According to recent leaks, Intel"s upcoming 14th Gen Raptor Lake refresh desktop CPUs are slated to see a price increase over their predecessors. The leaked information suggests the new flagship Core i9-14900K will retail for around $695, which is about 15% higher than the current MSRP for the i9-13900K.
The Core i7-14700K and Core i7-14700KF are said to be priced at $485 and $470, respectively, marking a 14-15% increase over the 13600K series. The Core i5-14600K and 14600KF will see a 15% and 13% price hike to $380 and $345.
— 188号 (@momomo_us) August 27, 2023
The next-gen CPUs will offer moderate performance improvements over the 13th-gen, with single-core speeds estimated to be 4-8% faster and multi-core performance gaining 8-15%. It matches earlier leaks regarding the Intel 14th generation desktop Core i9-14900k, i7-14700k, and i5-14600K.
The flagship Core i9-14900K is slated to have 24 cores and 32 threads, with a base clock speed of 3.2GHz. This represents a 200MHz increase over its predecessor, the Core i9-13900K. Performance uplift is estimated at 3-5% from the extra clock speed.
The Core i7-14700K gets a core count boost to 20 cores and 28 threads, thanks to extra Efficiency cores. This should provide solid multi-threaded performance gains of around 5-10% over the 13700K. However, the Core i5-14600K disappointingly retains the same 6+8 core config as its predecessor, limiting performance gains to around 5% from increased clock speeds alone.
It seems the reported 15% price increase for the CPUs is questionable. With expected marginal gains, this price hike appears hard to justify, especially considering the competitive pressure of AMD"s Ryzen 7000 processors.
Intel has yet to announce pricing details for the 14th-Gen. However, motherboard manufacturer ASRock wrote last week that Intel is preparing to launch its 14th gen processors later this year, likely in October. So, taking these prices with a grain of salt until this announcement is worth noting.