The Intel Bartlett Lake flagship CPU may have additional P cores, but they do not bring any noticeable improvements in gaming.
PC Games Hardware Demonstrate Core 9 273PQE 12-P-Core CPU's Capabilities in Games Against 8+16 Core i9 13900K; CPUs Tie in Most Gaming Benchmarks
Perhaps the reason for not releasing any 10 or 12-P-Core only CPU is the lackluster performance uplift the Intel Bartlett Lake P-core-only CPUs bring to the table when compared against Intel's 8-P-core CPUs from the consumer-segment Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh families. We were all hyped up to see someone booting up his system with a mainstream Z790 motherboard using the Core 9 273PQE, but it appears that the CPU doesn't have any advantages over CPUs with fewer Performance cores.
The awaited results are out, and we can see why the Bartlett Lake isn't the best CPU lineup for consumers, at least when compared against the Raptor Lake chips. As benchmarked by PC Games Hardware, even the flagship Bartlett Lake CPU fails to deliver any noticeable performance boost over its flagship Raptor Lake variant, except in a few games. Even though the core configuration and arrangement are completely different, the performance gap confirms that the i9 13900K is still a better choice.
The test setup compares several CPUs in over a dozen games, and PC Games Hardware tried to come as close as possible to the Raptor Lake platform when it comes to the operating TDP, memory configuration, etc. The tests were conducted using the GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, and with Core 9 273PQE pushed to nearly 5.30 GHz, but from the official specs, we know that the CPU can boost up to 5.9 GHz. Nonetheless, it's not easy to reach the max turbo clock in gaming, but we can see that the Core i9 13900K was closer to the max turbo than the 273PQE.
In around 15 games, the flagship Barlett Lake chip, i.e., the Core 9 273PQE, couldn't beat the Core i9 13900K despite having four more Performance cores. The i9 13900K does have over a dozen Efficient cores that help in various scenarios, but gaming isn't the one where efficient cores come very handy. Here we are seeing 12 Performance cores going against 8 Performance cores in multiple games, proving that the Core 9 273PQE is no better than the Core i9 13900K in gaming.
Of course, one should keep various factors in mind, including the platform (motherboard), the clocks, and the BIOS versions, as the Core i9 273PQE isn't as optimized for gaming as the i9 13900K. Nonetheless, the gaming benchmarks do confirm that gaming workloads don't require more than 8 performance cores for optimal performance. This is probably why Intel thought the Bartlett Lake would make a good stack for the embedded usage, while it kept the Raptor Lake/Refresh open for the consumer segment.
News Source: PC Games Hardware
About the author: Sarfraz Khan is a hardware reporter with a focus on PC components and the builder community. With years of experience writing about PC hardware and laptops, his work has been featured on several reputable technology publications. Sarfraz's hands-on experience is demonstrated through his first-person accounts of using and comparing different hardware configurations, providing practical and relatable insights for everyday users. His technical analysis is respected by peers in the enthusiast community and has been cited by specialized hardware sites such as Germany's Igor's Lab.
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