be an engineering or pre-production sample.

Another aspect worth mentioning is the unknown power levels and cooling at which all these chips were benchmarked. This is arguably the most significant factor since varying power limits (or TDPs) can drastically change CPU performance, even on desktops.

The Core Ultra 5 235 shares the same six P-core and eight E-core configurations as its Raptor Lake processors. However, the Lion Cove P-cores coming in Arrow Lake are an entirely new design from the Raptor/Golden Cove cores used in previous Intel hybrid architectures, with noteworthy IPC improvements as well. Theoretically, the Core Ultra 5 235 should perform better than its predecessors.

Arrow Lake K-series processors are rumored to launch on October 24. However, non-K parts, such as the Core Ultra 5 235, will arrive later, so we may have to wait a bit longer to grasp what the Core Ultra 5 235 can do.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • thestryker
    It doesn't seem too bad for pre-release OEM testing. With 16GB DRAM it wouldn't be performing as well as with 32GB (if dual channel is even being used in the test) and it's also likely 4800 DRAM.

    Another thing of note is that this at least confirms the base P-core clock being 3.4Ghz. This is notable since the 14400/14500/14600 are 2.5/2.6/2.7 so it is minimum 26% higher base clock speed.
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