Intel’s Bartlett Lake processors have long attracted interest from users who wanted a CPU lineup built only with performance cores. However, recent testing suggests the flagship Core 9 273PQE may not have delivered the kind of performance many enthusiasts expected. German publication PC Games Hardware tested the Core 9 273PQE and found that the chip could not outperform the older Core i9 13900K in several key areas, despite arriving years later and using more P cores.

German publication PC Games Hardware tested the Core 9 273PQE and found that the chip could not outperform the older Core i9 13900K in several key areas, despite arriving years later and using more P cores.

Bartlett Lake is Intel’s answer to users who want chips without efficiency cores. In simple terms, it is based on Raptor Lake but removes the E cores.

The Core 9 273PQE comes with 12 Raptor Cove P cores and 24 threads. That gives it 50 percent more P cores than the Core i9 13900K and Core i9 14900K, both of which use 8 P cores alongside 16 E cores.

The chip has a 3.4GHz base clock and a 5.9GHz boost clock. It also includes 36MB of L3 cache, a 125W base power rating, and a 253W maximum turbo power rating. It supports DDR4 3200 and DDR5 5600 memory.

Intel released Bartlett Lake years after the arrival of 13th-generation Raptor Lake processors, and after the 14th-generation Raptor Lake refresh.

However, Intel limited the new series to OEMs and embedded applications. That means mainstream consumers cannot buy the lineup through normal retail channels.

Bartlett Lake still uses the LGA1700 platform, and some users have already used mods to run the chips on regular Intel 700 series motherboards.

PC Games Hardware tested the Core 9 273PQE on an ASRock IMB X1714 motherboard with the W680 chipset. The publication used DDR5 5600 C46 memory with the processor.

The motherboard is designed for Bartlett Lake and uses a chipset intended for the platform. This differs from unofficial mods that allow Bartlett Lake chips to run on consumer chipsets.

For a fair comparison, PCGH also tested the Core i9 13900K on the same ASRock IMB X1714 board with DDR5 5600 C46 memory. The outlet normally tests LGA1700 chips with faster DDR5 6000 C28 memory.

In PCGH’s gaming performance index, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 led the chart at 100 percent.

The Core i9 14900KS scored 80.1 percent, while the Core i9 13900K scored 78.3 percent with faster memory. The Ryzen 7 9700X reached 72.6 percent, while the Core 9 273PQE scored 72.2 percent.

That placed Intel’s 12 P core Bartlett Lake chip close to the Ryzen 7 9700X and Core i5 14600K, which scored 71.7 percent.

With DDR5 5600 C46 memory, the Core 9 273PQE was only slightly ahead of the Core i9 13900K tested on the W680 platform. However, when the Core i9 13900K used faster DDR5 6000 C28 memory, it beat the Core 9 273PQE by up to 8.5 percent.

The results show how much memory performance can affect gaming. Moving the Core i9 13900K from DDR5 5600 C46 to DDR5 6000 C28 improved its gaming performance index by 9.66 percent.

The Core 9 273PQE performed better in applications than the Core i5 14600K and Ryzen 7 9700X.

It beat the Core i5 14600K by 2.61 percent and the Ryzen 7 9700X by 8.06 percent in PCGH’s application performance index.

However, the gap was much larger against Intel’s older, higher-end chips. The Core i9 13900K was up to 42.73 percent faster, while the Core i9 13900K on the W680 setup was up to 23.09 percent faster.

The Core 9 273PQE may not have shown its full potential due to several limitations around the platform.

Because Intel restricted Bartlett Lake to commercial clients, users have little room for tuning or pairing the chip with faster memory. PCGH’s results show that faster memory can noticeably improve gaming performance.

The chip may also suffer from limited optimization for mainstream applications. In gaming, the extra P cores may not provide much benefit because many games do not scale well beyond eight cores.

The Core 9 273PQE shows that a P-core-only design does not automatically guarantee better gaming performance.

Bartlett Lake may be useful for its intended OEM and embedded markets, but PCGH’s tests suggest mainstream users did not miss a major gaming CPU by not getting retail access.

Attention now shifts to Intel’s upcoming Core Ultra 400S processors, codenamed Nova Lake, which are expected to launch later this year.

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