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

As we mentioned earlier, we're using high-speed DDR5-6000 RAM with CL30 timings to back up each of our CPUs. You'll see largely similar results with base-spec DDR5-4800 RAM, with games like Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6 and Ashes of the Singularity showing the largest improvements from faster RAM.

Anyway - in these tests, we'll examine how these Intel CPUs behave in Cyberpunk 2077, as well as two recent releases from series that have featured prominently in our previous CPU benchmarks: Far Cry 6, renowned for its single-core reliance, and Crysis 3 Remastered, a DF staple. We've opted for highly repeatable scenes here from a variety of sources here - an in-game cutscene, a brief open gameplay segment along a fixed route and an in-game benchmark.

Remember that you can mouse over the results in the tables below (as long as you're using a desktop browser rather than a phone) to get dynamically generated performance readouts for all processors we've tested. Meanwhile, clicking the graph swaps you into percentages, making it a bit easier to judge relative performance at a glance.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is our second RT benchmark, showing how RT performance can add even more load to the CPU and cause CPU bottlenecking in some scenarios. This benchmark is taken from a motorcycle run along the busy city streets. We're unfortunately missing the 13900K and AMD CPUs from our results, as a result of limited testing time, but we can see some broader trends. The 14900K, 14600K, 13600K and 12900K all turn in very similar results, around 110fps, with only margin-of-error differences in average speeds - but some improvement to frame-time stability with better worst one percent scores.

Far Cry 6

The single-core reliance from Far Cries past returns in the sixth instalment of the franchise. We don't see any noticeable performance improvements in Far Cry 6, with 14900K/13900K and 14600K/13600K turning in margin-of-error results, and AMD retaining the overall performance lead by a five to ten percent margin (depending on whether you're comparing to the 7950X3D or 7800X3D).

Crysis 3 Remastered

Crysis 3 Remastered allows us to revisit our favourite scene from early on in the original game's campaign, which oscillates between character closeups and complex distant geometry to load both CPU and GPU. Once again, we're starting to edge towards GPU limitations here even with DLSS performance engaged, with averages in the 300+ fps range. We do see a small three percent improvement here going from 13th to 14th-gen, but AMD's CPUs are still the fastest options here by a slim margin.

We're not going to deeper look at RAM performance this time around, given the very narrow margins between the 14th and 13th-gen parts as it is, so let's press on to our thrilling conclusion.

Intel Core i9 14900K and Core i5 14600K analysis

• Introduction, test rig and content creation benchmarks
• Gaming benchmarks: Flight Simulator 2020, Hitman 3, Ashes of the Singularity
• Gaming benchmarks: Counter-Strike: GO, Metro Exodus EE, Black Ops Cold War
• Gaming benchmarks: Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, Crysis 3 Remastered [this page]
• Intel Core i9 14900K and Core i5 14600K: the Digital Foundry verdict