Core Ultra 7 270K the CPU for Engineer Software
Remarkable CPU from Intel: the 270K plus has remarkable performance and a the best price-performance ratio at the moment. This CPU is excellent for: AutoCAD, Solidworks, Revit, Inventor, Pix4D and more.
A remarkable CPU release from Intel. The new Core Ultra 7 270K processor performs even better than the Core Ultra 285K, the big brother in this CPU family, and (almost) as well as the former leader: the AMD 9850X3D. Even more remarkable is that the Core Ultra 7 270K is priced lower than both of the aforementioned CPUs, at around $250. An excellent CPU for engineering workstations, then: AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, Enscape, SolidWorks, Twinmotion, KeyShot and Lumion – in other words, single-core performance software.
| CPU Model | Price | L3 Cache | L2 Cache | P-Cores | E-Cores | Threads | Maximum Boost Clock | E-Core Boost Clock | Default PPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D | 700 | 128 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 5.70 | 200 | ||
| AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D | 600 | 128 | 12 | 12 | 24 | 5.70 | 162 | ||
| Intel Core Ultra 9 285K | 580 | 36 | 40 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 5.70 | 4.60 | 250 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X | 550 | 64 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 5.70 | 200 | ||
| AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D | 500 | 96 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 5.60 | 162 | ||
| AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 480 | 96 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 5.20 | 162 | ||
| AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | 440 | 64 | 12 | 12 | 24 | 5.60 | 162 | ||
| AMD Ryzen 7 9700X | 340 | 32 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 5.50 | 88 | ||
| Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus | 300 | 36 | 40 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 5.50 | 4.70 | 250 |
| Intel Core Ultra 7 265K | 290 | 30 | 36 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 5.50 | 4.60 | 250 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 9600X | 220 | 32 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 5.40 | 88 | ||
| Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus | 200 | 30 | 30 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 5.30 | 4.70 | 159 |
| Intel Core Ultra 5 245K | 200 | 24 | 26 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 5.30 | 4.60 | 159 |
A large number of important software packages are still focused on the single-core performance of CPUs. Intel has always capitalised on this, knowing full well that the single-core king CPU is in high demand in the professional workstation world. Only AMD has also understood this very well, and both the 9950X and, in particular, the 9850X3D are exceptionally good processors in this regard, albeit with a price tag that is $250 higher. We think we can easily predict which CPU will win this race.
Performance in figures:
Inventor average:
- 270K Plus: 3096
- 9950X3D: 2996
- 9850X3D: 2923
SolidWorks rebuild
- 270K Plus: 3.18
- 98050X3D: 3.18
- 9950X3D: 3.15
Creating a Revit model (lower is better):
- 9850X3D: 57.0
- 270K plus: 58.1
- 9950X3D: 59.3
So what we see is that the Intel 270K Plus performs excellently and has by far the best price-performance ratio. The 270K plus is the new king, particularly for CAD packages. That is not to say that the AMD X3D CPUs are useless; there are workloads that benefit from more CPU cores, and with AMD you do have the better CPU with 16 cores, whereas with Intel, 8 cores plus the E-cores is clearly less. All in all: after all the price increases of recent years, we are very pleased with a very good CPU that comes with a particularly attractive price tag.
Key specifications and architecture
Core/thread configuration: 8 performance cores + 16 efficiency cores (total 24 threads). L3 cache: 36 MB (270K) / 36 MB (270K Plus, likely with minor optimisations). E-Core Boost clock speed: up to 4.7 GHz (a significant upgrade compared to previous Intel CPUs). TDP and energy efficiency: 250 W standard PPT (the same as the Core Ultra 9 285K), but with better efficiency thanks to Intel’s energy-efficient E-cores. Ideal for workstations where power consumption is a concern.