Intel Core i9-14900K: BETTER WAIT FOR ARROW LAKE

As it stands, Intel's 14th Gen 'Raptor Lake Refresh' Core i914900K is a powerful but puzzling addition to the chip maker's line-up. Its capabilities are beyond question, but its practical application and appeal are significantly less clear-cut.

With Meteor Lake (the true 14th generation of Intel's CPU architecture) on the horizon and existing options that deliver comparable performance at a much lower cost, the i914900K may ultimately find itself occupying a somewhat awkward position in the market.

A particular point of contention is the 19-14700K's lack of substantial innovation over the Core i913900K. Both chips use Intel's 10nm Intel 7 process node and boast the same number of processor cores (8 P-cores/16 E-cores), threads (32), and cache (32MB of L2 cache along with an additional 36MB of L3 cache). So, what exactly distinguishes the newer model? The answer lies primarily in the realm of clock speeds. The i9-14900K receives a modest 0.2GHz increase to its base frequencies.

Its P-core turbo boost clock ascends to 5.6GHz, and the E-core turbo clock inches up to 4.4GHz. This is a small leap from the 13900K's 5.4GHz P-core and 4.3GHZ E-core turbo clocks. Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 identifies the best-performing core in the chip and hikes up its frequency further, as long as the power and thermal constraints allow it. This tweak pushes the Core i914900K up to 5.8GHz turbo clock on specific P-cores. There's also an additional feature exclusive to the Core i9 - Intel Thermal Velocity Boost. This engages when a P-core, which is already being ramped up by Turbo. Boost Max Technology 3.0 and still has some headroom left, to further boost up to an impressive 6.0GHz.