Intel Core Ultra 270K and 250K Plus review: Conditionally great CPUs

Many of our graphics card reviews early last year and in the early 2020s focused on the difficulties of reviewing and recommending graphics cards when the manufacturer-suggested price points effectively didn't exist. Now, reviews of any new PC component have to contend with the much more broadly awful market for consumer PC parts as AI data center-fueled demand for RAM and flash memory chips drives up prices for DDR5 kits, SSDs, and GPUs.

In our August 2025 system guide, 32GB of DDR5 and a decent 2TB SSD would run you less than $200.