Intel’s Core i9-14900KS is the best that the lineup has to offer, but how does it match up against AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X3D?
Intel’s freshly released Core i9-14900KS processor is advertised as the fastest CPU in the world, but does that mean AMD can never hope to compete, even with its flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D? Not at all. Each CPU has its merits, and both are insanely powerful in their own right. At this price point and at this performance level, making the right choice is tricky.
Let’s zoom in and find out how the Core i9-14900KS and the Ryzen 9 7950X3D stack up against each other, what they excel at, and which one is the better option to buy.Pricing and availability
Intel’s Core i9-14900KS was announced on March 14, 2024, and it hit the shelves on that same day. It arrived as a follow-up to Intel’s Raptor Lake refresh, making it a successor not only to the Core i9-14900K, but mainly to the Core i9-13900KS. It only took Intel a few months to replace its previous flagship, seeing as the Core i9-14900K launched in October 2023. A cool halo product through and through, the KS version launched later than the rest of the lineup as a product aimed at enthusiasts who wouldn’t flinch at the $690 price tag.
Much like Intel took a bit of a breather before hitting the public with this monstrous CPU, AMD too took its time before the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, It arrived on the market later than the rest of the lineup — but it still launched much sooner than the entirety of the Raptor Lake refresh. While the Ryzen 7000 lineup launched in September 2022, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D followed months later on February 28, 2023, accompanied by the Ryzen 9 7900X3D. it was later followed by the world’s best gaming CPU — the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
Believe it or not, AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X3D actually managed to beat the eye-watering price tag of the Core i9-14900KS. At launch, the 3D V-Cache chip was priced at $700. However, following a steady series of price cuts, you can now score this beastly CPU at a much more agreeable price of $595.
While both CPUs are still expensive, it’s unlikely that Intel’s new offering will get any cheaper anytime soon, so this is as good as it’s going to get for the foreseeable future.Specs
If you’re familiar with the chip architecture Intel has been employing since the Alder Lake generation, you know that on an architectural level, these two chips are vastly different. Intel’s Core i9-14900KS comes with a hybrid core architecture, which means that it offers a mix of performance (P) and efficiency (E) cores. However, this is nothing new at this point, and when you compare it to its predecessors, the core count has remained the same as in the Core i9-13900K, 13900KS, and 14900K. Meanwhile, AMD has far fewer cores at 16, but the same thread count.
The processors also differ in clock speed. Reviews of the Core i9-14900KS all agree that in terms of frequency, it’s as good as it gets for a consumer CPU. It maxes out at 6.2GHz, but it also already managed to beat a world record with an extreme overlock that broke past 9.
