AMD has been all the rage with gamers lately, as its Ryzen X3D series of CPUs with extra V-Cache boosts gaming performance for both PC builders and pre-builts. But Intel is still far in the lead in terms of market share, and it hasn’t been resting on its laurels. An overclocked variant of its top-of-the-line Core i9 14900K CPU has been spotted in several leaks, and even in a few users’ hands, sporting overclocked primary cores for even better performance. The all-but-confirmed Intel Core i9-14900KS supports a native overclock boosting its clock speeds up to an incredible 6.2GHz.
That might seem a pretty slim boost over the regular version of the chip, which boosts itself up to 6.0GHz natively, but overclocking enthusiasts should be able to get it even higher. One user on the Overclock.net forum (spotted by VideoCardz.com) managed to get their hands on the CPU ahead of the official launch, and even the official announcement. Hitting that maximum supported speed on the 14900KS requires 1.498 volts going to the CPU and a reported total thermal design power of 150 watts, compared to 125 for the 14900K and KF variants. Naturally, this will require BIOS/UEFI support for your motherboard — the forum user’s Asus Z790 mobo seems to be working with it on the latest BIOS.
How much extra performance can you expect from this “special edition” chip? It’s hard to say with so little data available at the moment, but the proprietary Asus silicon prediction score utility is showing it at a little under 10% on the processors’ eight primary performance cores versus the standard K. The 16 efficiency cores are scoring lower, strangely, by about 20 percent — but no one’s buying this CPU to save money on their power bill. Speaking of which, how much will this thing cost? While it’s still not official, rumors and leaks indicate that the 14900KS has a sticker price of over $700 (versus the $650 MSRP for the KF) and could launch as early as this month.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.