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Is 14th gen Intel good?


Is 14th gen Intel good?
Is 14th gen Intel good?

Is 14th gen Intel good?

Intel's 14th-gen Meteor Lake processors are here, and they're ready to compete against some of the best processors for laptops. While they don't currently — and may never — have desktop counterparts, Meteor Lake chips bring improved graphics performance, AI capabilities, and high core counts to thin and light laptops

What is the difference between i7 14 and 13?

What are the new features of Intel 14th Gen?

Is Intel 14th Gen good for gaming?

Do you need to update BIOS for 14th gen Intel?

Will Intel 14th Gen use different socket?

Is the i7 14th gen good for gaming?

Which gen of i7 is best?

Will Intel 14th Gen be DDR5 only?

Will 14th gen support DDR4?

How fast is Intel 14th generation?

What is Intel 15th Gen?

What is Intel 15th Gen?

What is the best Intel CPU for gaming in 2023?

Is DDR4 better than DDR5?

What is the difference between i7 14 and 13?

Is DDR6 out yet?

Can DDR6 fit in DDR5 motherboard?

Can DDR5 fit in DDR4 slots?

Is an i7 13th gen worth it?

Is the 14900K worth it?

What is the best RAM for 14900K?

Intel’s 14th Gen provides great performance in creative apps, but it’s not enough to beat AMD’s gaming chops



As the 14900K is just a refresh, it means you don’t need to worry about a new motherboard if you’ve already got a 12900K or 13900K. Intel is still using its LGA 1700 socket here, and existing Z690 and Z790 motherboards fully support the latest 14th Gen chips. You’ll need to install a BIOS update on the motherboard, but that’s an easy process on most modern boards.


There’s no new motherboards or chipsets this year, but motherboard makers have been refreshing some of their Z790 offerings to bundle in the Wi-Fi 7 support that the Core i9-14900K provides. For my testing, I installed the chip on MSI’s MAG Z790 Carbon WiFi. It has everything you need to take advantage of the 14900K, including four M.2 slots that all support PCIe Gen 4 speeds and a single M.2 slot for PCIe Gen 5 (or below).



ntel test machine:

  • CPU cooler: Corsair H150 Elite LCD

  • Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 Carbon Wi-Fi

  • RAM: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 6600

  • GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition

  • Storage: Seagate FireCuda 540 Gen 5

  • Case: Corsair Crystal 570X

  • PSU: Corsair HX1000W

The 14900K is still built on Intel’s 7 process and its x86 performance hybrid architecture. That means there are performance cores (P-cores) and


The 14900K is still built on Intel’s 7 process and its x86 performance hybrid architecture. That means there are performance cores (P-cores) and efficiency cores (E-cores) that split workloads using Intel’s Thread Director, an embedded microcontroller inside the CPU that monitors threads and ensures they’re running on the correct cores.

The core counts haven’t changed this year, but Intel is now supporting DDR5 5600 and DDR4 3200 memory speeds. Unlike AMD and its switch to AM5, Intel continues to maintain DDR4 compatibility for motherboard makers that ship with DDR4 support instead of DDR5.


I have tested a variety of workloads, synthetic benchmarks, and games across both Intel’s Core i9-14900K, comparing it against the previous generation chips and AMD’s competitors. All tests were run on the latest Windows 11 updates with VBS security off, Resizable BAR enabled, and MSI’s game boost disabled. All games were tested at 1080p with high or ultra settings.



Intel Core i9-14900K review benchmarks

Benchmark

Intel Core-i9-13900K

Intel Core i9-13900KS

Intel Core i9-14900K

AMD 7950X

AMD 7950X3D

AMD 7800X3D

AMD 7900X

Geekbench 5 single-thread

2169

2221

2235

2099

2161

1988

2175

Geekbench 5 multithread

25569

25861

26505

21910

22064

12871

18284

Geekbench 6 single-thread

3000

3048

3125

2992

2955

2733

2968

Geekbench 6 multithread

21747

21958

22055

19915

19896

15201

18272

Cinebench R23 single-thread

2076

2114

2146

1961

1994

1796

1984

Cinebench R23 multithread

37486

37665

38394

37135

35307

17784

28224

Cinebench 2024 single-thread

124

127

129

119

121

112

120

Cinebench 2024 multithread

2123

2129

2194

2058

2016

1071

1603

Blender 3.6.4 Fishy Cat

00:12.17

00:12.18

00:11.92

00:12.61

00:12.16

00:16.23

00:12.90

PugetBench for Premiere Pro 0.98

1102

1193

1124

1120

1102

870

1045

PugetBench for Photoshop 0.93.7

1707

1704

1726

1564

1504

1450

1491

3DMark Time Spy CPU

23682

23573

24071

16087

16862

12962

15782

Metro Exodus (Ultra)

158

164

166

164

165

195

153

Forza Motorsport 2023 (Ultra)

109

105

109

108

108

114

110

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (highest)

306

305

312

289

349

366

285

Gears 5 (Ultra)

236

238

240

220

220

255

216

Assassin's Creed Mirage (Highest)

181

181

204

170

211

213

169

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Highest)

213

214

214

215

223

222

214

Watch Dogs: Legion (Ultra)

154

155

159

143

165

184

139

Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra)

204

204

207

184

202

213

183

CPU package temp (C)

103

105

105

96

88

84

92

CPU package power (W)

320

327

324

224

147

81

189




Intel’s new Core i9-14900K comfortably beats AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X and 7950X3D in every creator task that I tested. The 13900K from last year was already beating AMD in most of these creator tasks anyway, but the 14900K extends that lead slightly. I say slightly because all of the improvements are under 5 percent here, and even the gaming gains are only slight, too.


Geekbench 5 single-thread and Cinebench 2024 single-thread performance both show the 14900K beating the 13900K by 4 percent, with the Pugetbench Premiere Pro and Photoshop tests are up just 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. If you’re looking for the best chip for creator tasks, then the 14900K delivers here, but there’s little reason to upgrade from a 13th Gen model. If you’re on a 12th Gen chip, then you’ll get the huge performance benefits of moving to a 13th Gen one and a little bit on top with the 14th Gen, but if you can find a 13900K for less than the cost of the 14th Gen, there’s little reason to spend more.


AMD test machine:

  • CPU cooler: Corsair H150 Elite LCD

  • Motherboard: MSI Meg X670E Ace

  • RAM: 32GB G.Skill DDR5 6000

  • GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090 Founders Edition

  • Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1TB

  • Case: Corsair Crystal 570X

  • PSU: Corsair HX1000W




We also perform a standard video test at The Verge, where we export a five-minute 4K video using Adobe Premiere Pro. I used the latest Premiere Pro 2023 release for this alongside the RTX 4090, and it exported in two minutes and 31 seconds. That’s just a few seconds of improvement over the two minutes and 39 seconds that I recorded when I tested the 13900K last year, further reflecting the small performance increase you’re getting with the flagship 14th Gen chip.


I used Nvidia’s RTX 4090 for game testing across all Intel and AMD chips. Surprisingly, the 14900K lost out to AMD’s 7800X3D in every single gaming test that I ran. We saw the same with the 13900K losing every gaming benchmark earlier this year, and Intel’s 14900K still doesn’t answer the superior performance that AMD’s 3D V-Cache delivers.

The gap between the 14900K and the 7800X3D is around 4 percent in most games, with some managing to perform surprisingly well on the 7800X3D thanks to the 3D V-Cache boosts. Much like the creator benchmarks, the performance boost that the 14900K delivers over the 13900K is minimal. In most games, it’s less than 5 percent better, with the exception of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, where the 14900K manages to deliver scores that are far more competitive with the 7800X3D.


While there’s a small performance gain generation over generation with the 14900K, there’s no efficiency or thermal gains. The 14900K still runs just as hot and power-hungry as the 13900K. During a Cinebench R23 multithread benchmark, I recorded temperatures of 105C. That’s the same temperature that I saw on the 13900K and 2C more than the standard 13900K.


AMD’s 7950X managed to reach 96C during the same test, with the 7900X maxing out at 92C during the Cinebench test. The 7950X3D managed to max out at 88C during the same test. While the 14900K still beats the 7950X3D by nearly 9 percent during this Cinebench R23 multithread test, the fact AMD manages to come close at nearly 20C cooler shows just how much Intel is pushing the limits here.


Those limits extend to power usage, too. In the same Cinebench test, the 14900K maxes out at 324 watts, but the 7950X3D only hits 147 watts. That’s a huge difference in power draw, with Intel drawing 120 percent more power for a nearly 9 percent performance improvement. And when you look at the gaming side of things, the 7800X3D and 7950X3D simply run a lot cooler most of the time and use far less energy than the 14900K.


It’s hard to recommend the 14900K this year unless you really want the best creator performance out there and you don’t care about your energy bills or the sheer heat it produces. AMD’s 7800X3D is simply a better choice for gaming, particularly as it’s easy to find for under $400 compared to the $589 (and likely above) pricing for the 14900K.

Intel still needs an answer to AMD’s 3D V-Cache, and it’s not clear when that’s going to arrive. Rumors point to an Intel Arrow Lake desktop CPU launch next year, with a socket swap to LGA 1851. The 14th Gen feels like the end of LGA 1700 and, with it, a whimper of performance improvements.



Meanwhile, Intel is losing out on the gaming side of performance but still dominating for creative tasks. That will make the choice difficult for those who need both gaming and creative app performance. But for those just looking to game, the choice is obvious.


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