Gaming PCs Are in a Weird Place Right Now

Earlier this week, Intel announced what would be its 15th-generation processors: the Core Ultra 200S lineup. These new processors mark the beginning of a completely new design philosophy for Intel’s desktop processors, with AI at the forefront. Intel, in its infinite wisdom, added last year’s neural processing unit (NPU) to its desktop processors in an attempt to boost AI performance when the graphics card is otherwise occupied.

The problem is, Intel did this while also dialing back power consumption, which leads to “parity” performance with the 14th-generation chips that came out last year. Intel is hoping that by lowering power consumption and temperatures while more or less staying at the same level of performance, it can convince desktop and PC gaming enthusiasts to buy in on AI in a way that doesn’t really help us. Intel isn’t alone.

While AMD didn’t go so far as to add an NPU to its latest desktop processors, AMD Ryzen 9000 also dialed back power consumption and temperatures, which led to some processors falling behind their last-generation counterparts in some tests. Couple that with the longest time we’ve ever had to wait between graphics card generations, with Nvidia and AMD’s latest GPUs still nowhere to be seen, and it’s a weird time to be a PC gamer.

Processors Got Too Hot, Now They’re Backing OffDialing back power consumption and operating temperatures was the right move from both CPU manufacturers, as Intel and AMD have faced intense issues over the last year. More recently, an Intel microcode – essentially the instructions that facilitate communication between your motherboard and processor – was cooking 14th- and 13th-gen processors in their sockets, dramatically lowering life expectancy. A fix has been released, and anyone with a 14th- or 13th-gen Intel CPU can update their microcode and BIOS to remedy the issue.

Likewise, AMD ran into some issues, particularly around the popular (and still amazing) Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Multiple motherboards were found to have pumped too much power into the processor, causing it to literally explode, as demonstrated by Gamers Nexus last year. Luckily, this issue has also been fixed through BIOS updates, via The Verge.

In a lot of ways, configuring desktop processors to take the foot off the gas pedal just a bit has been needed for a long time. I remember when I was reviewing the Intel Core i9-12900K for TechRadar, I had to do multiple double-takes to make sure my cooler was working right when I kept seeing 90°C temperatures at stock settings – and that was with a 360mm AIO. Ultimately, once I had a reliable test system and I knew everything was dialed in, I ended up finding the 12900K peaked at around 86°C. Not bad, but still a huge increase from the 76°C reached by the 11900K in the same test suite.

Temperatures kept going up in subsequent generations, though. I found the Intel Core i9-14900K would hit up to 102°C during my review, a result Intel assured me was working by design. To be clear, I’ve been using a 14900K in my testing since it came out and I haven’t had any problems with stability, so clearly it is working. But when temperatures go that high, problems can happen.

Power consumption has also been a major pain point lately, which is true whether you’re talking about CPUs or graphics cards. That Intel Core i9-14900K I mentioned earlier consumes up to 329W of power by itself. That’s an astronomical amount of power for a desktop processor that’s not running on an HEDT (high-end desktop) platform.

The upcoming Intel Core Ultra 9 285K has a Turbo Power Limit of 250W, which is about the same as last gen’s Intel Core i9-14900K. However, the 14900K’s PL1, the actual power limit, was upwards of 350W. Intel hasn’t released unlocked power limits for the Core 9 285K, but it will certainly be interesting when I get it in the lab.

If Intel is able to match the performance of the Core i9-14900K, but without the stability issues that have plagued its processors from the last couple of years, I’ll consider that a win. But given that AMD also went through a similar process with the Ryzen 9 9700X earlier this year, I think it’s fair to say that gaming CPUs are going through something of a reset.

AI is Ruining My LifeWhat makes less sense is Intel’s need to shove an NPU into its desktop processors. I totally get why NPUs are being shoehorned into every laptop processor – gaming laptops are going to get the AI treatment at CES 2025, prove me wrong – but it’s simply unnecessary for a desktop processor.

Half of the reason graphics cards are so expensive is because they’re so good at powering AI at every stage of development. This likely has a lot to do with the recent leaks suggesting the RTX 5090 could cost up to $2,499. Anyone that’s going to fork over the $589 for the Core Ultra 9 285K is going to be pairing it with a high-end graphics card – that’s just kind of how enthusiasts work. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super, which isn’t even the fastest GPU out there, can deliver 836 TOPS of AI performance. The NPU in the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K can do 13 TOPS. A drop in the bucket.

Intel claims that this NPU is there to assist when the GPU is already occupied with other tasks, like gaming. While I wholeheartedly believe non-upscaling AI is going to make its way to gaming at some point, we simply aren’t there yet.

It makes even less sense when you consider Intel has already implemented a better NPU into its Lunar Lake lineup. The NPU in the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V, a laptop chip, is capable of AI performance up to 120 TOPS. That means Intel’s enthusiast chip has an NPU more than ten times slower than what’s found in a laptop right now. Why even include it?

Will This End?AI is inescapable when it comes to PCs lately. AMD, Intel, and Nvidia have all told me over and over again that AI is the future. That’s probably why every component lately has been designed with AI in mind, or at least in part. I don’t know about you, but I still haven’t found a single AI application that actually makes anything I do easier. Instead, these tech giants seem to be creating solutions to problems that don’t really exist in order to sell new hardware.

I’m sure some AI applications are going to become part of our daily lives, but is it worth making everything we buy cost exponentially more? I don’t think it is, and my heart genuinely goes out to you if you’re trying to build or buy a gaming PC right now. It’s hard out there.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra