Today, Intel is officially unveiling the flagship CPU for its 14th Generation chips—the Core i9-14900KS Special Edition. This is the final CPU to arrive for the 14th Generation family, aka Raptor Lake Refresh. Like the rest of the chips in the family, it ups the single-core boost clock by 200MHz over its predecessor, so as expected it can reach 6.2GHz right out of the box. It's the highest-clocked CPU ever made and will cost around $689 when it goes on sale today.
The specs for the 14900KS are almost exactly the same as its predecessor, the Core i9-14900K, but with a 6.2GHz single-core boost clock instead of 6GHz. It's still a 24-core, 32-thread CPU on the LGA 1700 socket and is probably the final chip on that platform before Intel moves to LGA 1851 later this year. The E-core Turbo Max clock has also been nudged upwards by 100MHz to 4.5GHz. All this CPU juicing has raised the PL1 power rating from 125W in the previous chip to 150W for the KS version. The PL2 rating, which is maximum turbo power, is unchanged at 253W, but as we've seen already, that number can get up to 400W or so.
In its marketing materials, Intel compares the 14900KS with the Ryzen 9 7950X in productivity applications, saying it ranges from 0.05% to 16% faster depending on the application. Intel's biggest advantage is in Cinebench at 16%, with the smallest benefit being in an office productivity test named UL Procyon.
Intel also claims the 14900KS is the fastest gaming CPU available and even includes AMD's notorious X3D CPUs in its benchmark chart, though it's obviously choosing games that show its CPU in the best light possible. Despite the cherry-picking expected for a product launch, Intel says the 14900KS tops even the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which is the current "bang for the buck" CPU champion, especially in gaming. It must be noted that the 7800X3D costs about half the price of this CPU ($369 versus $689).
However, Intel's numbers show the CPUs trading blows, with AMD winning some and Intel winning several others by between 4-9%. Intel cheekily even shows the 14900KS losing to every AMD CPU it compared it with in F1 2023 but winning in games like Metro Exodus and Starfield. Intel also states the 14900KS is between 3% and 15% faster in gaming than the 13900KS, but it's not like anyone who owns that CPU will upgrade due to the top-tier pricing for both chips.
Finally, as expected, the 14900KS supports Intel APO technology, where Intel has optimized its thread scheduler in some processors to boost game performance in supported titles. So far, it's only supported in 12 games, so it's a really niche feature, but it's essentially free performance. It's been reported that it can offer up to a 29% boost in performance in some games, so it's definitely worth checking out.
Note: An original version of this article stated the price as $699, which was given to us in press materials, but Intel has clarified that the price is $689. We have updated the article above.
