Intel Core i7-14700K and Core i9-14900K overview: A gentle CPU replace

Finest Costs As we speak: Core i9-14900K

£404.88

A brand new technology of refreshed Raptor Lake processors have arrived. After months of rumors and leaks—and an official announcement simply the day earlier than launch—Intel’s newest batch of desktop CPUs take their place because the 14th technology within the Core lineup.

You possibly can compensate for the specs and speeds in our complete protection of the revealing, however the fundamentals are simple. Six new chips have launched, with two variants every of unlocked Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 components. (As typical, the principle Okay set comes with built-in graphics, whereas the KF set lacks them.) The $599 Core i9-14900K leads the pack, adopted by the $419 Core i7-14700K and $329 Core i5-14600K. They primarily provide small upticks in clock pace over Thirteenth gen, with the flagship CPU now capable of attain a turbo pace of 6.0GHz. The most important information is the Core i7 fashions have gained 4 further effectivity cores.

Intel

As you may count on, these processors don’t provide a shocking leap in efficiency, as we noticed when Thirteenth-gen Raptor Lake dethroned Twelfth-gen Alder Lake. These refreshed CPUs provide gentle clock speeds bumps however similar IPC (directions per clock) as their predecessors. And so should you’ve been pondering to improve to those refreshed Raptor Lake components, there are a number of issues you need to know whereas making your choice. We go deep into the main points in our YouTube overview, which you’ll be able to watch within the embedded hyperlink beneath—my colleague Adam Patrick Murray, who did all of our testing, explains all of it very properly. Nonetheless, for the details, learn on.

The Core i9-14900K is a less expensive 13900KS

Effectively, kind of.

When wanting on the check outcomes, you’ll see that the $599 Core i9-14900K all however mirrors its direct successor, the Core i9-13900K. In our content material creation benchmarks, the distinction between the 2 processors are just about negligible. The most important distinction is in Photoshop, with a 2.8 p.c uplift—sufficiently small that you might virtually attribute it to a margin of error.

^{Longer bars point out larger efficiency.}

Our gaming benchmarks provide the same story. The 14900K provides an enchancment starting from slightly below 1 p.c to 2.6 p.c. In additional tangible phrases, that’s only a few frames per second. The exception? Rainbow Six: Siege has a distinction of 10 frames per second, however when body charges are already within the vary of 600fps, that’s nonetheless a drop within the bucket.

^{Longer bars point out larger efficiency.}

Should you’re the form of one who loves efficiency charts displaying brutal beatdowns, this “improve” will disappoint you. Yeah, Intel beats AMD’s normal non-3D Ryzen 7950X, however the gen-on-gen enhancements are fairly ho-hum in comparison with final yr, after we noticed jumps as excessive as 48 p.c. Nonetheless, should you adore paying much less for top-notch specs, you’ll be fairly completely satisfied. Bear in mind, the 14900K will hit 6.0GHz when boosting, even when just for transient durations—and it is available in at $589. In the meantime, the one different chip able to 6GHz, the Core i9-13900KS, at present has a avenue worth of $730. And that’s up from its January launch worth of $699.

The star of the present is the Core i7-14700K

The flagship Core i9-14900K might sit atop the heap, but it surely’s form of a boring chip. It’s arduous to get excited a couple of CPU that sits neck-in-neck with its predecessor on most benchmarks.

As a substitute, the actual standout of the lineup is the $419 Core i7-14700K. (A victory for center siblings in all places.) With its 4 further E cores, it has a leg up when pitted towards its predecessor, the Core i7-13700K. Not less than, it does in content material creation duties. In Blender, we noticed enhancements as excessive as 25 p.c within the Monster benchmark, and the common throughout the Monster, Junkshop, and Classroom assessments was simply shy of 20 p.c. In Cinebench R23’s multithreaded benchmark, we noticed a leap of 17 p.c. V-Ray 5 additionally confirmed an uplift of virtually 17 p.c.

Principally, throughout occasions while you use extra threads—assume encoding and rendering—you’ll see double digit enhancements. When the load is lighter, the uplift is way extra modest, although nonetheless a bit greater gen-over-gen in comparison with the Core i9 components. It’s a couple of 4 p.c bump in our Premiere Professional and Photoshop outcomes, and about 2.5 p.c in Lightroom. Extra singularly threaded duties solely have the 14700K’s modest clock pace bump to lean on, since its IPC is similar to the 13700K.

In gaming benchmarks, the 14700K posted numbers inside 3 to six p.c of the beefier 14900K’s outcomes. Should you’re a bit extra skewed towards gaming than content material creation, then the $409 Core i7-14700K goes to be a a lot less expensive selection. It additionally out performs the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, which has a present avenue worth of about $450. If it’s worthwhile to go together with a present technology half, this one’s the actual standout. It sits in a pleasant candy spot.

You possibly can reuse your (comparatively) older motherboard

As iterations of Thirteenth-generation Raptor Lake, Intel’s 14th-generation Core processors are appropriate with 600-series and 700-series motherboards. No socket modifications and even new chipsets are being launched with these components. So in case you have a mobo that already works, you don’t need to improve it.

Adam Patrick Murray/Foundry

Nonetheless, 14th-generation processors will assist blisteringly quick newer Wi-Fi 7, which you may even see seem on revised variations of present motherboard fashions. Refreshed boards are coming—our personal overview was performed on a “Z790 refresh” mobo. [Editor’s note, 10/19/23: Intel has issued a clarification that Thunderbolt 5 will not be supported by 14th-generation desktop processors. We have amended this article to reflect this update.]

Placing apart the query should you’ll wish to improve from a Twelfth technology Alder Lake processor—it’s at the very least doable to do an in-place improve of the CPU. Simply bear in mind to replace your BIOS proper earlier than making the swap.

Nifty AI software program methods are baked in

For {hardware} nerds, having to attend nonetheless for desktop variations of Intel’s futuristic new Meteor Lake chips might harm a bit. In any case, 14th-gen cellular is already slated to make use of the brand new structure, which suggests these processors will provide AI neural processing items and complex tiling programs inside.

However Raptor Lake refresh continues to be launching with a few neat AI methods up its sleeve. They is probably not {hardware} based mostly, like Meteor Lake’s AI NPU, however they’re fascinating teasers for a way AI will help improve PC efficiency.

The primary function is known as Utility Efficiency Optimization, or APO, which is enabled by default. It really works alongside Intel’s Thread Director expertise, the latter of which helps divide duties between a CPU’s effectivity and efficiency cores. APO’s job is to direct and management the thread kind used based mostly on the applying instantiation. In Intel’s assessments, this tech helped allow a efficiency uplift of 16 p.c in Metro Exodus and 13 p.c in Rainbow Six: Siege. (Not too shabby.)

4A Video games

The one draw back: APO solely works with particular video games which have been supported by Intel. It’s additionally not appropriate with benchmarks or or recreation executable recordsdata which have been renamed from their unique default.

As for the opposite AI-boosted function—say hey to even simpler overclocking. An replace to Intel’s Excessive Tuning Utility (XTU) provides Intel’s AI Help. It scans and analyzes your system, then recommends overclocking settings based mostly in your PC’s parts, voltages, and energy settings. This capability is just out there for 14th-gen processors, beginning first with the Core i9-14900K and KF components earlier than migrating down the road sooner or later. Older chips, together with Thirteenth-generation Raptor Lake chips, is not going to be supported. XTU has gotten improved overclocking skills by the years, however this use of AI may make it simpler than ever.

Don’t count on an improved energy invoice

You is likely to be hoping that Intel at the very least improved energy effectivity between its Thirteenth- and 14th-gen processors. Sadly, you’re going to be dissatisfied.

On the high of the stack, the Core i9-13900K and 14900K share related energy consumption. It’s not an enormous shock—each chips have the identical most turbo energy score (or TDP) of 253W. Once we ran Cinebench R23’s multithreaded check, the full system energy draw for the 13900K was 446 watts, whereas the 14900K got here in at 424 watts. Some might argue a slight enchancment exists, however at slightly below 5 p.c, it’s all however negligible in comparison with AMD’s rival chips. When pitted towards the 14900K, the Ryzen 9 7950X provides a 13 p.c lower in consumption whereas the Ryzen 9 7950X3D gives a whopping 38 p.c drop.

Adam Patrick Murray / IDG

Issues don’t enhance when wanting on the Core i7-14700K. With the addition of extra cores, it attracts extra energy than its predecessor in the identical Cinebench R23 multithreaded benchmark. In comparison with the 13700K, whole system energy consumption for the 14700K went up by 13 p.c. So that you get extra efficiency, but it surely takes extra electrical energy to make it occur. That makes the hole wider between Intel and AMD on this vary, too—switching from a Ryzen 7 7800X3D to a 14700K is a 111 p.c enhance in whole PC energy draw (yikes), and an virtually 31 p.c enhance going from the Ryzen 9 7900X to the 14700K.

The in need of it’s, you gained’t be shopping for an Intel 14th-gen CPU for its energy effectivity. And should you’re contemplating the Core i7-14700K however solely want sturdy efficiency in video games, you could be higher off wanting on the Ryzen 7800X3D chip extra carefully. You’ll get monetary savings each upfront and in your month-to-month utility invoice.

Must you purchase a 14th technology Intel desktop processor?

Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry

In comparison with the final two generations of Intel desktop CPUs, the launch of 14th-generation processors can appear underwhelming. However they’re on no account unhealthy chips—they sit on the high of the heap, simply forward of AMD’s rival components in some functions, and behind in others. Whether or not they’re best for you is determined by your circumstances.

Should you’ve been ready various years to improve, shifting as much as an Intel 14th technology Core CPU can be an enormous enchancment in efficiency. That a lot is obvious. Nonetheless, in case you have price range constraints and don’t must future proof to the max, then you might be nonetheless well-served by an AMD Ryzen 7000 processor—or, if the most recent on-line gross sales point out, with an older technology Intel chip. (Newegg’s been notably dropping costs on Twelfth gen components.) Should you don’t want barely quicker clock speeds or extra effectivity cores, shaving tons of off the your PC construct’s value might make extra sense.

Additional studying: The most effective CPUs for gaming

Editor’s notice: This overview initially revealed on October 17, however was up to date to incorporate energy draw benchmarks and evaluation.