Report shows Intel’s 14th Gen CPUs are great overclockers – and suggests which 14900K variant to buy
Intel’s new Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs have come under scrutiny in a new report evaluating a host of 14th-gen silicon.
This comes from Igor’s laboratory – a German site that has previously conducted similar tests – and included around 600 Intel processors, both 14th and 13th generation, for comparison. All these chips were distributed to five intrepid overclockers for testing (one of which was Igor).
Given the sheer number of CPUs covered, the tests used were necessarily limited, placing the processors into an Asus Maximus Z790 Hero motherboard and recording Silicon Prediction (SP) values (which essentially indicate the quality of the chip) .
Additionally, the voltage drop was measured at the maximum rated Turbo clock speed (where a lower voltage means the chip is of better quality – as there is more headroom to increase the voltage for a greater overclock).
There’s a mountain of results to wade through, as you can imagine, so we’ll pick out some quick highlights.
The general conclusion is that Raptor Lake Refresh processors are better throwaway (of higher silicon quality) compared to their predecessors, Raptor Lake chips, but you’d actually expect that (given the generation process and manufacturing refinements).
For example, looking at the maximum voltages, the 14900K only needed 1398 mV to reach full turbo in four cases, and the lowest the 13900KS managed to reach was 1433 mV (25 of the 14900K CPUs were even below that value) . This shows that the 14900K, with otherwise identical specs, is a superior piece of silicon overall (although there will be differences, and it’s important to note that the 13900KS sample size is much smaller here, which could have an impact to have).
As mentioned, Raptor Lake Refresh, with more headroom to increase the voltage in general, gives overclockers more room to increase the clock speed just a little bit more.
Another interesting point is that the report compares the standard 14900K with the 14900KF version (which is the same, but does not have integrated graphics). Was there a clear difference between the two spins on the flagship?
The 14900KF chips had a spread of SP values ranging from 90 to 104, while the 14900K was between 92 and 112, indicating higher quality for the latter.
Analysis: No alarms and no surprises…
Looking at those latest SP scores, the 14900K seems like a better proposition, but we have to remember that even a sample size of 600 processors hardly tells a definitive story, whether that relates to individual CPU performance or the overall picture .
That said, as noted, it’s not surprising to see that Raptor Lake Refresh is a better throwaway than the previous generation Raptor Lake chips, and that the new CPUs do indeed overclock better. In fact, if you recall, long before the 14th generation processors hit the market, there were leaks indicating that Raptor Lake Refresh would be a solid step forward in overclocking.
So there are really no big surprises, but the result of that battle between 14900K and 14900KF is interesting to see.
Still, any purchasing decision for Raptor Lake Refresh will be based on how much of an upgrade it will be from what you’re currently using, and the performance improvements for the 14900K aren’t impressive gen-on-gen, as we pointed out in our full review.
However, if you’re planning on overclocking, there’s definitely a little more mileage in this new generation of Intel silicon, and the report certainly makes this clear (just make sure you get a top-of-the-line CPU cooler).
Through VideoCardz