Core i9-14900KS at 6.2 GHz May Be The Fastest Consumer CPU

Core i9-14900K
Core i9-14900K (Image credit: Amazon)

The Core i9-14900K has fought its way into the list of best CPUs, but there's an even faster chip down the line. PC-Online (via Anandtech forum user), a retailer in Israel, has listed the unannounced Core i9-14900KS in multiple prebuilt systems, implying that the Core i9-13900KS has also received Intel's refresh treatment.

The Core i9-14900KS will likely retain the same 24-core, 32-thread design as the regular Core i9-14900K. The configuration conveys eight Raptor Cove cores with HyperThreading and 16 Gracemont cores. The cache system remains at 68MB, distributed between the L2 (32MB) and L3 (36MB) cache. Like other Raptor Lake Refresh chips, the Core i9-14900KS will only offer higher clock speeds.

The Core i9-13900KS was the world's first 6 GHz, later superseded by the recent Core i9-14900K. Assuming that PC-Online's specifications are accurate, Intel is about to shatter its record with the Core i9-14900KS. The retailer listed the Core i9-14900KS with a 6.2 GHz boost clock, 200 MHz or 3% higher than the Core i9-14900K. It's unknown whether the E-cores received any clock speed optimizations since PC-Online only listed the boost clock for the P-cores.

Core i9-14900KS Specifications*

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ProcessorMSRPCores / Threads (P+E)P-Core Base / Boost Clock (GHz)E-Core Base / Boost Clock (GHz)Cache (L2/L3)PBP / MTPMemory
Core i9-14900KS?24 / 32 (8+16)? / 6.2? / ?68MB (32+36)?DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600
Core i9-14900K / KF$599 (K) - $574 (KF)24 / 32 (8+16)3.2 / 6.02.4 / 4.468MB (32+36)125W / 253WDDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600
Core i9-13900KS$69924 / 32 (8+16)3.0 / 6.02.2 / 4.368MB (32+36)150W / 253WDDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600
Core i9-13900K / KF$599 (K) - $574 (KF)24 / 32 (8+16)3.0 / 5.82.2 / 4.368MB (32+36)125W / 253WDDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

Regarding the power ratings, the Core i9-14900KS is likely to be a crossover between the Core i9-13900KS and the Core i9-14900K. The special edition chip will plausibly have a 150W PBP like the former with a 253W like the latter. Nonetheless, the Core i9-14900KS should peak around 320W like the Core i9-14900K, if not higher.

Although Intel claims to have improved Raptor Lake Refresh's IMC (integrated memory controller), the new chips retain native DDR4-3200 and DDR5-5600 support. Weirdly, PC-Online would pair the Core i9-14900KS with DDR4-3200 memory instead of something faster to avoid bottlenecks with Intel's speedy chip. The specifications for the prebuilt systems look a bit mild, suggesting that these may be machines that target offices.

The Core i9-14900KS is compatible with existing Intel 700-series motherboards with the LGA1700 socket. However, many vendors have ridden the Raptor Lake Refresh wave and released new 700-series motherboards with better power delivery subsystems for overclocking and fast Wi-Fi 7 connectivity.

(Image credit: PC-Online)

As a generous gesture, Intel launched Raptor Lake Refresh at the same price as vanilla Raptor Lake. As a result, the Core i9-14900K has the same $599 price tag as the previous Core i9-13900K. Assuming that Intel repeats this with the Core i9-14900KS, we could be looking at $699, the MSRP for the Core i9-13900KS.

It's unknown when Intel will launch the Core i9-14900KS. PC-Online lets buyers order the prebuilt systems with the unreleased Raptor Lake Refresh chip and claims a shipping time between one and five days. The Israel-based retailer's enthusiasm to start shipping its prebuilt systems with the Core i9-14900KS suggests that an official announcement may not be too far away.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • emike09
    More cache and more PCI-e lanes and I'm in.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    emike09 said:
    more PCI-e lanes
    literally only thing I care about anymore....cpu's are already fast enoguh for basically anything a normal person needs em to be...the issue is becoming limited lanes.
    Reply
  • jonathan1683
    I agree I have been dealing with no available pciex lanes all today. Very annoying, next PC i get I want it to be HEDT. Hopefully intel brings back the xtreme cpus
    Reply
  • emike09
    jonathan1683 said:
    I agree I have been dealing with no available pciex lanes all today. Very annoying, next PC i get I want it to be HEDT. Hopefully intel brings back the xtreme cpus
    They kinda did this year with the Xeon W 2400 And 3400 series CPUs, but it's a bit lack luster. They're powerful, some SKUs are overclockable, with quad or octo-channel memory, 64 to 112 PCI-e lanes, but for pure CPU speed, something like the i9-14900k, 7800x3d, or 7900x3d offers more for substantially less unless you need pure multi-threaded performance vs single thread performance. Great for workstation use, not as good for gaming or applications that need that single threaded performance.

    I just have a hard time justifying upgrading my i9-10920X X299 platform to the W-2400 platform. Sure, you get DDR5, PCIe-5 with more lanes, and a little better performance out of the CPU, but $1400 for the w5-2465x alone, plus a good mobo, new cooler, and new RAM makes that hard to justify. Looking at around $2500 for the upgrade.

    X299 was a beast, and was affordable compared to the W790 platform. Also, some of us don't care about power consumption - Drop the E-cores and just give us P-cores. P-cores are wasted silicon. This is where HEDT thrives.
    Reply
  • P.Amini
    Two things makes me kinda skeptical:
    1. It first announced for Israel which is in the middle of a war
    2. Pairing a 14900KS(pecial) with a 3200MHz RAM is super weird
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    P.Amini said:
    Two things makes me kinda skeptical:
    1. It first announced for Israel which is in the middle of a war
    2. Pairing a 14900KS(pecial) with a 3200MHz RAM is super weird
    Israel has one of the mayor fabs from intel, so somebody might just know somebody and got the inside news about the ks, that they advertise it doesn't mean that it will come out there first, it's usually a global launch.

    2. oems.... also for ddr4 3200 is the official maximum for the 14900k so if they want to sell a PC with warranty they would have to stick with official numbers.
    Reply
  • P.Amini
    TerryLaze said:
    Israel has one of the mayor fabs from intel, so somebody might just know somebody and got the inside news about the ks, that they advertise it doesn't mean that it will come out there first, it's usually a global launch.

    2. oems.... also for ddr4 3200 is the official maximum for the 14900k so if they want to sell a PC with warranty they would have to stick with official numbers.
    https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/236773/intel-core-i9-processor-14900k-36m-cache-up-to-6-00-ghz/specifications.html
    Reply
  • jonathan1683
    emike09 said:
    They kinda did this year with the Xeon W 2400 And 3400 series CPUs, but it's a bit lack luster. They're powerful, some SKUs are overclockable, with quad or octo-channel memory, 64 to 112 PCI-e lanes, but for pure CPU speed, something like the i9-14900k, 7800x3d, or 7900x3d offers more for substantially less unless you need pure multi-threaded performance vs single thread performance. Great for workstation use, not as good for gaming or applications that need that single threaded performance.

    I just have a hard time justifying upgrading my i9-10920X X299 platform to the W-2400 platform. Sure, you get DDR5, PCIe-5 with more lanes, and a little better performance out of the CPU, but $1400 for the w5-2465x alone, plus a good mobo, new cooler, and new RAM makes that hard to justify. Looking at around $2500 for the upgrade.

    X299 was a beast, and was affordable compared to the W790 platform. Also, some of us don't care about power consumption - Drop the E-cores and just give us P-cores. P-cores are wasted silicon. This is where HEDT thrives.
    I never considered a xeon, my PC is mostly for gaming I just don't have enough lanes for my add on cards/NVME SSDs I think they will have to do something soon since the nvme drives are taking up so many lanes now.
    Reply
  • emike09
    jonathan1683 said:
    I never considered a xeon, my PC is mostly for gaming I just don't have enough lanes for my add on cards/NVME SSDs I think they will have to do something soon since the nvme drives are taking up so many lanes now.
    I hear ya. I mostly game as well but do a lot in Premiere and After Effects also. HEDT on X299 was pretty much Xeon without the Xeon branding, single socket only, and unlocked multipliers. Most boards even supported ECC memory. 4 NVMe drives using Intel vROC, an RTX 4090, capture card, 10G NIC - there's 40 lanes right there.

    Plus, with PCI-e 5, you can run in x8 or even x4 mode for x16 devices and not experience bandwidth issues, so that stretches those lanes out a fair bit. I just wish consumer platforms would adopt more lanes.

    Honestly, I'm rarely CPU bound in gaming with the i9-10920X @ 4.8ghz. Flight Simulator is probably the most demanding game on the CPU since it's limited by a single thread. I mostly want something newer for production apps.
    Reply