Intel Core i9 14900K and Core i5 14600K review: the definition of iterative

Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3 and Ashes of the Singularity Escalation.

Review by Will Judd Deputy Editor, Digital Foundry

Published on Oct. 17, 2023

Our benchmark results are presented a little differently to what you might be used to elsewhere on the web. On mobile, you'll get a basic overview, with metadata from the video capture of each CPU being translated into simple bar charts with average frame-rate and lowest one per cent measurements for easy comparisons.

On a desktop-class browser, you'll get the full-fat experience with embedded YT videos of each test scene and live performance metrics. Play the video, and you'll see exactly how each CPU handled the scene as it progresses; you can even choose exactly what CPUs at what resolutions you're interested in and it'll update in real time. Below the real-time stuff is a bar chart, which you can mouse over to see different measurements and click to switch between actual frame-rates and percentage differences. As always, all the data here is derived from video captured directly from each CPU, ensuring an accurate replay of real performance.

We'll start with three games that offer a stern test for gaming CPUs: Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3 and the benchmarker's favourite, Ashes of the Singularity Escalation.

Flight Simulator 2020

Flight Sim is our first contender, with our benchmark encapsulating the first 10,000 frames on an autopilot night flight from London City Airport to Heathrow over some of the city's most well-known landmarks.

The 14900K sets a narrow new high-water mark for Intel CPUs, delivering a comfortable 75fps average, with the 14600K trailing at 67fps. Their 13th-gen equivalents are within the margin of error, though minimum frame-rates are tightened with the 14th-gen chips. AMD's Ryzen X3D chips remain imperious here, with results near 100fps for both the 7800X3D and 7950X3D - making them 29 percent and 35 percent faster at 1080p respectively. It's a similar story at 1440p, where the game is just as CPU-limited.

Flight Simulator 2020: DX11, Ultra, TAA

Hitman 3

Hitman 3's Dartmoor benchmark comes next. Of the two integrated benchmarks provided in the pre-game options menu, Dartmoor offers the greater CPU load than Dubai, with a comprehensive demonstration of the Glacier Engine's destruction physics that is pretty fun - even if it isn't too indicative of normal stealthy gameplay.

We see a five percent lead for the 14900K over its predecessor, while the 14600K is eight percent to the better over the processor it replaces. Things are extremely close between the 14900K, 7800X3D and 7950X3D, with all three in the ~245fps region - certainly good enough to take advantage of a high refresh rate 240Hz display for the arena-filling Hitman 3 contests that no doubt take place.

Hitman 3: DX12, Default, TAA

Ashes of the Singularity is historically a RAM benchmark for us, but its surprisingly modern, thread-aware design is still a good test of processor performance - even at 1080p, its dense CPU benchmark can bring a modern CPU to its knees.

The 14900K manages to take the top spot here, with a 62fps average which is the first we've recorded above 60fps - a bit mad for a game made in 2016, but such is the overwhelming unit and effect density of this benchmark! This is an Intel win then, with the 14900K seven points faster than the 7950X3D and 12 points faster than the 7800X3D.

The 14900K is nine percent faster than the 14600K, but only seven percent faster than the 13900K - which lines up with Intel's pre-launch guidance. Surprisingly, we see only a three percent performance improvement going from 5200MT/s to 6000MT/s RAM, with Ryzen CPUs tending to show about double that percentage.

Ashes of the Singularity: CPU Test

With three games in the bag, we've already seen a range of performance deltas. The only way to break is this deadlock is to test more games - so let's do it.