Alienware 16 Area-51 test results
Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus mobile processor has emerged as one of the hottest chips in the company’s lineup. Testing by Notebookcheck on the Alienware 16 Area-51 showed the CPU exceeding 103°C under a Prime95 stress test in Overdrive mode.
In the same system, the standard Core Ultra 9 275HX stabilized at around 3.8 GHz and 92°C. By comparison, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus ran at a higher 4.1 GHz but reached significantly higher temperatures.
Performance benchmarks, like those for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, are crucial in determining how new CPUs stack up against the competition when looking for the Best Gaming Processors 2026: Top CPUs Ranked by Performance.
Differences from Core Ultra 9 275HX
The Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus is essentially a higher-clocked version of the 24-core Core Ultra 9 275HX based on Intel’s Arrow Lake-HX platform. The increased performance comes with higher power consumption, which directly contributes to the elevated thermal output.
According to Notebookcheck, temperatures above 100°C approach the upper limits for mobile processors, with typical maximum junction temperatures around 105°C.
Gaming temperatures remain lower
Despite the extreme results in stress testing, real-world gaming scenarios appear less demanding. In the Alienware 16 Area-51, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus generally operates at around 80°C during gameplay.
This suggests that while the processor can deliver higher performance, it also requires robust cooling and runs noticeably hotter than the Core Ultra 9 275HX under heavy workloads.
Source: notebookcheck
