Intel Core i9-14900K, Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Core i5-14600K - Test

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TestIntel Core i9-14900K, Intel Core i7-14700K and Intel Core i5-14600K

“Raptor Lake Refresh” is only slightly refreshing.

KameraVegar Jansen / Tek.no

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In the fall of 2023, Intel pulled the curtain on the latest generation of processors with “i5”, “i7” and “i9” in the name, i.e. the 14th generation of Core. Three or six models have been released, depending on how you define it: Intel Core i9-14900K/KF, Intel Core i7-14700K/KF, and Intel Core i5-14600K/KF.

In January 2024, the company also released several lower-performance models, but these are less attractive to most PC builders.

We may be a little late, but we finally got to test the three powerful K editions. Keep in mind that the KF-branded processors are essentially identical, except they have no working graphics parts. This means that they are often also a little more affordable, but at the same time you also need to have a graphics card.

Core i9-14900K/KFCore i9-13900K/KFCore i7-14700K/KFCore i7-13700K/KFCore i5-14600K/KFCore i5-13600K/KFAntall kjerner (P/E)24 (8+16)24 (8+16)16 (8+12)16 (8+8)14 (6+8)14 (6+8)Antall tråder323228242020Cache (L3+L2)68 MB68 MB57 MB54 MB44 MB44 MBMaks turbofrekvens (P/E)6,0/4,4 GHz5.8/4.3 GHz5.6/4.3 GHz5.4/4.2 GHz5.3/4.0 GHz5.1/3.9 GHzGrunnfrekvens (P/E)3.2/2.2 GHz3, 0/2.2 GHz3.4/2.5 GHz3.4/2.5 GHz3.5/2.6 GHz3.5/2.6 GHzGraphics (with «K» CPU)UHD Graphics 770UHD Graphics 770UHD Graphics 770UHD Graphics Card 770UHD Graphics 770UHD Graphics 770Base Power125 watts125 watts125 watts125 watts125 watts125 wattsMaximum Turbo Power253 watts253 watts253 watts253 watts181 watts181 wattsStandard DDR5-hastighet5600 MT/s5600 MT/s5600 MT/s5600 MT /s5600 MT/s5600 MT/ sÅpne fullskjermMer +

Compared to the previous generation, also known by the code name “Raptor Lake”, we see that there is not a big difference. Thus is the code name of the new generation “Raptor Lake Refresh”. This reveals that even Intel does not see this generation of processors as a major revolution.

What’s new are slightly faster clock frequencies, plus the Core i7-14700K has gained four additional efficiency cores (E-cores) compared to its immediate predecessor. However, note the difference compared to P nuclei (performance/performance) which has even more power.

Equally important is that the socket, known as LGA 1700, is the same as the previous two generations of processors. This means that in theory everyone should be able to upgrade their desktop PC with a 12th or 13th generation Core to one of the newer, faster processors if desired.

KameraVegar Jansen / Tek.no

Since Intel’s new processors are strictly speaking just a continuation of the architecture we know from previous generations, we’re not doing any deep dives into the technology. For more information, we refer you to the Core i9-13900K and Core i5-13600K tests.

Latest test setup

There are still some changes from last year’s Raptor Lake test. Our test routines now include a number of recent games and an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card.

At the same time, we stuck with the same motherboard, albeit with updated BIOS: ROG Maximus Z690 Hero from Asus. For processor cooling – because there is a need for it – the ROG Ryujin II 360 closed water cooling solution was put to the test.

We maintained the official memory speed of 5600 MT/s using 2 x 16 GB of G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5 memory and Microsoft Windows 11 was used as the operating system during the testing period.

Results

Having clarified the background and configuration, let’s take a look at how Intel’s relatively fresh trio is performing. For comparison, we of course have the previous generations of Core processors – unfortunately we are missing the i7-13700K – and a small group of newer and older competitors from AMD.

As usual, we start with the “synthetic” results of the Cinebench R23 and GeekBench 5 benchmark programs. Here, “simple” means single-core operation, while “all” means that the processors use all their cores and all their power.

As we can see, the three new ones are positioned according to this company’s recipe, with the Core i9-14900K at the top in almost all four tests. Interestingly, this still doesn’t have the fastest single-core performance we’ve seen, because on this point the Apple M3 is actually even faster.

The processor that still catches our attention is the Core i7-14700K. Being the only one of the three, as already mentioned, it has received four additional efficiency cores compared to its predecessor. With 20 cores in total, in many cases it is not very far from its bigger brother i9-14900K in terms of performance, although in terms of price it is closer to its smaller brother i5-14600K.

For tasks that require a lot of very fast single cores, but aren’t necessarily able to use them all to their fullest, Intel is still slightly ahead of AMD. Only in V-Ray can the 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X offer some revenge.

When we get to the “game intelligence” grind of Civilization VI (where, by the way, we constantly test with a GeForce GTX 2080 Ti graphics card from Nvidia), it seems like the game doesn’t know how to take full advantage of the special number of cores for Core i7-14700K. Or it could be a coincidence: in any case the difference here is not great.

In 3DMark we can sometimes get a good impression of the gaming forces, but the program also tends to favor many cores, especially in heavier tests. Of the four tests here, Fire Strike is the lightest, and here for some reason the Intel Core i7-14700K thrives the most.

When we start looking at measurements with real games, we first take two slightly older titles. When comparing previous Intel processors, we must remember that the motherboard will have received a new BIOS, while both games, graphics card drivers and Windows have been updated.

But the fact is that we don’t see any particular improvements here compared to the previous generation. The highlight is once again the Core i7-14700K, which is quite close to its bigger brother i9-14900K in terms of gaming performance.

So it’s still AMD’s “X3D” models that excel in our gaming tests.

We see the same in Horizon Zero Dawn, where all Intel processors end up at the bottom of the list.

In addition to resolution, the level of detail plays a certain role when graphics cards and processors have to grind games. That’s why we’ve included Cyberpunk 2077 at both low and medium graphics settings. The latter at least ensures that Intel can continue to stay at the top.

The attentive reader will notice that we don’t show that many processors here, this is because the game received such large updates in autumn 2023 that the old results are not directly comparable with the new ones. We therefore had to test all processors again, and then settled on a smaller selection.

Forza Horizon 5 is another game where we had trouble matching the results of old tests, so once again we ran new tests on only one group of processors.

The three “Refresh” processors all have the same graphics solution as the regular Raptor Lake – and the rest of the Alder Lake predecessor – namely UHD Graphics 770. Therefore, it is not so strange that the graphics performance ends up at the same level when we remove the graphics card of the computer.

As we can see, this is a level above the performance of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series, but at the same time slightly behind the slightly older Ryzen 5700G.

This last diagram shows typical power consumption under high processor load, and we took measurements in two ways. One is through the AIDA64 app, which sees how much power the entire CPU part absorbs, and the other value we get from a simple power meter connected to the socket.

With the latter we see how much energy the entire computer consumes, and we measured this without a dedicated graphics card. Previous Ryzen processors did not have an integrated graphics solution, and therefore we are missing some values.

Our measurements show one reason why Raptor Lake Refresh isn’t a bigger step up from the previous generation than it actually is: the platform simply has nothing else to offer. Intel raises the bar a little further with the Core i9-14900K, which then gets the dubious honor of being the most power-hungry processor we’ve ever encountered.

Otherwise, the Core i7-14700K performs similarly to the older top model i9-13900K, while its smaller brother i5-14600K seems almost power-hungry in comparison. In fact, it is far from anything like that.

We did not attempt to overclock any of the processors. As mentioned, there are small margins here, and we still have the same cooling system as when we tested the predecessors.

Conclusion

Raptor Lake Refresh – or 14th generation Core if you prefer – is Intel’s latest splash with this processor architecture and LGA 1700 socket. On paper and in practice, we notice a slight increase in performance compared to the previous generation, at least in some programs and Games.

KameraVegar Jansen / Tek.no

In other cases, it is more or less a “dead race” against the Core i9-13900K and i5-13600K, and therefore we don’t even see a good reason to replace them with a new matching model.

But if you currently own a 12th generation Core, you’ll be more likely to benefit from an upgrade, as you can simply swap out the processor and use the same motherboard.

Of the three processors we tested, the real bright spot is the Core i7-14700K. This has more cores than its immediate predecessor. This means that in many cases it can keep up with the best of both competitor AMD and Intel itself – and at a significantly lower price.

At the same time, it unfortunately also suffers from the same high power consumption as Intel’s other top models Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K. In games, it can’t even compare to AMD’s “X3D” models, at least not in our tests when we emphasize the low resolution and the same level of detail.

But for those who already have a suitable Intel motherboard and a slightly weak processor, the Core i7-14700K is still a clear preferred upgrade in this regard.

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Intel Core i7-14700K

quoteWith four more processor cores than its predecessor, this is a real improvement and a possible upgrade.

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