A year after the release of Core 13, Intel brought players Core 14th generation desktop processors, increased the frequency and core count from the previous generation, and launched a series of functional upgrades including Wi-Fi 7, Thunderbolt 5, new application optimizers and XTU. So as the "last" generation of Core under the original nomenclature, can it bring us new surprises? This launch test will give you the answer.
↓↓↓Click the video to understand the performance measurement↓↓↓
Video loading...
Not only frequency and core upgrades, Core 14 generation brings more evolution
Intel Core 14th generation desktop processors still use the 13th generation Raptor Cove microarchitecture, but have made some updates in core frequency, core count, cache and platform support, while adding some application optimizations. In terms of platform, it can continue to be compatible with 600 and 700 series motherboards, and players only need to update the BIOS, effectively reducing the upgrade cost.
However, with the release of Core 14, Intel also brought Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt 5 to players. Wi-Fi 7 has better wireless connectivity, higher bandwidth, lower latency, and vastly improved security. The new Thunderbolt 5 provides 80Gbps or even 3-lane 120 Gbps downstream bandwidth on top of the original 40Gbps bandwidth (Thunderbolt 4), and the power supply capacity has been increased to a maximum of 240W. Players will enjoy these features on the new 700 series motherboard.
In addition, Intel has also updated the new Intel Application Optimizer, which is based on the Intel Dynamic FM technology framework, combined with Intel hardware thread scheduler, to achieve scheduling strategies for specific application scenarios and applications, bringing significant performance improvements.
The overclocking ability of the Core 14th generation K series has also been improved, and the memory can easily support the specifications of DDR5 8000. The Intel XTU overclocking tool is also currently open to SDK, which is convenient for developers to build their own overclocking tools. In addition, for entry-level and ordinary players, it provides an AI-based overclocking assistant, which will find recommended overclocking parameter configurations for the player's host according to the user's hardware environment, with artificial intelligence and a large number of internal learning training, to achieve more convenient and fast overclocking.
The first Core 14th generation desktop processors to market included 6 K-series products. This includes the i9-14900K/KF, i7-14700K/KF, i5-14600K/KF, and our tests used the i9-14900K, i7-14700K, and i5-14600K with HD graphics.
i9-14900K/KF has the core specifications of 8P+16E, and the P-core TVB frequency is as high as 6.0 GHz, which is 200MHz higher than the 5.8GHz of the previous generation i9-13900K/KF, and is a 6GHz processor in the true sense of the box.
The i7-14700K/KF is the most changed product in this generation, adding 4 energy cores compared to the i7-13700K/KF, which will bring a significant multi-threaded performance improvement. At the same time, the i7-14700K/KF can reach a maximum turbo frequency of 5.6 GHz, which is 200MHz higher than the previous generation i7-13700K/KF. The maximum turbo frequency of the energy efficiency core has also been increased from the previous generation of 4.2GHz to 4.3GHz.
i5-14600K/KF has a 6P+8E core, which is consistent with the previous generation. The P-core maximum turbo frequency has been increased from 5.1GHz to 5.3GHz, an increase of 200MHz, and the E-core turbo frequency can reach 4.0 GHz. Although the size of the i5-14600K has not changed, the increase in frequency makes its single-core performance closer to the previous generation i9-13900K, which is good news for mid-range players.
Of course, in order to make the Core 14th generation better performance, GIGABYTE, as an important partner of Intel, has long prepared a new 700 series motherboard, of which the Z790 AORUS PRO X ice sculpture is one of the dessert flagship masterpieces.
GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X APPRECIATION
The GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X (hereinafter referred to as the Z790 Ice Sculpture X) belongs to the newly added ice sculpture series, and in terms of appearance, it has a silver and white color scheme compared to the previous Xiaodiao PRO.
↓↓↓Click the video to appreciate the Z790 ice sculpture X↓↓↓
Video loading...
Z790 Ice Sculpture X is equipped with 18+1+2 phase digital power supply, of which the 18-phase processor power supply is equipped with 90A power level chip, which fully meets the power supply needs of i9-14900K full blood release performance.
At the same time, the motherboard also equips the VRM circuit with a new generation of integrated heat dissipation armor, adopts a composite trench design and is equipped with a high-quality thermal pad, and built-in 8mm heat pipes, so it can provide quite excellent heat dissipation efficiency and ensure that the VRM will not overheat continuously with high load power supply.
In terms of memory, the Z790 Ice Sculpture X provides excellent electrical performance by equipping it with 8 layers of 2oz copper server-grade PCB, anti-interference mask, back drilling technology, SMD technology and isolated memory wiring, so that it can easily support the DDR5 8266+ high-frequency memory. At the same time, thanks to GIGABYTE's unique D5 black technology, it can also support "memory high bandwidth" and "memory low latency" functions to further improve memory performance for free.
In terms of expansion slots, the Z790 Ice Sculpture X is loaded with a new generation of ultra-durable graphics card slot X, which adopts a seamless integrated design and is fixed on a dedicated backplane, so it has 10 times the carrying capacity of ordinary graphics card slots. In addition, the Ultra Durable Graphics Slot X is equipped with a rubber liner to protect the graphics card PCB from scratches. Ultra-durable graphics slot X is also equipped with a zinc alloy shield to effectively reduce signal interference from the outside world.
The Z790 Ice Sculpture X offers 5 M.2 slots and is equipped with an integrated anti-interference metal mask, full-coverage thermal armor XL, and thermal backplane. Of the 5 M.2 slots, two are directly out by the processor, supporting PCIe 5.0×4 and PCIe 4.0×4, respectively, and the other 3 are provided by motherboard chips, all supporting PCIe 4.0×4. It is worth mentioning that the M.2 slot supporting PCIe 5.0 can install SSDs up to 25110 size specifications, and when using this slot, the first graphics card slot will run in X8 mode.
In terms of peripheral functions, the Z790 Ice Sculpture X is equipped with a 5 gigabit wired network card and a Wi-Fi 7 wireless network card, of which the Wi-Fi 7 wireless network card supports MLO multi-link technology, which can assign streaming media and game applications to different frequency bands, and cooperate with the high-gain magnetic antenna attached to the motherboard to achieve a smooth and non-stuttering network experience.
For designer users, Z790 Ice Sculpture X also has an intimate design, it provides VisionLINK technology can realize USB Type-C one-line communication, while realizing data transmission, 60W charging and up to 4096 ×2304@60Hz video signal output, convenient for designer users to connect to the hand-painted screen for creation.
In terms of personalization and ease of use, the Z790 Ice Sculpture X also brings unique innovations. The first is the new UC BIOS, which features a redesigned user interface, quick access in Easy mode, and optimized performance based on thermal configuration through PerfDrive black technology. The motherboard also supports the EZ-Latch quick and easy removal function, one-click disassembly of graphics cards and M.2 SSDs.
It is particularly commendable that the Z790 Ice Sculpture X has a special on-board video interface for DIY players who like the secondary screen of the chassis, eliminating the trouble of complicated wiring. Of course, the Z790 Ice Sculpture X also supports the RGB Fusion lighting system, which is convenient for players to create a lighting MOD console.
In general, the upgrade of Z790 Ice Sculpture X is very comprehensive, in addition to the improvement of materials and heat dissipation, but also has a very eye-catching innovation in stability and ease of use, it can be called the cost-effective flagship car of the Core 14th generation, especially suitable for enthusiast players and designers who pursue high appearance and high performance.
Next, let's take a look at the actual combat performance of the Core 14th generation
Practical test: 6GHz shows its skills, and the Core 14th generation climbs to the peak of performance
Test bed
处理器:i9-14900K/i9-13900K/i7-14700K/i7-13700K/i5-14600K/i5-13600K
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X
Radiator: GIGABYTE Sculpture PRO360
RAM: Asgard Boraki DDR5 7200 16GB×2
Graphics: RTX 4090 FE
Hard disk: WD_BLACK SN850X 2TB
Power supply: GIGABYTE UD1000GM
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro
Before testing, we unlocked the processor power wall, enabled the memory XMP frequency, and turned on the "Memory Low Latency" and "Memory High Bandwidth" functions of D5 Black Technology in the GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X motherboard BIOS to ensure that the system is in the best performance state.
Benchmark performance testing
In terms of baseline performance, the i9-14900K benefits from higher frequencies, bringing up to about 3% performance improvement over the i9-13900K. The improvement of i5-14600K compared to i5-13600K is also more in line with this law. However, due to the addition of 4 energy-efficient cores, the i7-14700K has a huge increase in multi-threading, up to 19%, and single-threading has also improved by about 4%.
Productivity performance testing
In the productivity test of content creation, the i9-14900K performs similarly to the benchmark, with about 3% overall performance improvement compared to i9-13900K, and i5-14600K has a higher overall improvement compared to i5-13600K, up to 7%. Due to the addition of 4 energy-efficient cores, the i7-14700K has a huge improvement in professional applications that eat multi-threaded performance, up to 20%, and an average of about 13%.
Game performance testing
Let's take a look at the playtests that gamers care about the most. We selected 19 popular games for testing, and based on the frame rate performance of 19 games, the maximum improvement of i9-14900K compared to i9-13900K can reach 4.59%, the maximum improvement of i7-14700K compared to i7-13700K can reach 4.32%, and the maximum improvement of i5-14600K relative to i5-13600K can reach 4.41%. Overall, choosing Core 14 Gen can really give players a smoother gaming experience.
Full load power test
In terms of power, we use Cinebench R23 test machine, unlocking the power wall, the i9-14900K's continuous full load power is maintained at about 360W, which puts forward higher requirements for the motherboard power supply, but this is easy for the Z790 ice sculpture X motherboard, which is very powerful in the power supply design, and the i7-14700K and i5-14600K are not a problem.
In terms of overclocking, using integrated water cooling, the i9-14900K was overclocked through Intel's new version of XTU, and after a simple attempt, it finally stabilized at P-core all-core 5.9 GHz, E-core all-core 4.7 GHz, and Cinebench R23 multi-core score came to 43774. If only the P-core is super-core, it can be used stably beyond the P-core all-core 6 GHz, which also proves that the i9-14900K can indeed be called a 6 GHz processor out of the box.
Summary: Core 14th generation brings a more extreme experience, and the platform has more practical upgrades
Finally, to sum up, Core 14 has achieved further performance upgrades by increasing frequency and cores compared to the previous generation of products, bringing players and users more efficient choices. In particular, the i7-14700K, due to the addition of 4 energy-efficient cores, the multi-threaded performance improvement is very obvious, providing a fairly excellent price-performance ratio when the initial pricing is the same as the previous generation.
In addition, Core 14th generation also brings platform function upgrades, such as Wi-Fi 7, Thunderbolt 5, stable support DDR5 8000 and a new generation of application optimizer, XTU overclocking tool with AI intelligent guidance, etc., which comprehensively improves the platform experience and enhances the ease of use and user-friendliness of the Intel platform.
In addition to the processor itself, the new version of the 700 series motherboard that appeared with the Core 14th generation is also very interesting, such as the Gigabyte Z790X snow sculpture, which supports PCIe 5.0 graphics card and M.2 slot, a dedicated video interface for the secondary screen of the onboard chassis, easily supports DDR5 8266 frequencies above and has exclusive D5 black technology, of course, there are also new Wi-Fi 7 wireless network cards and 5 gigabit wired network cards. Using it to carry a Core 14th generation flagship such as the i9-14900K to build a top-performance console is undoubtedly a good choice.