Intel Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K and Core i5-14600K Review: Raptor Lake Refreshed
by Gavin Bonshor on October 17, 2023 9:00 AM ESTSPEC2017 Single-Threaded Results
SPEC2017 is a series of standardized tests used to probe the overall performance between different systems, different architectures, different microarchitectures, and setups. The code has to be compiled, and then the results can be submitted to an online database for comparison. It covers a range of integer and floating point workloads, and can be very optimized for each CPU, so it is important to check how the benchmarks are being compiled and run.
We run the tests in a harness built through Windows Subsystem for Linux, developed by Andrei Frumusanu. WSL has some odd quirks, with one test not running due to a WSL fixed stack size, but for like-for-like testing it is good enough. Because our scores aren’t official submissions, as per SPEC guidelines we have to declare them as internal estimates on our part.
For compilers, we use LLVM both for C/C++ and Fortan tests, and for Fortran we’re using the Flang compiler. The rationale of using LLVM over GCC is better cross-platform comparisons to platforms that have only have LLVM support and future articles where we’ll investigate this aspect more. We’re not considering closed-source compilers such as MSVC or ICC.
clang version 10.0.0
clang version 7.0.1 (ssh://git@github.com/flang-compiler/flang-driver.git
24bd54da5c41af04838bbe7b68f830840d47fc03)
-Ofast -fomit-frame-pointer
-march=x86-64
-mtune=core-avx2
-mfma -mavx -mavx2
Our compiler flags are straightforward, with basic –Ofast and relevant ISA switches to allow for AVX2 instructions.
To note, the requirements for the SPEC licence state that any benchmark results from SPEC have to be labeled ‘estimated’ until they are verified on the SPEC website as a meaningful representation of the expected performance. This is most often done by the big companies and OEMs to showcase performance to customers, however is quite over the top for what we do as reviewers.
As we typically do when Intel or AMD releases a new generation, we compare both single and multi-threaded improvements using the SPEC2017 benchmark. Starting with SPECint2017 single-threaded performance, we can see very little benefit from opting for Intel's Core i9-14900K in most of the tests when compared against the previous generation's Core i9-13900K. The only test we did see a noticeable bump in performance was in 520.omnetpp_r, which simulates discrete events of a large 10 Gigabit Ethernet network. There was a bump of around 23% in terms of ST performance in this test, likely due to the increased ST clock speed to 6.0 GHz, up 200 MHz from the 5.8 GHz ST turbo on the Core i9-13900K.
Onto the second half of the SPEC2017 1T-tests is the SPECfp2017 suite, and again, we're seeing very marginal differences in performance; certainly nothing that represents a large paradigm shift in relation to ST performance. Comparing the 14th Gen and 13th Gen core series directly to each other, there isn't anything new architecturally other than an increase in clock speeds. As we can see in a single-threaded scenario with the Core i9 flagships, there is little to no difference in workload and application performance. Even with 200 MHz more grunt in relation to maximum turbo clock speed, it wasn't enough to shape performance in a way that directly resulted in a significant jump in performance.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
57 Comments
View All Comments
bananaforscale - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
Why?nandnandnand - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
AMD has not been generous with multi-threading at the entry level, e.g. 7600/7800X.I don't agree that they have to start selling 32-cores soon. They have a few ways to address multi-threading with Zen 5 or Zen 6. The easiest one for Zen 5 would be to make a 24-core with an 8+16 configuration. But that probably won't stop them from releasing an entry level 6-core.
If they boost the core counts of the normal/fast chiplets in the future, then core counts will rise across the board. For example, a 12-core chiplet would probably get disabled to 8-10 cores for the entry level, instead of 6. A 16-core chiplet could get disabled to 10-12. That is not happening with Zen 5 as far as we know.
SanX - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
Why Intel and AMD not make enthusiastic 100-200 core 6-7 GHz processors with TDP 1 kW for those who don't care how much they consume because already have 10-20 kW solar panel systems on their roof ? Let others be jealous. Green energy proponents will be dancing in joy.bananaforscale - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
Shut up, troll.cmdrdredd - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
No, there IS a place for ALL the performance at ANY cost. Some people are like that really. Not everyone lives and dies based on power consumption like the comments have you believing. I don't care, I can pay the bill and it's really peanuts difference between a 14900k and a 7950x in terms of the difference it would make on the power bill. If I am looking for max performance for my usage that isn't even a consideration, only performance matters. By that measure the 14900k is better sometimes and sometimes not. So it would come down to very specific use cases. What I'm saying is, everyone here moans about power usage but ignores the fact that not everyone pinches pennies on the power bill or needs to worry about it and just wants the max performance. That's why 4090s exist and sell well.ItsAdam - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
I own a 4090, still wouldn't buy a 14900k, was gonna buy then they decided to refresh.I dislike the heat element. This much possible power draw is broken,how can you cool that and maintain peak speeds. It's pointless.
The only ones who could use these are people on propper custom loops or ln2 overclocking.
They are literally pointless CPUs and the new gen of intel CPUs was just a total waste of time, development and retail. Just think how much waste they've made for this new gen that's the same, just the packaging and everything what a waste.
Pointless. Like your post.
SanX - Thursday, October 19, 2023 - link
I also dont buy this gen Intel processors, so what?Cheap solar energy and efficient heat pumps will slowly change mentality. Now power supply in PC 1kW, soon they will be 2 kW and rarely who will care. People don't care about power efficiency. 99.9% don't even know the price per kilowatt-hour. Kids playing games dont even want to hear about it. If you care then find the solutions how to use that possible 0.25-1 megawatt of solar power falling on your property. Power efficiency is just the salespeople buzzwordThe Von Matrices - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
They already do make super-high TDP processors. They're called EYPC and Xeon.SanX - Thursday, October 19, 2023 - link
Server and supercomputer high core count chips heavily rely on power efficiency, hence they have clocks 2-3 GHz. For example the 64 core EPIC processor essentially equivalent to the future 24-32 core consumer processor at 6 GHZ at 3-5x cost. If someone worry too much about power consumption just buy couple used solar panels for 100 bucks and you will cut the cost by half or 100% with smart backupPeachNCream - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link
Those peak power numbers are disgustingly bad. I wouldn't want to pay the utility bill for that so I'm glad I paired a keyboard to my phone and make do with less than 8w peak total system power consumption. Oddly enough, I don't feel as though I'm missing anything without some obnoxious box filled with a CPU like one of these and some obesity-level graphics card.