Highlights
- Leaks suggest that Intel's upcoming 14th-gen CPUs, including the Core i9-14900K, will have increased prices compared to the previous generation.
- Overclockers UK's tentative pricing puts the Core i9-14900K at £579, indicating a small price increase of around 2%.
- While a 5% performance improvement may justify a small price increase, Intel is facing tough competition from AMD, and gamers considering an upgrade will have to weigh their options carefully.
Leaks have revealed what could be the final pricing of Intel's upcoming 14th-generation CPUs, including the highly anticipated Core i9-14900K. Prices for the previous generation of Intel CPUs have given a baseline of what to expect for the next, but just how much Intel will be increasing prices has remained a mystery. While the leaks are unfortunately not in agreement regarding pricing, the safe assumption looking at the arrival of the Raptor Lake Refresh 14th-generation CPUs is that prices will be going up.
Intel's 13th generation of CPUs, codename Raptor Lake, first launched in October 2022. The line's top CPU at launch was the Core i9-13900K, and it arrived at a price of $589. The CPU has since been supplanted by the more powerful Core i9-13900K S, which launched at $699. While pricing for Intel's 14th-gen CPUs isn't expected to go that high, the price differences between the two provide a range that may be realistic for what's coming next.
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According to Overclockers UK, which published and then removed its 14th-gen pricing, Intel's Core i9-14900K CPU is tentatively priced at £579. For comparison, the Core i9-13900K remains listed for its launch retail price of £570. That would indicate a price increase of just £10 or around 2%. Pricing for the Core i7-14700KF and Core i5-14600K also leaked via Overclockers UK at the prices of £398 and £320. Those 14th-gen prices are both around £20 higher than their 13th-gen predecessors, or around 5-7% higher.
If the price in the United States for the Core i9-13900K is $589, then a realistic price point going off of Overclockers UK's tentative pricing for the i9-14900K is potentially around $600. That's a conservative estimate, however. A price point of $610 or even $620 could make sense, too. Anything higher would be shocking, but certainly isn't impossible considering rising tech prices for gaming PC hardware in recent years.
Intel Core i9-12900K + Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition 8GB Bundle
The Intel Core i9-12900K + Intel Arc A750 bundle delivers great performance with a 16-core processor clocking speeds reaching up to 5.2 GHz and a mid-tier gaming graphics card. The Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition features 8 GB of VRAM and supports the new PCI Express 4.0 interface for faster performance. The CPU is overclockable for added power requirements.
Strictly looking at the specifications of the Intel Core i9-14900K, the key differences when comparing the 14th-gen Intel CPU to its 13th-gen predecessor include improved A-Core clock frequency and maximum memory bandwidth. The Core i9-14900K has a 3.2 GHz clock speed, with a peak of 6.0 GHz using Thermal Velocity Boost. The Core i9-13900K, comparatively, has a 3.0 GHz clock speed with a peak Turbo Boost Max frequency of 5.8 GHz. Early benchmark leaks indicate around a 5% improvement in multithreaded use.
A price increase of around 5% for a performance increase of around 5% does seem fair on paper. However, it's important to remember that Intel has not lowered prices for its 13th generation of CPUs over the past year. They're still full-priced. Further, Intel is facing more challenging competition from AMD this generation. The often-discounted Ryzen 9 7950X3D may be comparable in performance. PC gamers looking to upgrade will have a lot to think about leading up to the rumored October 17 release of Intel's 14th-gen CPU lineup.