Intel is Desperate: i7-14700K CPU Review, Benchmarks, Gaming, & Power

Summary

Key Points

• —The Intel i7 14700K is a 'Raptor Lake refresh' rather than a true generational change, primarily serving as Intel's attempt to buy time against AMD's x3d CPUs. 3:07
• —The 14700K features a core count increase from 8P+8E to 8P+12E cores and a slight boost in max turbo frequency to 5.6 GHz, along with a minor L2 cache increase. 4:05
• —Despite the 'generational' name change, the 14700K maintains the same MSRP as the 13700K but is often found at higher street prices, making it a poor value compared to the now cheaper 13th generation and competitive AMD CPUs. 5:12
• —In power consumption, the 14700K is a power-hungry chip, drawing 284 Watts in all-core workloads, similar to the 13700K, and significantly more than AMD's efficient x3d competitors. 8:01
• —Energy efficiency tests show the 14700K as less efficient than almost all other CPUs on the chart, consuming 37.7 watt-hours for a blender render, though it's a slight improvement over the 13700K. 10:14
• —For most users, particularly gamers, the 14700K does not present a compelling upgrade or purchase, as the 13700K or AMD's x3d CPUs often offer better value or performance. 10:43
• —Production benchmarks, such as Blender and file compression, show slightly more noticeable gains for the 14700K, with improvements ranging from 9-12% over the 13700K in specific tasks. 21:08
• —In gaming benchmarks, the 14700K generally offers negligible improvements over the 13700K, often falling within the margin of error or showing only 1-4% gains, and is consistently outperformed by AMD's 7800X3D. 23:41
• —The overall conclusion is that the 14700K is essentially a slightly pre-overclocked 13700K with a new name, offering minimal real-world performance benefits, especially in gaming. 26:02