Intel Core Ultra 7 255H Performance
The Intel Core Ultra 7 255H is a very different CPU. This effectively has three types of CPU cores that you may not see if you looked at the lscpu output for it.
Here is an example of the core topology. We can see the performance P-cores, then the two clusters of four efficient E-cores. At the bottom right of the topology we have the two low power E-cores.
In many ways, this looks similar to the 155H’s topology, but notice the single execution unit in the P-cores (Core L#0 to Core L#5) on the 255H versus the two on the 155H below:
That may not seem like a big difference, but it means we went from 16 cores and 22 threads on the 155H to 16 cores and 16 threads on the 255H. AMD still swears by SMT, but Intel and Arm vendors are moving away from SMT on client devices.
Just to give you some sents on the latencies, they seem a bit better on Arrow Lake than on Meteor Lake. Here is the new 255H:
Here is the older 155H:
It seems like Intel has done a good job incrementing its fabric in this generation.
Python Linux 4.4.2 Kernel Compile Benchmark
This is one of the most requested benchmarks for STH over the past few years. The task was simple, we have a standard configuration file, the Linux 4.4.2 kernel from kernel.org, and make the standard auto-generated configuration utilizing every thread in the system. We are expressing results in terms of compiles per hour to make the results easier to read:
Overall, we get a really nice generational gain bringing the Core Ultra 7 in-line with the previous generation Core Ultra 9.
7-zip Compression Performance
7-zip is a widely used compression/ decompression program that works cross-platform. We started using the program during our early days with Windows testing. It is now part of Linux-Bench.
Here is another similar story, but the big difference might also be that the generational jump from the 155H to 255H is quite large.
OpenSSL Performance
OpenSSL is widely used to secure communications between servers. This is an important protocol in many server stacks. We first look at our sign tests:
Here are the verify results:
Again, we see the same pattern.
Geekbench 5 and 6 Results
Just so you can easily compare this to your own system, we have a number of Geekbench 5 and 6 results.
Here are the Geekbench 6 results:
Just for some context, we are seeing 15-25% performance improvement on the CPUs themselves. On the power side, ASRock Industrial is using a different power profile in the BOX-255H which is not power throttling the cores to the same level as the BOX-155H. Generally, that led to 23-33% better performance when combined with the architecture changes.
Last time we did the system, we did the AI NPU. The new 255H has 96 INT8 TOPS but only 13 are from the NPU and the demo was going to look similar. These chips are high-volume parts so if you want to see a specific application or if you want to see the Intel Arc 140T iGPU performance in a specific game, feel free to search for that online.
Next, let us get to our power consumption and noise.
