Intel® Core™ 14th Gen Processors: Higher Power and New Connectivity

MicroCenterOfficial · October 2023

Written by Sean Mekinda

Out today, the next wave of Intel processors have arrived! Launching today are the Intel Core 14th Gen i9-14900k, i7-14700k, and i5-14600k processors, bringing with them the next leap in Intel's processor technology. This new gen features improved speeds and, in the case of the Intel Core i7-14700k, increased cores and threads over its predecessor for even more power.

What's new with Intel Core 14th Gen Processors?

The biggest difference over the previous generation is power. Intel Core 14th Gen continues to make use of Hybrid Processing to better maximize the potential of your chip, sorting processes into Efficiency-Core tasks and Performance-Core tasks, depending on the intensity. E-Cores focus on easier, single-threaded tasks while P-Cores handle the high-intensity, multi-threaded work.

The i5K, i7K, and i9K all see an uptick in frequency in both their P- and E-Cores, with a focus on Max Turbo Boost speeds. The i9K has an additional .2GHz boost in its base clock speeds as well, for both the P- and E-Cores.

The biggest change over their predecessors, however, is in the i7-14700K. The 14700K introduces an extra four E-cores, bringing its total number of cores up to 20. It also ups its thread count by four, bringing it up to 28, as well bumping it's L2 Cache to 28MB and Intel Smart Cache to 33MB, for a total cache size of 61MB. That puts it even closer to the i9's 24 cores/32 threads/68MB Cache, closing the gap between the high-end and mid-tier processors and bringing more power to your average build.

Intel Core 14th Gen processors also feature, for the first time, support for Wi-Fi 7, the latest and greatest wireless connection to date. Wi-Fi 7 offers improved speeds and reliability over previous Wi-Fi generations.

Which Intel Core 14th Gen Processor is Right for My Build?

Deciding which processor to use in your new build boils down to one simple question: what are you planning on using your build for?

You Should Use the i5-14600K if:

You're looking for gaming performance. If your only concern is making sure your games are running smoothly, the Intel Core i5-14500K is a great fit. Intel's Hybrid Processing means that your games will be handled by the most capable cores - the Performance-cores.

You Should Use the i7-14700K if:

You're looking to game and do work. The 17-14700k gives you the power and freedom to game while streaming, giving you the tools to put yourself out there and start making your hobby a career. And when you're not live, the 14700K has the power to help with your video editing projects so you can chop down your stream to the most viral moments.

You Should Use the i9-14900K if:

You need power. The 19-14900k offers peak performance for both gaming and content creation. Export recordings and videos quicker than ever before and get right back to playing the latest AAA titles at killer framerates. Show your audience what you're really capable of.

Intel 13th Gen vs Intel 14th Gen Benchmarks:

Cinebench:

Cinebench tests processors for responsiveness and power in both intensive tasks (multi-core) and general daily usage tasks (single-core). The higher the points the better, and we can clearly see that in both multi- and single-threaded tests, the 14th Gen processors overtake their 13th Gen counterparts. For multi-threaded tests, the 14th Gen beats out 13th Gen by thousands of points.

Intel® Core™ 14th Gen Specs at a Glance

Intel Core 14th Gen Core i9-14900K

Cores: 24 (8P+16E)
Threads: 32
Base Clock: 3.2Ghz Performance, 2.4Ghz Efficient
Max Turbo Frequency: up to 6.0GHz (5.6GHz Performance, 4.4GHz Efficient)
L2 Cache: 32MB
Intel Smart Cache (L3 Cache): 36MB
Socket: LGA1700
Max Memory Speed: DDR5-5600, DDR4-3200
Unlocked for Overclocking

Intel Core 14th Gen Core i7-14700K

Cores: 20 (8P+12E)
Threads: 28
Base Clock: 3.4Ghz Performance, 2.5Ghz Efficient
Max Turbo Frequency: up to 5.6GHz (5.5GHz Performance, 4.3GHz Efficient)
L2 Cache: 28MB
Intel Smart Cache (L3 Cache): 33MB
Socket: LGA1700
Max Memory Speed: DDR5-5600, DDR4-3200
Unlocked for Overclocking

Intel Core 14th Gen Core i5-14600K

Cores: 14 (6P+8E)
Threads: 20
Base Clock: 3.5Ghz Performance, 2.6Ghz Efficient
Max Turbo Frequency: up to 5.3GHz (5.3Ghz Performance, 4.0 Efficient)
L2 Cache: 20MB
Intel Smart Cache (L3 Cache): 24MB
Socket: LGA1700
Max Memory Speed: DDR5-5600, DDR4-3200
Unlocked for Overclocking

Intel's new line of 14th Gen processors are available now at Micro Center. Be sure to check out our Intel 14th Gen Build Guide for a great Intel Core i7-14700K build!

Ian · October 2023

Great to see the next generation of Intel processors readily available for purchase.

ChaosDTV · October 2023

the I7 14700k is looking like my fav build

PowerSpec_MikeW · October 2023

I want to point out something that most online reviews seem to be missing on the 14th Gen processors. Intel has significantly improved thermals from what we're seeing in our testing. My opinion is your performance improvements are going to come from the much improved thermals rather than the generational IPC increase on these CPU's. For overclockers, that means a lot of additional overhead to find.