Intel has launched the 14th generation Core i9-14900K, which aims to be one of the fastest processors available for desktop platforms. This all-new i9-14900K is the best processor that Intel offers in its new lineup, and we took an exciting ride with this 14th generation Core i9 CPU for a few weeks from Intel for this review. In this review of Intel's Core i9-14900K, we tested the chip on many different workloads – synthetic software, gaming and content creation software. The aim is to tell you if this new 14th generation Core i9 processor is worth buying, how it improves on its predecessor (Core i9-13900K) from the last generation and what exactly the 'Raptor Lake Refresh' architecture brings to the table. Without further ado, let's get into the Core i9-14900K review.
The world's fastest CPU (technically…) – Intel i9-14900KS
Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh architecture is based on a refined Intel 7 manufacturing process, and this time around, Intel's 14th generation processors don't have a drastic new architecture name. If you remember, the 13th generation chips were based on Raptor Lake. So, as the new architecture's name suggests, the chips within the 14th generation PC processor lineup are simply based on an updated, improved version of the Raptor Lake architecture previously used on the 13th generation
Intel's biggest architectural innovation in recent processor generations was using the hybrid performance design. This makes up the dedicated performance cores (P cores) and efficiency cores (E cores) that first came to 12th Gen Alder Lake.
Speaking of the Core i9-14900K, it has 24 cores and 32 threads made up of 8 P-pores (targeted at performance) and 16 E-cores (targeted at efficiency). The specs are pretty similar to the previous generation 13900K – same base and turbo watts, same amount of L2 cache, and for the RAM support, it still supports 5600MHz (that is, if you don't enable XMP if applicable). A big change here is to use the small architectural efficiency improvement leveraged for an increased core clock. This processor goes up to 6.0 GHz with Intel Thermal Velocity Boost. As long as your motherboard's VRMs and CPU coolers can handle a 253W load, the 14900K should be able to turbo to 6GHz out of the box.
