This month has seen a ‘new’ processor release from Intel, I’ve put the word new in quote marks because there isn’t too much new about them.

The chips released are basically a refresh of the 13th generation i5’s, i7’s and i9’s.

A refresh means that Intel have essentially tweaked the processors to eek out a bit more performance and then have re-badged them as a completely new generation.

They do this every now and again, you get a major change in the chip architecture which can sometimes lead to a big jump in performance levels, and then they tweak it for another generation or two.

Motherboard Benefits

This does have some benefits, the main one being that older motherboards will still be able to run the newer processors, this is very useful as it offers you a lot more flexibility and availability when putting together a new computer.

It also avoids the headache of potential issues with new motherboard releases which can sometimes take a month or two to work out in terms of driver updates.

It used to feel like every new CPU release from Intel demanded a brand new motherboard however the same motherboards have been able to run 12th, 13th, and now 14th generation Intel CPU’s which as mentioned is a good thing.

Performance Changes

We have done some internal testing and are seeing only very marginal gains.

The new i5 14600K (& KF) are working out around 3% faster than the 13th generation chip (13600K) in terms of single thread speed (it’s raw processing speed), and about 1.5% faster in multi-threaded workloads.

The new i7 14700K (&KF) has had a slight change in the Core and Thread count (both have increased by 4) which has impacted multi-threaded performance, this has jumped around 15% which is good, however the single thread speed increase is only around 2.5%.

The new i9 14900K (& KF) is coming out about 2.5% faster than the 13th generation 13900K chip in single thread tests, and around 2% better in multi-threaded tests.

Overall if you have a 13th generation system there is no point in upgrading to the 14th gen chips.

Comparing to Older CPU’s

Let’s take a quick look at how the newer i5 chips compare to some older processors.

If you had a 6th generation i7 6700K processor then the new i5 14600K works out to be around 70% faster in single thread tests and over 330% better in multi-threaded workloads.

Moving from an 8th gen i5 8600K to the new 14th gen i5 would see raw speed jumps of around 64% and then 280% increases in multi-threaded scores.

What about a 11th generation i9 chip? This was released in 2021 and was the most powerful CPU Intel offered at the time, incidentally it is still offered in supposedly ‘new’ computer systems by a lot of other companies online (along with some 10th generation kit!!!).

The 14th gen 14600K works out to be over 21% faster in single thread tests and over 53% better in multi-threaded tests.

So even an ‘i5’ offers a massive performance increase over an i9 from just a two years ago (despite what some others may tell you).

Just for fun let’s see the new 14th gen i9 compared with the 10th gen i9.

The single thread speed jump is 35% and the multi-threaded performance jump is a massive 138%.

To sum up, if you are coming from anything older than say a 12th generation then you will see big performance jumps by going to the 14th gen kit, if you are currently running 12th gen or above then I’d recommend skipping this upgrade.

Where Are the i3’s?

There are currently no new i3 processors on any of the lower powered i5’s, only the top end of the range has been refreshed however we are expecting new 14th gen i3’s at some point.

Performance gains will likely be minimal again when compared to the 13th gen equivalents.

Where / How To Buy

The new 14th generation Intel chips are priced slightly higher than the 13th gen ones, there isn’t too much in it but they are definitely more expensive.

What we have done is moved our top Extreme and Trader Pro computers straight across to the new 14th gen lineup, each comes with the new i5 14600KF as standard with the i7 and i9 options available on both.

The Ultra and Trader PC’s which start off with the i3 and lower powered i5’s respectively have kept them as the default chip options and we have decided to keep offering the higher powered 13th gen i5’s and i7’s on those machines too.

It makes sense as it keeps the pricing down and as you can see above there is very little ‘real world’ difference between the 13th and 14th gen chips.

Hopefully this gives you a clear idea of the changes the new chips offer, if you have any questions just let us know.

Written by Darren @ Multiple Monitors

Last Updated: November, 2023