Last year’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 and AMD Radeon RX 9000 GPU launches were widely criticised for “fake MSRP.” That refers to situations where companies announce an attractive price that creates a good first impression and earns praise in reviews, only for the cards to immediately become more expensive or never actually appear at the advertised price. It now looks like something similar may be happening with Intel’s new processors.
When we covered the announcement of the Core Ultra 200 Plus processors—the refreshed desktop Arrow Lake lineup—on March 11, we noted that they were priced very attractively. It wasn’t expected that supply shortages at launch would lead in significantly higher prices; Intel usually doesn’t struggle with that. However, it turns out that this time it happened—whether intentionally or simply due to market dynamics.
In the US, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is selling for 330 USD to 350 USD across various retailers, significantly above the originally announced 300 USD. The same appears to be happening here, compounded by poor availability. Price aggregators have so far found it only at Alza, priced at 8299 CZK—several hundred crowns above what the official MSRP would translate to at current exchange rates (roughly 7760 CZK). Fortunately, the percentage increase is smaller than in the US. A similar situation is seen in Slovakia, where pricing starts at 346 EUR (vs. the expected 322 EUR).
The fact that the processor is currently listed in only a small number of stores in Czechia and Slovakia may indicate that the pricing isn’t entirely intentional case of Intel raising distributor prices post‑launch, forcing retailers to increase theirs. Given that only one retailer was initially stocking the CPU in Czech Republic, it may simply be an attempt to cash in on the early customers while there’s no competition in the local market. We’ll see whether broader availability across more stores pushes prices back toward the MSRP levels.
The cheaper Core Ultra 5 250K Plus officially carries a 200 USD MSRP, which translates to roughly 214 EUR. US prices jumped to 220–250 USD depending on the retailer. Here, it starts at 237 EUR. Again, availability is limited to one or a few stores. It appears that the processors are only now beginning to flow through distribution channels, and the elevated pricing may be the result of early‑stage market imbalance rather than a deliberate strategy.
That if we assume that this price bump isn’t actually part of the 10% price increase Intel is said to be introducing for most of its processors, which was expected to take effect at the end of March.
These prices are somewhat disappointing compared to the optimistic picture painted by the officially announced MSRPs before real‑world sales began. Still, if there’s a chance the situation improves, it may be too early to apply the “fake MSRP” accusations. Even if we’re unlucky and prices don’t drop, the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus still won’t be terrible purchase choice, since the “overpricing” is in the single‑digit percentage range rather than tens of percent. If they drop by roughly 20 EUR back to MSRP, all the better.
Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus
Alongside these main models, a cheaper version of the 18‑core chip without integrated GPU has also appeared in stores: the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus. Aside from the disabled GPU, it has the same specifications as the 250K Plus. This SKU was also initially listed only by Alza, priced at 220 EUR. That makes it 7% cheaper than the K model, but still more expensive than what the 250K Plus should cost according to official MSRP.
Hopefully the 250KF Plus will also see price reductions once the processors reach all retailers and pricing stabilizes. It seems the originally intended discount for this model was 15 USD compared to the 250K Plus, giving it an MSRP of 185 USD.
Core Ultra 9 290 Plus definitely not coming
Intel has also confirmed that the previously planned high‑end Core Ultra 9 290K Plus was cancelled (so much for the occasional claims that “leakers” might have made the SKU up). It was supposed to have the same core count as the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, but with higher maximum boost clock speeds and, logically, a higher price. Intel officially explains that they scrapped the model to focus on offering the best possible price‑to‑performance ratio with the 250K Plus and 270K Plus models.
Sources: VideoCardz, PC Games Hardware, Heureka
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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