The Intel 14th Gen Core series is somewhat of a somber swansong to the traditional and famed Core i series naming scheme, rounding off what feels like the end of an era. With the shift to their upcoming Meteor Lake SoC, the impending launch of the new naming scheme (Core and Core Ultra) branding, and what Intel hopes to be a groundbreaking mobile chiplet-based architecture.
The crux of the analysis is if you’re upgrading from an older and outdated desktop platform, the Intel 14th Gen series is a solid performer, but there’s still value in current 13th Gen pricing. Those must be considered in the current global financial situation; some users may find a better deal. If you already have 12th or 13th Gen Core parts, then there’s absolutely no reason to upgrade or consider 14th Gen as a platform, as none of the features (mainly software) justify a sidegrade on which is ultimately the same platform and the same core architecture.
AnandTech always delivers. Unlike Intel.
The problem I see for both Intel and AMD is unless you are doing some SERIOUS number crunching (or just have more money than sense and want the latest for ePeen bragging rights) the core wars have made even entry level so damn frankly overpowered compared to what Joe and Jane Normal are using their PCs for there really is no reason to replace your current system if it was made in the last 5 years until it dies.
I’ll use myself as an example, I always upgraded every other year during the MHz wars because there was a HUGE difference between say a 500Mhz P3 and a 1Ghz Athlon but once we got past 4 threads? It felt more and more pointless. With my last upgrade from an R5 3600 to an R7 5700x I can go from my PC with the 5700x to the wife’s who has made 3600 and it feels absolutely no difference. Oh I’m sure if I ran some benchmark or sat with a stopwatch I’d see I’m X amount faster but all my games and even my video editing felt great on the 3600 just as it does now on the 5700x.
So unless they come out with some killer app that can actually make good use of more than 8 cores I think I’ll be sitting it out for a few years as my system is already spending too much time with idle cores and talking to friends on 12th gen Intel they are feeling the same. AMD and Intel have just gone so OP these past few years that other than bragging rights what’s the point?
bassbeast,
I agree. What used to be a huge difference between one or two generations has become marginal. Adding more and more cores becomes less and less beneficial. Unless you have a very specific need, there’s not much to gain. Even games tend to be bottlenecked by GPUs rather than CPUs.
Well to be fair, for some people bragging rights is the point because it’s a status thing. I can use 8 cores on occasion for compilation, servers, virtualization. But when speaking of most consumer desktops I wouldn’t be surprised if most users have never managed to use all their cores outside of benchmarking.
Alfman, bassbeast,
Every now and then they make a good generational jump.
Take 12th to 13th transition. The 13th generation i7 can match (and many times beat) 12nd generation i9. And with lower power budget, too:
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i9-12900K-vs-Intel-Core-i7-13700K/4118vs4137
(Yes, they are rated the same watts, but the benchmarks I see put 13700k slightly ahead in power efficiency).
So, if you have anything less than 12th generation (9700k, 10700k, 11900k, etc), it makes sense to jump to 13700k.
(I think the prior jump was either the 9th or the 8th generation, but not 100% sure at the moment).