The Intel Core i9-14900K is a hard chip to justify, which is a weird thing to say about a processor that is arguably the best Intel has ever put out.
With very little fanfare to herald its arrival following the announcement of Intel Meteor Lake at Intel Innovation in September 2023 (and confirmation that Intel Meteor Lake is coming to desktop in 2024), Intel's 14th-generation flagship processor cannot help but draw parallels to the 11th-gen Rocket Lake chips that immediately preceded Intel Alder Lake.
The Core i9-11900K was something of a placeholder in the market until Intel could launch Alder Lake at the end of 2021. Those processors featured a new hybrid architecture and a more advanced 10nm process that helped propel Intel back to the top of our best processor list, despite strong competition from AMD.
With Intel Raptor Lake Refresh, we're back in placeholder territory, unfortunately. The performance gains here are all but non-existent, so we are essentially waiting on Meteor Lake while the i9-14900K absolutely guzzles electricity and runs hot enough to boil water under just about any serious workload with very little extra performance over the Intel Core i9-13900K to justify the upgrade.
It's not that the Core i9-14900K isn't a great processor; again, it's unquestionably the best Intel processor for the consumer market in terms of performance. It beats every other chip I tested in most categories with the exception of some multitasking workflows and average gaming performance, both of which it comes in as a very close runner-up. On top of that, at $589, it's the same price as the current Intel flagship, the Intel Core i9-13900K (assuming the i9-14900K matches the i9-13900K's £699 / AU$929 sale price in the UK and Australia).
The
problem for the Core i9-14900K is two-fold: you can still get the i9-13900K and
will be able to for a long while yet at a lower price, and the Intel Core
i7-14700K offers performance so close to the 14th-gen flagship at a much lower
price that the 14900K looks largely unnecessary by comparison. Essentially, If
you've got an i7-13700K or i9-13900K, there's is simply nothing for you here.
If
you're on an 11th-gen chip or older, or you've got an AMD Ryzen processor and
you're looking to switch, this chip will be the last one to use the LGA 1700
socket, so when Meteor Lake-S comes out in 2024 (or even Lunar Lake-S, due out
at the end of 2024 or early 2025), you won't be able to upgrade to that
processor with an LGA 1700 motherboard.
In other words, upgrading to an LGA 1700 for this chip is strictly a one-shot
deal.
The
only people who might find this chip worth upgrading to are those currently
using a 12th-gen processor who skipped the 13th-gen entirely, or someone using
a 13th-gen core i5 who wants that extra bit of performance and doesn't mind
dropping $589 on a chip they might be upgrading from again in a year's time,
which isn't going to be a whole lot of people.
Unfortunately,
at this price, it'll be better to save your money and wait for Meteor Lake or
even Lunar Lake to drop next year and put the $589 you'd spend on this chip
towards the new motherboard and CPU cooler you'll need once those chips are
launched.
The Intel Core i9-14900K is available as of October 17, 2023, for a US MSRP of $589 (about £470/AU$855), which is the same as the Intel Core i9-13900K it is replacing. We don't have confirmation on UK and Australia pricing yet, though I've asked Intel for clarification and will update this review if and when I hear back from the company. If the 14900K keeps the same UK and Australia pricing as the Core i9-13900K, however, it'll sell for £699/AU$929 in the UK and Australia respectively.
Meanwhile,
this is still cheaper than most of AMD's rival chips in this tier, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X,
and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D,
with only the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X coming in cheaper than the i9-14900K.
This does make the Core i9-14900K the better value against these chips, especially given the level of performance on offer, but it's ultimately too close to the 13900K performance-wise to make this price meaningful, as a cheaper 13900K will offer an even better value against AMD's Ryzen 9 lineup.
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