Intel has officially announced its 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh processors, including the Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K, and Core i5-14600K. Contrary to previous rumors, these chips will have a similar price point to their predecessors when they are released on October 17.
There were speculations that the Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs would be priced up to 15% higher than their 13th-gen counterparts. However, Intel has confirmed that the Core i9-14900K will be priced at $589, with the KF variant at $564. The Core i7-14700K will have a price tag of $409, or $384 for the KF model without integrated graphics, while the Core i5-14600K will be available for $319, or $294 for the KF chip.
One of the highlights of the Core i9-14900K is its ability to boost up to 6 GHz, making it the fastest desktop processor at volume according to Intel. Although the special-edition 13900KS could surpass 6 GHz at stock, it was not widely available. Intel is positioning the Core i9-14900K as a direct competitor to AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X, with slightly better performance in games at 1080p and up to 54% faster performance in creator workflows.
It is worth noting that the 14th-gen processors do not offer a significant performance improvement compared to their 13th-gen counterparts. However, Intel argues that these chips are optimized and refined refreshes, offering mid-to-upper single-digit percentage performance improvements compared to the previous generation of Raptor Lake products.
Out of the three CPUs, the Core i7-14700K is the only one with an upgrade in the number of cores, featuring four extra E cores compared to its predecessor. Additionally, it has more L2/L3 cache. This chip might be of particular interest to those looking to upgrade.
The Core i5-14600K, on the other hand, consists of 14 cores, including six P cores and eight E cores, with the ability to boost up to 5.3 GHz.
Intel has also introduced new features alongside the Raptor Lake Refresh processors. The XTU tuning utility now includes the AI Assist program, which uses machine learning to provide custom one-click overclocking settings for the Core i9 models. Furthermore, the Application Optimization program detects games and optimizes the CPU specifically for those titles.
The Raptor Lake Refresh processors utilize the LGA 1700 socket and are compatible with both 600- and 700-series motherboards. They support Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, DDR5 5600, and DDR4 3200.
Overall, the 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh processors from Intel offer slight performance improvements and will be available from retailers and system builders starting October 17.
