Price When Reviewed

$599

Best Prices Today: Core i9-14900K

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

You can atone for the specs and speeds in our comprehensive coverage of the unveiling, however the fundamentals are simple. Six new chips have launched, with two variants every of unlocked Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 elements. (As traditional, the primary 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 velocity over Thirteenth gen, with the flagship CPU now in a position to attain a turbo velocity of 6.0GHz. The largest information is the Core i7 fashions have gained 4 extra effectivity cores.

Intel

As you would possibly 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 delicate clock speeds bumps however equivalent IPC (directions per clock) as their predecessors. And so in the event you’ve been considering to improve to those refreshed Raptor Lake elements, there are a number of issues it’s best to know whereas making your resolution. We go deep into the small print in our YouTube review, which you’ll watch within the embedded hyperlink under—my colleague Adam Patrick Murray, who did all of our testing, explains all of it very properly. However, for the details, learn on.

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

Well, form of.

When trying on the take a look at 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 largest distinction is in Photoshop, with a 2.8 p.c uplift—sufficiently small that you could possibly virtually attribute it to a margin of error.

^{Longer bars point out greater efficiency.}

Our gaming benchmarks provide an identical story. The 14900K gives an enchancment starting from just below 1 p.c to 2.6 p.c. In extra tangible phrases, that’s just some 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 greater efficiency.}

If you’re the sort of one that loves efficiency charts exhibiting brutal beatdowns, this “upgrade” will disappoint you. Yeah, Intel beats AMD’s commonplace 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. However, in the event you adore paying much less for top-notch specs, you’ll be fairly blissful. Remember, the 14900K will hit 6.0GHz when boosting, even when just for transient intervals—and it is available in at $589. Meanwhile, the one different chip able to 6GHz, the Core i9-13900KS, at the moment has a avenue value of $730. And that’s up from its January launch value of $699.

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

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

Instead, the actual standout of the lineup is the $419 Core i7-14700K. (A victory for center siblings in all places.) With its 4 extra E cores, it has a leg up when pitted towards its predecessor, the Core i7-13700K. At least, it does in content material creation duties. In Blender, we noticed enhancements as excessive as 25 p.c within the Monster benchmark, and the typical throughout the Monster, Junkshop, and Classroom assessments was simply shy of 20 p.c. In Cinebench R23’s multithreaded benchmark, we noticed a bounce of 17 p.c. V-Ray 5 additionally confirmed an uplift of just about 17 p.c.

Basically, throughout occasions once you use extra threads—assume encoding and rendering—you’ll see double digit enhancements. When the load is lighter, the uplift is much extra modest, although nonetheless slightly larger gen-over-gen in comparison with the Core i9 elements. It’s a few 4 p.c bump in our Premiere Pro and Photoshop outcomes, and about 2.5 p.c in Lightroom. More singularly threaded duties solely have the 14700K’s modest clock velocity bump to lean on, since its IPC is equivalent to the 13700K.

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

You can reuse your (comparatively) older motherboard

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

Adam Patrick Murray/Foundry

However, 14th-generation processors will assist two blisteringly quick newer applied sciences, Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt 5, which you may even see seem on revised variations of current motherboard fashions. Refreshed boards are coming—our personal overview was performed on a “Z790 refresh” mobo.

Putting apart the query in the event you’ll need to improve from a Twelfth technology Alder Lake processor—it’s at the very least potential to do an in-place improve of the CPU. Just keep in mind to replace your BIOS proper earlier than making the swap.

Nifty AI software program tips are baked in

For {hardware} nerds, having to attend nonetheless for desktop variations of Intel’s futuristic new Meteor Lake chips could damage slightly. After all, 14th-gen cellular is already slated to make use of the brand new structure, which suggests these processors will provide AI neural processing units and complicated tiling methods inside.

But Raptor Lake refresh remains to be launching with a few neat AI tips up its sleeve. They might not be {hardware} based mostly, like Meteor Lake’s AI NPU, however they’re fascinating teasers for the way AI can assist improve PC efficiency.

The first characteristic is named Application Performance Optimization, or APO, which is enabled by default. It 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 sort 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 Games

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

As for the opposite AI-boosted characteristic—say howdy to even simpler overclocking. An replace to Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) provides Intel’s AI Assist. It scans and analyzes your system, then recommends overclocking settings based mostly in your PC’s elements, voltages, and energy settings. This skill is just obtainable for 14th-gen processors, beginning first with the Core i9-14900K and KF elements 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 means of the years, however this use of AI may make it simpler than ever.

Should you purchase a 14th technology Intel desktop processor?

Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry

Compared to the final two generations of Intel desktop CPUs, the launch of 14th-generation processors can appear underwhelming. But they’re not at all dangerous chips—they sit on the high of the heap, simply forward of AMD’s rival elements in some functions, and behind in others. Whether they’re best for you is dependent upon your circumstances.

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

Further studying: The best CPUs for gaming