Intel 13th Gen CPU's

[RCHeliguy]

Just saw a Tom's Hardware article suggesting the 14th gen may only be 1-3% faster than 13th gen.

TDP is unchanged 125W

Intel 14th gen release date and specs revealed

Intel Raptor Lake refresh CPU specs and price, including details of cores and clock speeds for the Intel Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K, and Core i5-14600K.

www.custompc.com

 

[blekenbleu]

PresentMon​

Intel-supported open source tool sorts and displays CPU vs GPU frame generation
Gap between yellow(GPU busy) and blue is CPU bottlenecking:

 

[RCHeliguy]

I've been reading that the 14th gen is looking like a whopping 4-8% improvement in performance for gaming at least for the 13900K vs 14900K. So even though it is a direct drop in for my MB, I think I'll skip this generation.

I may just wait until the 50 series GPU's get here in 2025 before touching my Gaming computer again.

So maybe 2025

Gaming computer gets 16th gen and dev box gets hand me down 13th gen and I find a good home for my 9th gen.

 

[RCHeliguy]

It looks like 2025 will be the year that DDR6 will be released for Motherboards and it is supposed to be at least twice as fast in terms of throughput. What i don't know is what the latency will be, but apparently they can run at even higher frequencies and draw less power.

So I'm starting to think that the stars will align in 2025 for a new MB, CPU, DRAM and 50 series GPU and for the next almost 2 years, it will be good to sit tight.

 

[Neilski]

It looks like 2025 will be the year that DDR6 will be released for Motherboards and it is supposed to be at least twice as fast in terms of throughput. What i don't know is what the latency will be, but apparently they can run at even higher frequencies and draw less power.

So I'm starting to think that the stars will align in 2025 for a new MB, CPU, DRAM and 50 series GPU and for the next almost 2 years, it will be good to sit tight.

Hmm, that's the first I've even heard of DDR6.
Where did you read 2025? A quick search is suggesting that it'll debut (at crazy prices, I suspect) in 2026.
I'm still gearing up to make that big jump to 13th/14th gen and maybe DDR5, lol

 

[RCHeliguy]

Depends on the article you read. I saw it would be available commercially in 2025.

Of course if there many articles out there with some pointing at 2026, than maybe 2025 is an initial release with 2026 being actual availability.

 

[blekenbleu]

2026 being actual availability

... and if anything like DDR5, at least another year before yields for speeds faster than DDR5 are economical, with debugged motherboard and CPU support.

 

[Spinelli]

From the info we have to this day, 14900K will be a very small upgrade from 13900K. Same amount of p-cores, same amount of e-cores, same amount of L3 cache. It's just a little higher clocks. so it'll probably just be like 4-8 % faster than a 13900K. Nothing really.

Most recent info indicates the 14700K will receive 4 more e-cores giving it a total of 12 e-cores instead of the 13700K's 8 e-cores. This will probably only matter in highly multi-threaded CPU benchmarks and some production software that takes advantage of tons of CPU threads. Having 20 cores instead of 16, not to mention those 4 extra cores being e-cores, will almost certainly have no real-world effect in 99.9% of games.

Some recent info indicates the 14600K will receive 2 more p-cores giving it a total of 8 p-cores instead of the 13600K's 6 p-cores. This can definitely have a real-world effect in games.

It still seems like the "true" 14th gen - Meteor Lake - will be skipped for desktop. This can change and hasn't been confirmed but this is what all the rumors, leaks, etc. are still indicating. That means that the next upgrade for desktop - after Raptor Lake Refresh - will be the much anticipated Arrow Lake. Arrow Lake is expected to make massive gains over Alder Lake & Raptor Lake. Even if Meteor Lake did/does come out for desktop, Arrow Lake is what most people were anticipating as it, not Meteor Lake, is supposed to be Intel's next real "big hitter".

Rumors indicate an Intel chip I'm personally really excited about. It's sadly rumored to not be available for a few years (2026-2027). It's called Beast Lake. It's supposed to be a very gaming-focused CPU. It's supposed to have very little to no e-cores and very little to no p-cores. Instead, it's supposed to mostly or only consist "extra large" p-cores (at least 8, maybe 10 or 12). The focus will be on way less cores but, the cores that are there, will be insanely powerful and clocked insanely high - not to mention, probably more L3 cache/core too.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Just googled Beast lake. Sounds great, but 3-4 years is a while to wait.

Adding e-Cores is a bit funny since I've turned my e-Cores off and find my P-Cores running at 5.5 GHz and allowed the internal cache to run a bit faster gives me smoother VR frame rates.

 

[RasmusP]

Thanks for the write up!

Rumors indicate an Intel chip I'm personally really excited about. It's sadly rumored to not be available for a few years (2026-2027). It's called Beast Lake. It's supposed to be a very gaming-focused CPU. It's supposed to have very little to no e-cores and very little to no p-cores. Instead, it's supposed to mostly or only consist "extra large" p-cores (at least 8, maybe 10 or 12). The focus will be on way less cores but, the cores that are there, will be insanely powerful and clocked insanely high - not to mention, probably more L3 cache/core too.

This sounds like Intel's answer to the X3D CPUs, taking the concept but making it a completely separate CPU series instead of just slapping massive cache on top of existing CPUs.
Very exciting indeed!

 

[Spinelli]

Intel has shocked the world with it's "14th gen" chips - Raptor Lake Refresh. Many people expected small gains of 4-8 % but Intel proved them wrong. The gains are more like 0-2 %

 

[BillyBobSenna]

Intel has shocked the world with it's "14th gen" chips - Raptor Lake Refresh. Many people expected small gains of 4-8 % but Intel proved them wrong. The gains are more like

Cool, I won't add another part I cannot afford to my "must have" list.

 

[Durge Driven]

NVIDIA Advises Intel Raptor Lake CPU Users to Consult Intel for Stability Issues

NVIDIA has identified stability issues with Intel's 13th and 14th generation Raptor Lake Core processors, specifically within the high-performance, overclockable K-series models.

www.guru3d.com

 

[Spinelli]

NVIDIA Advises Intel Raptor Lake CPU Users to Consult Intel for Stability Issues

NVIDIA has identified stability issues with Intel's 13th and 14th generation Raptor Lake Core processors, specifically within the high-performance, overclockable K-series models.

www.guru3d.com

Ya, it's ridiculous. The 14900KS is also ridiculous. Some people are getting lower scores with the 14900KS than the 14900K because of the KS throttling due to overheating. I don't understand how that makes sense since the KS, even if throttling, should still be using lower voltages for the same speeds as the 14900K due to being a better sample / bin but, yup, totally ridiculous.

 

[Durge Driven]

MSI Updates Z790 BIOS with New Intel Default Settings to Address Power Limit Concerns

MSI announced the release of the latest BIOS update for its Z790 chipset motherboards. This update introduces a new feature known as Intel Default Settings, designed to align with recent guidelines from Intel regarding power limits.

www.guru3d.com

 

[Spinelli]

MSI Updates Z790 BIOS with New Intel Default Settings to Address Power Limit Concerns

MSI announced the release of the latest BIOS update for its Z790 chipset motherboards. This update introduces a new feature known as Intel Default Settings, designed to align with recent guidelines from Intel regarding power limits.

www.guru3d.com

Anyone experiencing these issues can go into their BIOS settings and change the power limits and current (ie. amps) limit and even temp limits themselves. They've always been able to do this. These BIOS updates don't actually have any "core" stability improvements, they're just plugging in the numbers for the user.

 

[Durge Driven]

That is akin to MS telling users to jump through hoops to fix their partition issue.
No one should have to use manual bios or windows setup if they don't want to.
So big fail from me on both counts.

Intel plans to release a firmware update at the end of September to address stability problems in its 13th and 14th-generation Core processors. The new chip generations, which incorporate new architectures, are expected to be free from the voltage-related instability found in the current models. An Intel spokesperson in a community blog stated that the upcoming Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake processors will not be affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue, identified earlier this year. The spokesperson confirmed that future product lines would be unaffected, but did not provide specific details on how this will be achieved.

 

[Spinelli]

That is akin to MS telling users to jump through hoops to fix their partition issue.
No one should have to use manual bios or windows setup if they don't want to.
So big fail from me on both counts.

Absolutely, no one should have to manually change BIOS settings though, apparently, that's what the recent CPU microcode updates fix (or help). They're supposed to limit the auto-overvoltage.

Having said that, if you do have a 13th or 14th gen chip - especially the i9s - those who have used "proper" manual settings don't have degradation.

Disabling the useless 2-core auto-boosting crap which can hammer the CPU with like 1.45-1.55+ load-voltages is, by far, the most important thing. This is why people - including most mainstream techtubers - who have only been telling others to apply power (wattage & current) and temp limits are wrong. Yes, hammering the CPU with ridiculous loads of like 450 watts can cause degredation but most people don't play Cinebench and Prime95 all-day and that's why they can still get deg with those limits - because they haven't disabled the 2-core boosting crap. Disable that and lock your cores...then set temp and power limits if you want but it's the 2-core boosting stuff that's most important for 99% of users.

 

[tweaks_mcgee]

I have an MSI Z690 board with 13600, and when I built in May 2023, it had an issue where the "fix" was to assign a lower Lite Load than default, at least it solved a lot of peoples problems. When I updated to the new BIOS (with default settings restored) the Lite Load was set to 18 and I was hitting thermal throttling so fast in Cinebench23, whereas before I never crossed 89-90C under any stress tests. That said, I have always had some stability issues and am not sure the cause. I've done Memtest86 and passed it, am running Lite Load 9 on the new BIOS... I dunno.

To be honest all of the Intel hub hub is confusing and I am sure what I am doing with Lite Load isn't ideal, now I need to dive deeper.

 

[RCHeliguy]

So the 14th gen has production issues...

Meanwhile I've never been a big water cooling fan, but as he mentions below that it's really only good for a few degrees and is mostly an enthusiast thing and as such has seen spiraling price increases and custom loop companies starting to go out of business.