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The Intel Core i9 and Core Ultra 9 are two of the latest laptop processors from the American company. The CPUs are very powerful, but they target different classes of performance. The former boasts great performance but comes at the cost of thermals and battery life. On the contrary, the latter provides speedy performance while maintaining good thermals and battery life.
Gamers are often confused about which between the two is the best CPU for gaming. In this article, we do an in-depth Intel Core i9 vs Core Ultra 9 comparison to determine which is better for gaming.
Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinions.
Intel Core i9 vs Core Ultra 9
The Intel Core i9 14th Gen CPU is based on Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh architecture that brought higher core clock speeds compared to its predecessor. On the other hand, the Intel Core Ultra 9 is designed on a brand-new architecture to deliver the best performance per watt.
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Before we check out the performance of the two CPUs, let's look at their specs.
Specs comparison
The Intel Core i9 has a significantly higher core and thread count compared to the Intel Core Ultra 9. The former also has a significantly higher clock speed and more L3 cache, which should boost the gaming performance of its processor.
Performance comparison
Let's now look at the two CPUs' actual performance data. Here's how they compare in popular benchmarks, such as Geekbench and Cinebench:
As you can see, the 14th Gen Intel Core i9 scored 20.5% higher in single-core performance than the Core Ultra 9 on average. The former also scored 57.5% better than the latter in multi-core tests on average.
The single-core score and higher clock speed have a lot of impact on gaming. Since the Intel Core i9 is better at both, it will be faster for gaming.
A lot of laptops are available with Core i9 and Nvidia RTX graphics cards, but the same can't be said for the Core Ultra 9. Only a select few laptops with the Core Ultra 9 are available on the market, so doing an apples-to-apples game comparison between the CPUs is impossible as of writing.
Final verdict of Intel Core i9 vs Core Ultra 9
The Intel Core i9 is the best CPU for gaming. It scored way higher than the Core Ultra 9 in both single-core and multi-core benchmarks.
On top of that, laptops with Intel Core i9 and dedicated Nvidia RTX gaming GPUs are readily available, but the same cannot be said for the Core Ultra 9.
