Intel Showcases 14th-Generation Processors at Sydney Event

Intel recently sparked a wave of excitement in the global gaming community by launching its 14th-Generation desktop processors.

Its flagship Core i9-14900K processor promises boost frequencies of 6GHz out of the box which will improve performance on even the most complex games. Known as Raptor Lake Refresh, Intel has stuck to same retail pricing as the 13th-Gen chips for the latest variants of the Core i5, i7 and i9 processors.

The 14th-Gen processor was showcased at the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) event in Sydney last month, with eSports teams from Australia and the United Kingdom going head-to-head in a 'Showmatch'.

This was a precursor to the final of the prestigious Counter-Strike (CS2) tournament – the culmination of a week-long event that generated a flurry of activity on online sportsbooks.

Most new Australian betting sites offered a wide range of markets throughout the tournament, which marked the first competitive eSports event for CS2.

FaZe Clan emerged victorious, delivering a winning return to punters after recovering from a one-game deficit to defeat Complexity Gaming 2-1 in a hugely entertaining final showdown.

Their success forced the bookies into a sizeable payout, with eSports bettors eager to wager on FaZe after their impressive performances in the run-up to the final.

The CS2 tournament attracted more than to 20,000 fans to the Aware Super Theatre, many of whom were also eager to see Intel's 14th-Gen processor demonstrate its power for the first time.

Turbo clock speeds of up to 6GHz with the new Core i9-14900K chip and a new 'Application Performance Optimisation (APO)' that tweaks the CPU were among the headlines for Intel's new family of processors.

However, the key takeaway for most gamers was Intel's commitment to maintaining the same retail price range of $294 to $589 for its next generation of processors.

Prices have now remained largely unchanged for the last three generations of Intel chips, highlighting the company's commitment to keeping their products as affordable as possible in difficult economic times. The overview of the new range is as follows:

• Core i5-14600K (6 P-cores, 3.5GHz/5.3GHz; 8 E-cores, 2.6GHz/4.0GHz) – $319 ($294 for -F variant).
• Core i7-14700K (8 P-cores, 3.4GHz/5.5GHz; 12 E-cores, 2.5GHz/5.5GHz) – $409 ($384 for -F variant).
• Core i9-14900K (8 P-cores, 3.2GHz/5.6GHz; 16 E-cores, 2.4GHz/4.4GHz) – $589 ($564 for -F variant).

Intel delivered the biggest improvements in the Core i7-14700K chip, with the additional cores delivering significant upgrades when compared to the 13th-gen Alder Lake processor.

It includes 20 cores and 28 threads, an increase of four in each category when measured against the Core i7-13700K/F. However, the Core i9-14900K/F are the only two chips with an increased clock speed compared to the 13th-gen variants.

Roger Chandler, Intel vice president and general manager, Enthusiast PC and Workstation​, Client Computing Group, was naturally bullish about the new chips following their launch.

"Since the introduction of our performance hybrid architecture, Intel has consistently raised the bar for desktop performance," Chandler said. "With our Intel Core 14th Generation processors, we're showing once again why enthusiasts turn to Intel for the best desktop experience available on the market today."

Intel also highlighted two future additions to the 14th-Gen platform on Australia – Thunderbolt 5 and Wi-Fi 7. While neither are fully available yet, their respective rollouts will be truly transformational in the gaming sector.

Thunderbolt 5 could offer speeds of up to 120Gbps, which creates the possibility that DisplayPort and HDMI connectors will finally be replaced. Wi-Fi 7 has also not been fully ratified but will be in major leap forward when it arrives.

The APO is perhaps the most fascinating feature for gamers as it effectively serves as a GPU driver upgrade for the CPU. In simple terms, this delivers significant performance upgrades in complex games.

While Intel is yet to confirm whether it will be tuned to be compatible with non-gaming applications, there is every possibility this will happen further down the line.

Another enhancement provided by the Core i9-14900K/KF processors is 'AI Assist' – a feature which scans your system before recommending enhanced overclocking settings uniquely tailored to your system.

Team Australia Extreme Overclocking (Team.AU) and Intel collaborated during the event in Sydney to demonstrate the exciting capabilities of the Core i9-14900K chip, pushing it between 7.5-8 GHz on Gigabyte's Z790 Aorus Tachyon X motherboard.

Client Computing Group fed the chip with liquid nitrogen to keep it cool during a test which delivered a 33% overclock. While the result was below the current world record of 9,043.92 MHz set by the Core i9-14900KF, it was still impressive.

The chip also produced a performance record in CS2 pumping out frame rates up to a staggering 1,310 FPS. Although there are currently no commercial monitors on the market that can handle that frame rate, it is unlikely to be too long before the technology catches up.

Team.AU also broke the DDR5 world record in Sydney, driving Gigabyte's DDR5-8333 16GB memory module to DDR5-11618. While each of the individual improvements delivered by the 14th-Gen processors are not overly ground-breaking in isolation, they collectively provide a noteworthy leap forward on previous editions of the chips.

Given this has been achieved without increasing the retail pricing, Intel undoubtedly deserves a major pat on the back for what they have achieved with their latest batch of processors.