On paper, Intel’s newest 14th-gen cellular Core HX processors don’t provide laptop computer consumers a lot in the way in which of an improve over the earlier technology. In the actual world, that holds true as properly. And, weirdly, that’s among the finest information you’ll hear all 12 months if you happen to’re seeking to decide up a gaming laptop computer with out breaking the financial institution.

Intel’s 14th-gen Core i9-14900HX is the quickest cellular PC CPU we’ve ever examined, although AMD’s AMD’s Ryzen 8000 Mobile family of processors are ready within the wings. Intel’s newest 14th-gen Core HX processors sit alongside its Core Ultra laptop computer chips, though the 2 aren’t essentially designed to compete. The Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) chips have a tendency to emphasise lengthy battery life, whereas the Core HX chips give attention to efficiency first.

And it’s a beast: the brand new Core i9-14900HX delivers 24 cores and 32 threads, combining 8 efficiency cores and 16 effectivity cores. But it’s additionally largely the identical beast because the Thirteenth-gen Core i9-13980HX that we examined a 12 months in the past. The variety of efficiency (P-cores) cores stays the identical, as does the variety of effectivity cores (E-cores), plus the overall variety of threads. Even the method expertise stays the identical, on the Intel 7 node.

Remember, the Thirteenth-gen Core i9-13980HX was a “Raptor Lake” chip. The Core i9-14900HX we examined is a “Raptor Lake Refresh” processor. Intel’s ARK database helpfully compares the two chips, which we’ve excerpted beneath.

The distinction? Intel boosted the turbo clock pace from 5.6GHz to five.8GHz, because it tweaked the facility and voltage curve in Raptor Lake Refresh. That performed out in numerous methods in our testing.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Intel supplied us with a monstrous MSI Raider GE78 pocket book with a Core i9-14900HX and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 processor inside. It’s similar to the MSI Titan GT77 we used for the prior-generation testing of the Core i9-13980HX. (Separately, we’ve additionally reviewed an Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 with equally ferocious firepower inside.)

We’re not going to give attention to the MSI Raider as a pocket book on this article, however reveal how the 14th-gen HX chip differs from the Thirteenth-gen in a couple of CPU-specific benchmarks. That will largely remove the usage of video games, as an alternative specializing in artificial and precise productiveness exams that check the CPU’s efficiency. Forget battery life, too. Instead, we dialed up the Windows efficiency slider and the Raider’s cooling to most ranges, as we did for the Thirteenth-gen MSI Titan GT77.

Put merely, this story is designed that will help you determine whether or not or not that you must purchase a 14th-gen Core HX laptop computer, or accept an older mannequin as an alternative.

14th-gen cellular Core HX efficiency: extra of the identical

Cinebench R23 is a tried-and-true benchmark, utilizing the entire CPU’s threads to render a scene. Alternatively, you may also ask the benchmark to allocate only one core to do the job — helpful if you happen to nonetheless want video games and apps which are coded to make use of a single core or thread, slightly than many.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Here, we see an 11 % enchancment in multi-core efficiency however only a 2 % enchancment in single-threaded efficiency. That’s a reasonably first rate enchancment the place the multi-threaded efficiency is worried.

Blender is a well-liked, open-source 3D rendering software used for animated movies. The software might be set to make use of simply the CPU to render a number of scenes, as we do right here. But the advance is slight (2 % at most) probably as a result of the scenes might be rendered in a simply a few dozen seconds or so.

Mark Hachman / IDG

It’s time to level out that CPUs usually leap from a base energy degree right into a turbo energy state, typically known as PL2. The time through which the processor can stay in a turbo state, generally known as the tau, impacts efficiency; if the laptop computer can stay in a turbo state for longer, it will possibly get extra work performed. But the tau is commonly simply as depending on the design of the laptop computer and its cooling system as a lot because the CPU itself, so we will’t learn an excessive amount of into it. The proven fact that each notebooks are designed by the identical MSI engineering staff, although, helps.

We used a software referred to as HWInfo to extract a few of this information. In the Core i9-14900HX’s case, the HWInfo software stories that the tau needs to be about 56 seconds, throughout which this 55-watt CPU sucks 150W of energy and may climb to over 5GHz. After 56 seconds, the chip ought to decrease its pace to a base clock pace (2.4GHz, HWInfo stories) to keep away from overheating.

That signifies that extended exams usually push a chip previous that tau time. We use the Handbrake open-source conversion software to transcode a 4K .MOV file to a H.265 format and file the time it takes to take action.

Unfortunately, we found an error in our Thirteenth-gen Core HX testing, so we’re not together with a proper comparability between the 2 gaming notebooks. But we did check a Thirteenth-gen Core i9-13950HX in a second, thinner laptop computer, which generated a rating of 634 seconds whereas performing the duty. Our 14th-gen Core i9-14900HX pocket book carried out the duty in 554 seconds. Again, the 2 aren’t instantly comparable, however that’s nonetheless a ten % drop.

Unfortunately, that’s the place the get together ends. The V-ray (by Chaos) rendering plug-in usually would use the laptop computer’s GPU, however we will ask it to make use of the CPU as an alternative. It, too, completes shortly. The two laptop computer platforms are basically statistically equal.

Mark Hachman / IDG

So, too, is the Bapco CrossMark benchmark, which makes use of the CPU to carry out real-world duties. In each V-ray and CrossMark, lower than 1 % separates the 2 outcomes.

Mark Hachman / IDG

We additionally in contrast the 2 platforms utilizing the PugetBench check, which is a benchmark constructed by Puget Systems with particular person exams in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.

PugetBench has moved on to a brand new “For Creators” benchmark, by the way. We didn’t have entry to the older MSI Thirteenth-gen laptop computer for testing, or we might have run this benchmark. We centered on the older Photoshop check as an alternative. Weirdly, we noticed the identical anomaly as we noticed in our earlier exams; efficiency went backwards by 7 %.

The PugetBench check does take a number of minutes to finish, nonetheless, so we would have anticipated higher efficiency, a la the Handbrake benchmark, But it was to not be.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Thunderbolt shouldn’t have an effect on your determination

What Intel would really like you to think about whereas evaluating the 14th-gen HX platform, is, properly, the platform: 16 lanes of PCI Express Gen 5, help for DDR5-5600 reminiscence, and so forth. But once more, that is all the identical because the Thirteenth-gen Core HX platform affords.

There’s one distinction, type of: Thunderbolt 5. This next-gen I/O commonplace will provide 80Gbps (and in some instances, 120Gbps) of bandwidth to shows, GPUs, and different peripherals starting within the 14th technology of Core chips. But in contrast to Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 5 controllers will not be built-in in 14th-gen {hardware}, which signifies that laptop computer makers should construct it in with a discrete chip. That’s going to require further price. More to the purpose, neither Thunderbolt 5 laptop computer controllers nor Thunderbolt 5-certified peripheral {hardware} are literally obtainable, and gained’t be till mid-2024 or later.

Because of Intel’s reluctance to certify non-Intel platforms as Thunderbolt compliant, AMD Ryzen notebooks use the suitable USB4 commonplace, as an alternative. But 80Gbps USB4 {hardware} isn’t right here, both, and gained’t be till later this 12 months.

Is the 14th-gen Core HX definitely worth the improve?

If you already personal a Thirteenth-gen Core HX pocket book, it’s completely not value upgrading to a 14th-gen Core HX. If you personal a Twelfth-gen Core gaming pocket book or beneath, it’s a way more compelling possibility. For that, we’d suggest you re-read our older 13th-gen Core review for efficiency comparisons to Twelfth-gen {hardware}. (Spoiler alert: Thirteenth- and 14th-gen Core chips are a large enchancment over their predecessors, particularly in multi-threaded duties and video games.)

Is the 14th-gen Core HX higher than AMD’s Ryzen 7000 HX collection? We can’t definitively say for now. Ditto for Ryzen 8000 Mobile, which was solely not too long ago introduced. But needless to say the Ryzen 9 8945HS affords simply 8 cores and 16 threads, and runs as much as 5.2GHz at turbo speeds. The Intel 14th-gen Core HX tops that in core rely, threads, and turbo clock pace — so if we have been to guess, sure, AMD will lag behind.

The proven fact that the Thirteenth-gen Core HX and 14th-gen Core HX are extraordinarily comparable is not a nasty factor, although, the place you’re involved. Remember, as the brand new 14th-gen gaming notebooks roll out, retailers are going to need to eliminate their older {hardware} to make room. And to try this, they’re going to supply the older notebooks at a reduction, as a part of a sale.

But if a Thirteenth-gen Core gaming pocket book is just about pretty much as good as a 14th-gen gaming pocket book, that’s a chance. Why purchase a 14th-gen Core HX pocket book when you should buy a Thirteenth-gen Core HX laptop computer that’s simply as superior at a juicy low cost?