AMD could answer the Intel Core Ultra 200K Plus with faster Ryzen refresh

[Daniel Sims]

Rumor mill: Mere days after Intel unveiled a pair of refreshed CPUs clearly positioned opposite two of AMD's mid-range options, rumors indicate that Team Red plans to refresh those very processors. If the information is accurate, the new offerings aim to counter Intel by boosting clock speeds by a few hundred MHz and nearly doubling the TDP.

A well-known leaker recently shared basic specifications for two unannounced AMD desktop processors. The tentatively named Ryzen 7 9750X and Ryzen 5 9650X appear to be refreshes designed in response to Intel's recently unveiled Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus.

With 24 cores, 24 threads, a 125W TDP, a base clock of 3.4GHz, a boost clock of 5.5GHz, and a $300 MSRP, the Core Ultra 7 270K is an obvious counter to AMD's Ryzen 7 9700X. Specifications suggest the new Intel chip might excel where Team Red's current offering struggles, possibly doubling its multithreaded performance.

– chi11eddog (@g01d3nm4ng0) March 18, 2026

Meanwhile, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus's 18 cores, 3.7GHz base clock, 30MB of Smart Cache, and $200 price appear aimed at the Ryzen 5 9600X. Intel claims that the 250K Plus's efficiency cores propel multicore performance to 103% of AMD's chip.

In response, AMD appears to have slightly increased its clock speeds, bringing the 9750X up to a 4.2GHz base with a 5.6GHz boost clock, while the 9650X features a 4.3GHz base clock and a 5.5GHz boost clock. While the two processors retain their predecessors' core counts and L3 cache, their TDP envelopes have nearly doubled from 65W to 120W, nearly matching the Intel CPU's 125W rating.

Intel's recently introduced Arrow Lake Refresh lineup also includes two new Core Ultra 200HX Plus CPUs for use in high-end laptops. The Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus and the new flagship Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus promise improvements to single-threaded and gaming performance. Furthermore, they introduce the company's Binary Optimization Tool, a translation layer optimization feature designed to enhance performance even further. Several leading laptop manufacturers have already announced new models featuring the CPUs.

While AMD's Ryzen processors have dominated high-end desktop CPU sales for years, slowly chipping away at Intel's market share, Core Ultra 200 is an early step in Chipzilla's comeback bid. The Nova Lake series, set to launch later this year, aims to answer Ryzen's 3D V-Cache technology, potentially setting up a clash of flagship CPUs with monstrous L3 cache pools. Meanwhile, AMD Zen 6, also expected to arrive in late 2026, could push core counts higher than ever.

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AMD could answer the Intel Core Ultra 200K Plus with faster Ryzen refresh

 

[havok585]

"the new offerings aim to counter Intel by boosting clock speeds by a few hundred MHz and nearly doubling the TDP. "

the TDP is just a ceiling, it's not doubled. 65w variants before were hitting 100+ on new bios updates.

 

[Kashim]

"the new offerings aim to counter Intel by boosting clock speeds by a few hundred MHz and nearly doubling the TDP."

This wording is very misleading. It makes it sound like the new AMD chip will use twice as much power compared to Intel's chip.

"their TDP envelopes have nearly doubled from 65W to 120W, nearly matching the Intel CPU's 125W rating."

This line further down the article reveals the truth. Even after "nearly" doubling the AMD chips TDP it's still 5W lower than Intel's TDP.

 

[maxxcool7421]

""the new offerings aim to counter Intel by boosting clock speeds by a few hundred MHz and nearly doubling the TDP. "" sounds like a intel-extreme edition clone...

AMD should just keep focusing on IPC and keeping thermals lower. The money will flow in .... Increasing heat by 80% for less than 10% gains is a BAD move.

 

[Endymio]

This wording is very misleading. It makes it sound like the new AMD chip will use twice as much power compared to Intel's chip.

Not for anyone who speaks English. The language was quite clear: the TDP is double vis a vis the current chip, not Intel's offerings.

Nor is it clear the new chip will "use less power" than Intel's offerings, given how differently each defines TDP. AMD generally wins handily on power efficiency, but if this doubling is accompanied by a similar decrease in that efficiency, this will no longer be true.

 

[daffy duck]

Some truly weak sauce from AMD that literally has nothing to offer until Zen 6. I'll stick to undervolting/PBO/curve optomiser and locked TDP/EDC etc.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Who cares about a marginal refresh with the current component pricing?

I might pay the premium for a good generational leap plus a node shrink, but +200mhz isn’t going to do it.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

Its simple. Its a refresh.
TSMC bakes those chips long enough to be good at doing that. In result there are more chips capable of higher clock.
So AMD decided to mark them with new model number and sell the slower ones cheaper.

Owner may set TPD to values 45W, 65W, 95W, 105W, 120W or any other number in that range if MB allows that.
And it does not mean CPU will take 162W.
8 core version may or may not go there. 6 core version wont.

PS: I am not going to buy one. With +50% in MT the upgrade would not be significant enough.

 

[Rapob]

Luckily my 9800X3D performed like a 9850X3D since november 2024... Or actually even better.

Refreshes are only coming because headroom is present and Zen 6 is delayed like Nova Lake. Zen 6 and Nova Lake both rumoured for paper launch in Q4 2026 or Q1 2027

We won't see any next gen stuff before 2027 and the RAM crisis also means that many won't really care when they actually launch