A New Intel Core i9 Flagship That Cannot Pull Ahead in Games
Intel’s Bartlett Lake flagship, the Core 9 273PQE, is a 12-core Performance-core (P-core) CPU whose gaming benchmarks show almost no uplift over the older Core i9-13900K, raising doubts about the value of high-end Intel processor upgrades for gaming-focused users. In tests run by PC Games Hardware with a GeForce RTX 5090 and similar power and memory settings, the 273PQE’s 12 P-cores went head-to-head with the 13900K’s 8 P-cores plus Efficient cores and failed to deliver clear wins in around 15 titles. While the 273PQE can officially boost up to 5.9 GHz, it was held near 5.30 GHz in gaming, and the 13900K reportedly ran closer to its own maximum turbo. The result is a flagship Core i9 performance story that looks flat in gaming benchmarks, despite four extra P-cores on paper.
Why More P-Cores Aren’t Translating Into Higher Frame Rates
On paper, Intel Bartlett Lake gaming performance should benefit from 12 P-cores, yet the Core 9 273PQE ties the Core i9-13900K in most CPU gaming benchmarks. Several factors help explain this. Many games still scale best to about eight fast cores, so the extra four P-cores often sit partially underused. Meanwhile, the 13900K’s dozen-plus Efficient cores, while not central to frame rates, can still offload background tasks and game engine threads that do not need maximum single-core speed. According to PC Games Hardware, "in around 15 games, the flagship Bartlett Lake chip couldn’t beat the Core i9-13900K despite having four more Performance cores." This points less to raw silicon limits and more to how engines schedule work, how Windows assigns threads, and how current titles are tuned for Intel’s existing hybrid layout instead of a P-core-only design.
Architectural, BIOS, and Optimization Gaps Behind the Numbers
The near-parity between Bartlett Lake and Raptor Lake suggests software and platform tuning issues rather than a hard architectural ceiling. PC Games Hardware tried to match platforms as closely as possible, but the Core 9 273PQE is not yet a consumer launch part, and BIOS, microcode, and driver optimizations appear immature for gaming. Intel’s hybrid design on the 13900K has had several generations of firmware and game-engine updates, giving it a comfortable optimization lead. The Bartlett Lake chip also struggled to reach its advertised 5.9 GHz turbo in games, which limits any single-threaded advantage that might help higher frame rates. Together, these factors suggest that Intel’s internal priorities for Bartlett Lake skew toward embedded or non-gaming workloads, where many P-cores shine, leaving Intel Bartlett Lake gaming performance looking underwhelming in current titles that still favor clock speed and familiar hybrid behavior.
What This Means for Intel’s Gaming Strategy and Buyers
For competitive gamers, the takeaway is plain: upgrading from a Core i9-13900K to a Bartlett Lake flagship promises little in terms of higher frame rates. The tests confirm that today’s gaming workloads rarely need more than eight strong P-cores, which explains why Intel reportedly views Bartlett Lake as a better fit for embedded stacks while keeping Raptor Lake and its refresh as the consumer-facing gaming line. This raises hard questions about the Core i9 flagship performance roadmap if new silicon cannot beat a four-year-old design in games. It also highlights that future wins may depend less on adding cores and more on tighter software, BIOS, and driver integration. For now, enthusiasts eyeing an Intel processor upgrade for gaming are better off fine-tuning existing Raptor Lake systems than chasing Bartlett Lake’s extra cores.