Which CPU should you buy?? 14600K vs 13600K vs 12600K

Products provided by Intel
Intel’s 14th gen CPUs are here and… well… they’re pretty much just the 13th gen chips with a new name. Seriously. It’s the same architecture, it’s Raptor Lake-S, it’s the same process node, Intel 7, and with this 14600K in particular there is very little different. It still has 14 total cores, 6 P and 8 E cores, it still has 24MB of total cache, it still boosts to a maximum of 5.3GHz, it still has a max turbo power of 181 watts. The only spec sheet difference I can find is that the E cores can now boost to 4GHz instead of 3.9GHz. GAME CHANGING, I KNOW! There really isn’t much new - there’s a few bits like a new “AI assistant” built into their extreme tuning utility software, and “Application Optimisation” or APO which basically does some under-the-hood tweaks based on the game’s executable name, but realistically both of those things could work on older chips, but Intel obviously wants to keep them for the new stuff to make it worth you buying the newer chip.

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[kevinb]

Still on the 12600k here and it's still very good for gaming.

[ZeD-R.G]

12600k 100w
13600k 152w
14600k 154w
All they are doing is increase power draw by increasing frequency...

[colophus]

I use a 12600k with a 4070Super and I run most things maxed out! Loving it!

[Jolly-Green-Steve]

I've been on a 2600k since 2011. I'm thinking of upgrading to a 12600k/motherboard/ddr5 32gb for 330 dollars. That will give me 2x single core and 4x multicore performance and would hold me out till Nova Lake.

[tacobales]

switched to the 12600k from a 3900xt honestly in love with these i5 chips they are amazing for the price and performance!

[samwallace]

Just bought the 13600k last week faster than the 12900k. Great chip and price

[misplacedmodifier]

Really appreciate this, I've a 12600k and was holding out to see the 14600k, but now the 13600k is really looking good considering the price point

[Jaylou]

Im building my daughter a pc with my old 12400f and 4060 Ventus. I’m upgrading my GPU to a 4070 Super and was going to upgrade my CPU to a 12600k but it looks like there’s enough of a jump in performance if I upgrade to the 14th gen. I’ve only been into PC’s since November, so hopefully I’m not messing anything up with this choice

[qwerther]

It’s Black Friday in the states. Grabbed a 12600KF for $140. Score!

[JayzBeerz]

The 14600K is now cheaper than the 13600K since no one is buying it.

[Hezquick]

Me who just bought a 12600k thinking there wasn’t much of a difference between 12th and 13th gen chips 🫠

[romankozlovskiy]

The jump from the 12600k to 13600k is actually huge, the 13600k is faster in gaming even to a overclocked i9 12th gen

[nigelwright]

The 14700k is the one with extra e cores so would have a little more uplift in multi threading.

[WSS_the_OG]

I love your presentation. Excellent, by far one of my favourite Youtubers. Very surprised Intel presented this like a generation uptick; it's not, haha. Or perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. All these companies do extremely silly things sometimes.

[sezwo]

I had hopes power consumption would go down so an upgrade from i5 would not entail a new big and costly cooler. Apparently not. I have the 12600k with single tower cooler. All i-7's and i-9's LGA1700 cpu's require big beefy dual tower coolers if not liquid.

[nadtz]

After the Sapphire Rapids/Sapphire Rapids W launch I wasn't expecting that much from this one but it's honestly worse than I expected. If there had been meaningful power reduction (wishful thinking on that one I know) or memory overclocking or *something*, but basically this is actually more of the same. Technically Intel didn't lie since these are a tiny bit faster but when that tiny bit might as well be margin of error, well... Maybe this will drop 13th gen prices which I guess is the silver lining for consumers. Anyway, TR7000 launch tomorrow, yay!

[julianweiser]

Which CPU? Easy, the 7800X3D. The AM5 socket will also be futureproof until 2026. The 1700 will not be, given Intels history of sockets. Also, you can still install Windows 10 on new AMD Processors. At least thats what i was told.

[agentb]

This generation should be called Kaby-Raptor Lake. I'm getting flashbacks of the marginal gains from 7th-gen Kaby Lake back in 2016, or whenever that was. :-P This is really disappointing, even underperforming my pretty low expectations. I was guessing +5% to 8%; not -5 to +5. Oof.
I do like how simple my recommendation to friends has become (for gaming.) I just tell them: Any CPU from the 2020s that ends in at least "600".

[SpartanV]

Think I’ll keep my 12600k and eventually grab a 14900k as a drop in upgrade when prices drop then move from 1080p to 1440p to balance the cpu and gpu and boom I get few more years out of the build lol 😂

[ShamoaKrasieski-xmze]

The 14600K has 200 MHz faster P-core boost speeds over the 13600K, along with the 100 Mhz higher E-core boost speeds you mentioned.