Intel 14th Gen Core Processor Lineup

Intel 14th Gen Core Raptor Lake Refresh has a lot in common with the company's 9th Gen Core Coffee Lake Refresh, in that they're both the same microarchitecture as their preceding generation, but with improvements across the processor models such as increased CPU core-counts, cache sizes, clock speeds, or overclocking improvements.

Just like with the 13th- and 12th Gen launches, Intel is beginning the 14th Gen product lifecycle by launching its overclocker-friendly Unlocked K SKUs, and their iGPU-disabled sub-variants with the KF brand extension. Intel is not introducing a new silicon, which means the maximum CPU core counts remain the same for the silicon—8P+16E, or 8 "Raptor Cove" Performance cores, with 16 "Gracemont" Efficiency cores. The top Core i9-14900K obviously maxes this out, and Intel has chosen not to tinker with the core-counts of the Core i5-14600K over its predecessor—it's still 6P+8E. The Core i7-14700K, however, sees its third consecutive core-count increase. The i7-11700K "Rocket Lake" was an 8P/0E processor, the i7-12700K "Alder Lake" was 8P+4E, which stepped up to 8P+8E with the i7-13700K "Raptor Lake," and now the Core i7-14700K sees it go up a notch to 8P+12E. Besides the increase in CPU cores, the L3 cache sees a 10% increase, to 33 MB.

The Core i9-14900K is an 8P+16E processor, with the full 36 MB L3 cache available on the silicon. Intel has re-introduced the Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) technology exclusively for the 14th Gen Core i9. If the cooling is found suitable, the i9-14900K can boost up to 6.00 GHz, just like the i9-13900KS Limited Edition processor.

The Core i7-14700K, as we mentioned, is an 8P+12E processor with 33 MB of L3 cache. The processor gets 4 extra E-cores in the form of an additional E-core cluster, which has 4 MB of L2 cache shared among its cores. The i7-14700K lacks TVB, but its maximum boost frequency for the P-cores is 5.60 GHz, a 200 MHz increase from that of the i7-13700K. The E-core boost frequency gets a similar increase, from 4.20 GHz on the i7-13700K, to 4.40 GHz.

The Core i5-14600K holds onto the 6P+8E core-count of its predecessor, but with generational increases in clock speeds—the P-cores now boost up to 5.30 GHz, up from the 5.10 GHz max boost frequency of the i5-13600K; while the E-cores now boost up to 4.00 GHz, up from 3.90 GHz on the older chip. The L3 cache size is unchanged at 24 MB.

Intel has decided keep MSRP pricing the same as the outgoing 13th Gen SKUs, which could see some price-cuts until they are EOL. The i9-13900K is priced at USD $589, with the i9-14900KF at $564; the i7-14700K is positioned at the same $409 MSRP as its predecessor, with the i7-14700KF at $384. The Core i5-14600K is yours for $319, with the i5-14600KF at $294. All that sets the -K and -KF chips apart is the lack of integrated graphics on the latter, which should allow gaming PC builders that won't need it to save a bit, which they could spend on slightly better RAM or cooling—the price differences aren't much, but they're not nothing.

Intel's focus on bolstering the i7-14700K over its predecessor has to do with AMD's 12-core/24-thread Ryzen chips, particularly the Ryzen 9 7900X3D, which gives you the gaming performance boost from the 3D V-cache technology, as well as 24 threads for multi-threaded productivity workloads. The i7-14700K has 28 threads on tap.