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In a bid to improve Arrow Lake sales, Intel has significantly discounted its mainstream 20-core Core Ultra 7 265K, which is readily selling at or below $300 at various retailers, including Amazon. That's a massive 25% cut over its original $400 recommended customer price set by Intel at launch. While the slightly more affordable 14-core Core Ultra 5 245K is also selling below its MSRP at $269, the Core Ultra 7 265K is arguably the better buy.

This is likely part of a small promotional sale, which is why we're using the term discount instead of permanent price cuts. Even so, they don't appear to be regional, as reports from ComputerBase indicate similar pricing trends in Germany. Intel's candidate is a great choice for promoting Arrow Lake sales, since the Core Ultra 7 265K wields an impressive 20 (8P+12E) core / 20 thread configuration, rivaling the i7-14700K from the previous generation, while offering better efficiency.

The CPU carries 66MB of total cache (36MB L2 + 30MB L3). Sticking to JEDEC-compliant speeds, Arrow Lake at stock can handle 6400 MT/s DDR5 kits (CUDIMM), going as fast as 8000 MT/s with Intel's warrantied boost profiles. As of writing, the Core Ultra 7 265K (and its KF variant) can be purchased for $294 at Amazon. The model with the integrated GPU is a no-brainer, given that its built-in Xe-LPG (Alchemist) iGPU offers QuickSync functionality with AV1 encoding.

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The elephant in the room is platform cost. The LGA 1851 platform still carries a costly entry point, and Intel hasn't guaranteed support for future CPU generations on this socket. Budget-conscious consumers might find AMD's AM5 a better alternative, which has been promised support until 2027, suggesting possible compatibility with its future Zen 6 CPUs.

While there are whispers of a potential Arrow Lake refresh, it is likely to be similar in scope to the Raptor Lake refresh (14th Generation), so improvements will likely be modest at best. Intel's next major CPU generation, codenamed Nova Lake, is slated for a 2026 launch. Nova Lake might not be a drop-in replacement for the existing LGA1851 platform, as it is rumored to require new motherboards, switching to the LGA1954 socket.

Beyond these drawbacks, let's not forget that Arrow Lake gaming performance still crawls behind AMD's best offerings, possibly due to architectural limitations. If you're on LGA 1700, consider waiting for Intel's P-core-only Bartlett Lake solutions, which are rumored for a Q3 2025 reveal. The aim isn't to dissuade you from this purchase, but to make sure you're fully aware of the limitations these CPUs carry. Arrow Lake is still a design marvel, combining tile-based 3D packaging and a leading 3nm process node from TSMC. However, the execution fell short of expectations.

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