Intel just cut the price of some of its best CPUs by $100

By Monica J. White Published May 7, 2025

Some of Intel’s best processors just got a deep discount, or rather, a (seemingly) permanent price cut — but not all chips are becoming cheaper. The company announced that it’s lowering the recommended list price (MSRP) of a couple of Arrow Lake chips. The flat $100 price reduction comes accompanied by a special game bundle promotion.

Intel announced the discount in a post. The two CPUs in question are the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, which was previously priced at $399 and is now $299, and the Core Ultra 7 265KF, once $384, now $284. There have been no further adjustments to the pricing of the Arrow Lake desktop lineup.

This means that Intel is only tweaking the pricing of its upper midrange chips, leaving the high-end flagship Core Ultra 9 285K untouched, as well as the more mainstream portion of the lineup. This leaves chips like the Core 5 245/245K/245KF still sitting at MSRP.

Although you might find some of Intel’s processors below the recommended list price, this would be as a result of retailer discounts and not Intel’s own pricing adjustments. However, the two Core Ultra 7 chips should now also become cheaper across most retailers. Intel does note that the actual pricing will vary by region, retailer, taxes, and other factors.

Intel is currently running a special campaign that lets you snag two games (and more) if you buy one of its Intel Core Ultra desktop processors. This includes Dying Light: The Beast. To shop, head on over to Intel’s website and follow the steps outlined by the company.

Upon launch, Intel’s Arrow Lake didn’t make much of a splash. Although the Core Ultra 9 285K is intensely powerful, AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D and similar chips have stolen the hearts of some gamers, cutting into Intel’s market share. Perhaps to encourage some sales, Intel is now lowering the MSRP of some of the Arrow Lake-S desktop lineup. Whether other chips will get the same treatment still remains to be seen.