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TL;DR: Should you use Intel Core Ultra 200S Processors for Video Editing?
The new Intel Core 200S processors are a fine product, but the focus of this generation is more on reducing power consumption rather than increasing performance. We would recommend using them over older Intel Core processors (unless you find a particularly good deal), but you shouldn’t expect large performance gains in most cases unless you are upgrading from an older system that is at least two, if not three, years old. For those systems, the performance advantage can be as low as 1.2x, or as high as 1.5x (or more) depending on your workflow and the hardware you are upgrading from.
Introduction
In the world of technology (and in particular, computer hardware), there is always something new that has either just been released or is coming in the near future. This can be tough to keep up with for those who do not have a professional or personal interest in computers. One of our goals here at Puget Systems is to distill all the advancements in computer technology to clearly answer the question of what these new products may mean for various industries. This is often more complicated than it may seem on the surface, and we highly recommend speaking with one of our consultants if you are in the market for a new computer to drill down into your unique workflows. But in this article, we want to talk about Intel’s latest Core processors and how they may or may not be useful for video editing.
Intel Core as a brand has been around for 18 years, and they recently launched their latest product line, officially named Intel Core Ultra Desktop Processors (“Series 2”), but they are also known as Intel Core Ultra 200S, Intel Core Ultra Series 2, or the pre-launch code name “Arrow Lake”. These processors use Intel’s new naming conventions, moving away from the popular Core i3/i5/i7/i9 designations. While there are many models already released, and more likely to come in the future, the primary CPU models that will matter to most video editors are:
- Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 24 Core
- Intel Core Ultra 7 265K 20 Core
- Intel Core Ultra 5 245K 14 Core
There are also “KF” versions of the 265K and 245K, although those models lack an iGPU (integrated GPU), which can be very important for video editing workflows as it allows you to utilize Intel Quick Sync for hardware decoding/encoding of interframe codecs like H.264 and HEVC.
These new processors have several improvements over the previous generation, as well as some specialty features like the addition of an NPU (Neural Processing Unit). If you want a full breakdown of what is new with these CPUs, as well as a detailed performance analysis for a range of applications (including Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and After Effects), we have an in-depth technical article available: Intel Core Ultra 200S Content Creation Review.
However, in this post, we want to keep it high level and answer how much performance these new processors may give you if you are considering upgrading from a fairly recent system (~1 year old), a moderately old system (~2 years old), or an older system (3+ years). Since we are talking about this from the perspective of multiple applications and workflows, there is a LOT of text in this article. We have it divided up, however, and we recommend jumping right to the section that covers your primary application and the age of your current system.
Premiere Pro
DaVinci Resolve
A Note on Performance
Throughout this post, we will be referencing how much faster a new system with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K should be compared to various processors going back to those that were available in 2020. However, there are many nuances to real-world performance. Not only does the specific CPU you are upgrading to and from alter what kind of performance you can expect, but other hardware in the system (such as GPU, RAM, and storage) can also impact performance to varying degrees depending on the application and worflow, not to mention BIOS settings, power profiles, and other system settings.
To give a general idea of performance, we will primarily use the “Overall Score” from our benchmarks, which is calculated from a wide range of tasks and workflows. To get these results, we compiled the average results for the top Intel, AMD, and Apple processors in the public database for our Premiere Pro and After Effects benchmarks and calculated how much faster a system with a Core Ultra 285K would be. As mentioned earlier, this does not factor in the other hardware in the system, and because of this, should only be considered a general guideline for the expected performance difference. In addition, our benchmarks often have multiple presets that can be run, and to get a good number of results to pull from, we needed to limit it to the “Standard” preset for Premiere Pro in particular. That benchmark also has a more in-depth “Extended” preset that would be better for us to use for this kind of estimation, but not many end users run that preset, causing there to be fewer results in our database.
In addition, there are often nuances to be found if you were to dive deeper into the results like we do in our more technical deep-dive article. For example, the relative performance between different CPUs can be vastly different if your workflow involves working with specific codecs such as RAW, or if you regularly use the newer AI-based features in DaVinci Resolve.
If you are interested in exactly how much faster a new system would be with one of these new Intel Core Ultra 200S processors, we highly recommend running the free benchmarks in our PugetBench for Creators suite and comparing the results directly to those in our Intel Core Ultra 200S Content Creation Review. That will tell you exactly how much faster a new system would be, and you can even compare the results for individual tests based on what is closest to your workflow.
Intel Core Ultra 200S for Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a very complex application, especially when considering the breadth of codecs, resolutions, bitrates, and framerates of media you might work with. Intel Core processors have a bit of an advantage over other CPUs on the market (namely AMD Ryzen, AMD Threadripper, and Intel Xeon) in many workflows due to a technology called Quick Sync, which can be used to decode specific flavors of H.264 and HEVC. We have a full breakdown of what codecs are supported in our What H.264 and H.265 Hardware Decoding is Supported in Premiere Pro? article, but in general, Intel is slightly faster than using your discrete GPU, and is currently the only way to get hardware decoding support in Premiere Pro for HEVC 4:2:2 10-bit.
However, there are a number of workflows, such as working with RAW footage, where there may be an advantage to using an AMD Ryzen, or even the more expensive Threadripper/Threadripper PRO, processor over Intel, so this advantage will not hold true for all users.
With that explained, we can break down what you might expect if you are considering upgrading a recently purchased system, one that is about 2 years old, or one that is 3+ years old.
Recently Purchased System (Late 2023-2024)
If you recently purchased a system within the last year, you likely have either an Intel Core 14th Gen, AMD Ryzen 9000, or an Apple M3 processor. Depending on when exactly you purchased the system, specific deals with previous generation hardware, or a host of other factors, you may have an older generation processor, in which case we recommend you jump down to the next sub-section which includes slightly older comparisons.
For Intel Core 14th Gen or AMD Ryzen 9000 processors, however, there is not much additional performance to be found with the new Intel Core Ultra 200S processors. This new generation is not as much about performance (although there are gains to be had in some applications and workflows), but rather a reduction in the overall power usage. Even if you don’t care about the monetary cost savings of using less power, lower power draw also translates to lower heat output and fan noise. It likely won’t be a massive difference for most users, but lower power draw is never a bad thing.
However, the difference is small enough that if you already have a PC with a current-generation AMD Ryzen 9000 or a previous-generation Intel Core 14th processor, it probably isn’t worth the trouble (and cost) to upgrade. Even if you originally purchased a lower-end CPU like an Intel Core i3 or i5, it would be better to upgrade just the processor to an Intel Core i9 14900K since upgrading to the newer Core Ultra processors would require, at minimum, a new motherboard.
If you have an Apple Mac, however, there can be significant performance gains to be had by migrating from Mac to a PC with an Intel Core Ultra 200S processor. Be aware, though, that this is an area where the exact performance gain depends heavily on what you are doing. While the overall score reported by our benchmark shows a 1.5x increase in performance going from an M3 Max to a Core Ultra 285K, an M3 Mac will be faster for some workflows (ProRes in particular), while a PC would be faster for things like processing RAW codecs and GPU-accelerated effects.
2 Year Old System (Late 2022 – Mid 2023)
Once again, we want to point out that the above charts should be used as a rough estimate only. This is using the “Overall Score (Standard)” result from our Premiere Pro benchmark, and there are often nuances to be found if you were to dive deeper into the individual results recorded by our benchmark.
However, if you have a system that is about two years old, upgrading to a new Intel Core Ultra 200S processor can have some very tangible benefits. If you have an AMD Ryzen 7000 processor, the difference is still relatively minimal (about 10% overall), but if you have an Intel Core 13th Gen processor, you could see almost a 30% increase in performance.
Depending on exactly what your current hardware is, this could either be not worth an investment, or well worth the investment. In addition, if you are a Mac user, the performance gain can be much larger. Compared to an Apple M1 Ultra, the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K scores almost exactly 2x faster. Depending on what you are doing, you may not see that large of a performance gain, but our benchmark tests a range of LongGOP, Intraframe, and RAW codecs, in addition to GPU-accelerated effects, which is combined into the Overall Score shown above.
3+ Year Old System (Late 2021 and older)
Going even further back to systems that are 3 or more years old, the performance gains can be quite significant. If your current system uses an Intel Core 12th Gen processor, you can expect about a 40% performance gain, and if it is an even older 10th Gen processor, a new Core Ultra 285K can be roughly 1.9x faster.
If your system is using an AMD Ryzen 5000 processor, you are looking at about a 1.6x performance improvement. And for a first-generation Apple Silicon M1 Max, a Core Ultra 285K should be about 2.7x faster overall in Premiere Pro.
For most users, this is the age where purchasing a new workstation (or completely overhauling your existing system to support an Intel Core Ultra 200S processor) is well worth the investment. Not only will the higher performance make it vastly more pleasant to get your work done, but it also allows you to work with higher resolution or higher framerate projects, potentially be able to skip using proxies, and possibly even win more jobs if you can offer a faster turn-around time than your competition.
Intel Core Ultra 200S for Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve
For general editing, DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro are similar. Both are CPU-bound for intraframe codecs like ProRes and DNx, utilize GPU acceleration when working with most RAW codecs, and benefit from hardware decoding/encoding support when processing LongGOP media like H.264 and HEVC. Unlike Premiere Pro, however, various features in Resolve can take advantage of a powerful GPU and even multiple GPUs working in tandem.
As we mentioned in the previous section, Intel Core processors have a bit of an advantage over other CPUs on the market (namely AMD Ryzen, AMD Threadripper, and Intel Xeon) due to a technology called Quick Sync, which can be used to decode specific flavors of H.264 and HEVC. We have a full breakdown of what codecs are supported in DaVinci Resolve in our What H.264 and H.265 Hardware Decoding is Supported in DaVinci Resolve? article. On the other hand, AMD processors tend to be better for some other codecs, like RAW, so it is not always a win for Intel, depending on the codecs you work with.
Unlike the previous section, we are not going to give you too much in the way of exact performance compared to previous generations of processors. Performance in DaVinci Resolve is often highly dependent not only on your processor but your GPU as well. Because of that, there are simply too many variables to give even rough numbers for how an older system might compare to a modern one with an Intel Core Ultra 200S processor. As we mentioned in the “A Note on Performance” section, the best thing you can do if you need exact performance numbers is to run our benchmark (which is free for non-commercial use) to see exactly how much faster a new system might be.
With that explained, we can still break down what you might expect if you are considering upgrading a recently purchased system, one that is about 2 years old, or one that is 3+ years old.
Recently Purchased System (Late 2023-2024)
If you recently purchased a system within the last year, you likely have either an Intel Core 14th Gen, AMD Ryzen 9000, or an Apple M3 processor. For systems with an Intel Core 14th Gen or AMD Ryzen 900 processor, there is not much additional performance to be found with the new Intel Core Ultra 200S processors. In fact, a top-end AMD Ryzen 9950X processor can be faster than the new Core Ultra 200S processors in some workflows, especially when working with RAW media. The lower power draw (and thus lower heat output and fan noise) can still be a reason to use Core Ultra 200S if you are already in the market for a new system, but it likely is not worth an upgrade if your system is only a year old.
Compared to a modern Apple M3 (or M2 Ultra), a Core Ultra 200S processor will almost always be faster in DaVinci Resolve, but a lot of that is not actually due to the processor itself, but the fact that on PC we have access to NVIDIA GPUs. NVIDIA works extremely well with the GPU-accelerated portions of Resolve, giving a big boost (up to 2-3x!) over even the fastest Mac in workflows like RAW processing, GPU-accelerated effects, and the new AI-based features. If you want more details on that, we recommend checking out our Mav vs PC for Content Creation (2024) article.
If you want to learn more about Mac vs PC for DaVinci Resolve (and a range of other applications), we have a Mac vs PC for Content Creation (2024) article that goes into it in detail. This was before the Core Ultra desktop processors launched, but since the Core Ultra 285K performs about on par with the previous generation Intel Core i9 14900K, it is still a very accurate and useful post.
2 Year Old System (Late 2022 – Mid 2023)
Since DaVinci Resolve heavily uses the GPU for many tasks, the performance advantage of a new system will depend somewhat on whether or not you have upgraded your GPU (which is a fairly common and relatively easy upgrade in most cases). In many cases, it might be more advantageous to look into a GPU upgrade rather than upgrading your processor from an Intel Core 13th Gen or AMD Ryzen 7000 processor for Resolve.
There can be marginal gains to be had, but in general, you are looking at at most a 15% increase in performance with a new Intel Core Ultra-based workstation on the CPU side of things. The difference can be much larger if you have an older or less powerful GPU as well, however, so this age of a system is a bit of a gray area where the exact specs of the system you are upgrading from and to will have a major impact on what kind of performance gain you can expect.
3+ Year Old System (Late 2021 and older)
Going even further back to systems that are 3 or more years old, this is where the answer to the question of whether an upgrade is worth it is an easy “yes”. Performance for CPU-based tasks (working with ProRes/DNx footage, for example) will not only be faster by anywhere from 20-50%, but this old of a system also likely has a dated GPU that can’t keep up with modern cards.
For example, in our recent DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.6—Consumer GPU Performance Analysis post, we looked at GPU performance in DaVinci Resolve with a range of cards going all the way back to some that were released in 2017. Like everything we are talking about today, the exact performance difference varies based on a range of factors, but in most cases, the GPU in a system from 3+ years ago is going to be significantly slower than what would be in a new system with an Intel Core Ultra desktop processor.
Intel Core Ultra 200S for Adobe After Effects
While After Effects is not typically used directly for video editing (at least, not for long-form content), it is an important application for motion graphics and VFX, so we wanted to include it in this article. It is also unique from the other applications we have discussed so far in that for most workflows, it is primarily a CPU-driven application. This is changing with the launch of the recent “Advanced 3D” renderer, however, which, in a complete 1080 to the rest of After Effects, is almost entirely GPU-bottlenecked. At the moment, most are using After Effects for 2D-based motion graphics, although that does seem to be shifting as Adobe adds more and more 3D tools to After Effects.
Interestingly, unlike Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, the new Intel Core Ultra 200S processors do have a decent performance advantage over previous Intel Core CPUs and AMD’s Ryzen 9000 processors, meaning that there could be an advantage to upgrading even if you have a fairly modern system.
Recently Purchased System (Late 2023-2024)
Even if you have a very recent system (with an Intel Core 14th Gen or AMD Ryzen 9000 CPU), the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K can give you a decent boost to performance. It may not be enough for all users to justify the investment, but it scored about 10% higher than the top-end AMD Ryzen 9950X, or 14% faster than the previous-generation Intel Core i9 14900K.
Compared to the Apple M3 Max, the performance in our current benchmark should be very similar. As we mentioned earlier, however, Adobe is pushing 3D workflows using the new “Advanced 3D” renderer, and for that, Apple is currently far behind in performance. That is not reflected in our current benchmark, but preliminary testing we have done shows as much as a 3x (or more) performance gain by using a PC over Mac. Similarly to DaVinci Resolve, that is mostly due to the NVIDIA GPUs we typically recommend for content creation workflows more than the performance of the Intel Core Ultra desktop (or any other Intel/AMD) processor.
2 Year Old System (Late 2022 – Mid 2023)
Once again, we want to point out that the above charts should be used as a rough estimate only. This is using the “Overall Score” result from our current After Effects benchmark, and there are often nuances to be found if you were to dive deeper into the individual results recorded by our benchmark.
However, if you have a system that is about two years old, upgrading to a new Intel Core Ultra 200S processor should have some terrific performance benefits for After Effects. If you have an Intel Core 13th Gen or AMD Ryzen 7000 processor, a new Intel Core Ultra desktop processor should be about 25% faster. That is a substantial increase in performance, but there may be an even larger advantage depending on the specific CPU you currently have.
If you happen to have a CPU that only supports DDR4, then a newer CPU like the Core Ultra with support for DDR5 can also net you more total system RAM. For platforms of this caliber, a system with DDR4 RAM typically maxes out at 128GB of RAM (using 4x 32GB sticks). However, with newer DDR5 technology, we can now install up to 192GB of RAM by using 4x 48GB sticks. In After Effects, RAM is often king since it allows you to store more frames in RAM Preview, and frames you have cached are vastly superior in terms of performance than having to re-render them. So, even if the 25% performance gain alone isn’t enough to warrant an upgrade, modern RAM capacities may tip you over the edge.
Compared to a Mac that is about 2 years old (M1 Ultra in this case), you are also looking at a decent performance increase of about 35%. As we mentioned in the last section, that is only for the 2D-based workflows our current benchmark is testing. If you plan to do any 3D-based work with the Advanced 3D render, switching over to PC should net you a massive performance boost – in this case, it may be as much as 5x or more!
3+ Year Old System (Late 2021 and older)
Going even further back to systems that are 3 or more years old, the performance gains can be extreme for After Effects. If your current system uses an Intel Core 12th Gen processor, you can expect nearly a 1.4x performance gain, and if it is an even older 10th Gen processor, a new Core Ultra 285K can be just shy of 2x faster.
If your system is using an AMD Ryzen 5000 processor, you are looking at about a 1.6x performance improvement. And for a first-generation Apple Silicon M1 Max, a Core Ultra 285K should be about 1.5x faster overall in After Effects. Once again, we will mention that Macs are far behind in the newer 3D workflows.
For most users, this is the age of systems where purchasing a new workstation is clearly worth the investment. Being able to render and preview comps 1.5-2x faster is a massive boost to any workflow. Not only is it vastly more pleasant to work with, but it also allows you to work with higher-resolution projects and potentially even win more jobs if you can offer a faster turnaround time than your competition.
How Well Do the Intel Core Ultra 200S CPUs Perform for Video Editing?
Overall, the new Intel Core Ultra 200S processors (including the 285K, 265K, and 245K) are a bit of a lackluster product for most users in terms of performance if you simply look at the gen-over-gen performance gains. They have some unique advantages over the previous generation, namely the slightly reduced power draw (allowing them to run slightly cooler and quieter) and the addition of the new NPU unit, but performance-wise, they are generally on par with the previous generation Intel Core 14th gen processors. Only After Effects should show a decent advantage over the previous generation, and then only by about 10-15%
While there are not huge gen-over-gen performance gains, that does not mean that they are not worth using. If you want to upgrade a system that is two or more years old, they are a perfectly fine option to use and, overall, are a better choice than the previous-generation Intel Core processors. In most video editing workflows, they are also on par with their main competition (AMD Ryzen 9000 series), although how Intel Core Ultra and AMD Ryzen compare depends heavily on your exact workflow.
If you have an older system (3+ years old), any modern system will give you a big boost to performance. This is partially due to the latest processors like the Intel Core Ultra desktop CPUs, but also the fact that there have been a host of other technology advancements for other aspects of computers, including the GPU, RAM, and storage. For this old of a system, a 1.5x increase in performance can almost be guaranteed, and at times, the performance gain can be as much as 2x or even more!
The Intel Core Ultra desktop processors are also a great option for those considering moving from Mac to PC. In general, many of the main advantages of using PC over Mac from a performance standpoint are not due to the CPU (where Mac and PC are often on par in terms of performance, if not price), but from the fact that going with PC gives you access to NVIDIA GPUs which can make a massive difference for some workflows – in particular GPU-accelerated effects, 3D workflows, AI-based features, and emerging workflows with applications like Unreal Engine.
To summarize, the new Intel Core 200S processors are a fine product, but the focus of this generation is more on reducing power consumption rather than increasing performance. We would recommend using them over older Intel Core processors (unless you find a particularly good deal), but you shouldn’t expect significant performance gains unless you are upgrading from an older system that is at least two, if not three, years old. For those systems, the performance advantage can be as low as 1.2x, or as high as 1.5x (or more) depending on the hardware you are upgrading from.
Finding the perfect workstation doesn’t have to be complicated. Explore our solutions page for a curated selection of recommended systems for a multitude of applications and workflows, or visit our custom configuration page if you already know the ideal hardware for your needs. If you need assistance with tailoring a system to a unique workflow or have any other questions, we encourage you to reach out to our dedicated technology consultants.