Processors/Comparison
15 specifications
Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs Intel Core Ultra 9 285H
On paper, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H boosts higher. Specifications describe what each chip is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.
Intel Core Ultra 7 255H
Intel · Core Ultra 200H (Arrow Lake) · Laptop
Intel Core Ultra 9 285H
Intel · Core Ultra 200H (Arrow Lake) · Laptop
Cores and clocks
Cache and power
Platform
A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.
Reading the table
What the difference means.
The same generation
Both are Core Ultra 200H (Arrow Lake) parts, so their figures can be read against each other directly: the same kind of core, the same memory support, the same platform. The differences in the table are the whole difference.
Boost clock
The Core Ultra 9 285H boosts to 5.4 GHz against 5.1 GHz, 6 percent higher. Within one generation that is a fair guide to single-core speed. Boost is also a peak: it is held for seconds to minutes, on one or two cores, while the cooling and the power limit allow. What either chip settles at under a long load is lower, and it depends on the cooler and the motherboard as much as the chip.
Power and cooling
The Core Ultra 9 285H is rated at 45 W against 28 W. The rating is the heat the cooler has to move for the chip to hold its speed, and modern chips draw well above it in short bursts. In a laptop the maker chooses the real limit inside a range, so the same chip can behave like two different processors in two machines. That spread is what a sustained test measures and a specification sheet cannot. A chip whose cooling falls short does not fail. It slows down, and it does so after the first minute, which is why short benchmarks miss it.
Platform
Laptop processors are soldered to the board, so this is a choice between machines, not between chips you can swap. What differs between two laptops with these parts is mostly the power limit and the cooling the maker gave each one.
Which to pick, on paper
- A quiet or compact build
- Core Ultra 7 255H
- 28 W against 45 W: less heat to move, so a smaller cooler and slower fans.
What no table says
How much of its speed a processor keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.
Questions
- Is the Core Ultra 7 255H better than the Core Ultra 9 285H?
- By need, on the specifications: a quiet or compact build: the Core Ultra 7 255H. No specification says how much speed either one keeps under a long load; that depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in, and it is what a sustained test measures.
- Do the Core Ultra 7 255H and the Core Ultra 9 285H use the same socket?
- Laptop processors are soldered in place, so neither can be swapped for the other.
- Does the Core Ultra 7 255H or the Core Ultra 9 285H have integrated graphics?
- Both do: Intel Arc 140T GPU on the Core Ultra 7 255H and Intel Arc 140T GPU on the Core Ultra 9 285H.
- Which runs hotter, the Core Ultra 7 255H or the Core Ultra 9 285H?
- The Core Ultra 9 285H is rated at 45 W against 28 W, so it produces more heat under load and needs the larger cooler. How hot either one actually runs depends on the cooler and the case more than on the chip.
More comparisons
- Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
- Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs Intel Core i7-13700HX
- Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
- Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs Intel Core i7-14650HX
- Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs Intel Core Ultra X7 368H
- Intel Core Ultra 7 255H vs Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
- Intel Core Ultra 9 285H vs Intel Core i7-14650HX
- Intel Core Ultra 9 285H vs Intel Core i7-13700HX
- Intel Core Ultra 9 285H vs Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
- Intel Core Ultra 9 285H vs Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
- Intel Core Ultra 9 285H vs Intel Core Ultra X7 368H
Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.
Nothing above describes how a processor behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.
We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.