Core Ultra 7 270K Plus outperforms Ultra 9 285K in Cinebench R23 after a delid and a hefty 5.8GHz overclock

Overclocking wizard and PC enthusiast Der8auer delidded Intel's latest Core Ultra 7 270K Plus to see how far he could push the CPU. He found his specific sample was capable of achieving 5.8GHz on the P-cores and 5.3GHz on the E-cores after delidding the chip. With this configuration, he was able to achieve a Cinebench R23 score 11% better than stock speed and outperform his own previous R23 runs with a delidded and overclocked Core Ultra 9 285K.

Der8auer showed his overclocking process and how to delid the 270K Plus with special tools. The YouTuber revealed that delidding LGA 1851 CPUs is more difficult compared to AMD Ryzen and previous-generation Intel CPUs. Delidding the CPU the usual way by prying the IHS away from the die could damage the chip.

To remedy this, Der8auer built a heating solution when the Core Ultra 9 285K first came out to address this problem on Arrow Lake-S processors. The heating process involves running the chip up to almost 170C to melt the indium metal connecting the die to the IHS, moving the IHS in one direction, then heating the CPU a second time to remove the IHS. Der8auer successfully used this method to delid his Core Ultra 7 270K Plus.

The YouTuber benchmarked the 270K Plus before and after the delid to showcase the thermal limits of the chip in its stock form using a custom loop. Before the delid, Der8auer was able to overclock the CPU up to 5.7GHz on the P-cores and 5.0GHz on the E-cores with an overvolt on both sets of cores. In Cinebench R23, the chip was approaching its thermal limits with a temperature of 86C on the hottest cores. In this configuration, the chip achieved just over 47,000 points in R23.

Delidding the chip and running the chip under liquid metal with a direct-die block completely solved the CPU's temperature problems. Under load in Cinebench R23, the hottest cores were running just under 65C with most in the mid-50s. This allowed Der8auer to push the chip to 5.8GHz on the P-cores and 5.3GHz on the E-cores and achieved around 49,000 points in R23.

Der8auer revealed that the 270K Plus' 49,000 point score is higher than what he was able to achieve with his Core Ultra 9 285K sample after delidding that chip. Der8auer's 270K Plus represents just one sample, but his analysis could suggest that the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus model in general has higher overclocking headroom than the 285K. Intel is using an entirely different die for the 270K Plus and not recycling dies from the 285K due to the addition of its Binary Optimization Tool to its Arrow Lake refresh models. This could be one explanation for the 270K Plus' potential overclocking improvement over the 285K.