I'm thinking about upgrading my CPU and I'm torn between going with the i7-14700K/KF or waiting to find the i7-13700K. Originally, I aimed for the 13700K, but I'm having trouble finding it available locally. The i9 is out of my budget, and I'm not keen on switching to AMD either.
My main concern is that I've heard the 14th-gen i7 can run pretty hot, even with a 360mm AIO cooler. I'm planning on using either a Z790 or Z690 motherboard, and I might overclock or undervolt to manage temperatures if necessary.
For the kind of things I do:
- I don't play demanding multi-threaded games.
- My focus is mainly on an older game that only uses 1-4 cores.
- On top of gaming, I usually have Spotify, Discord, and around 20-30 Opera tabs open.
So, I have a couple of questions:
- How serious is the heat issue with the i7-14700K/KF? Can it be managed with undervolting?
- Should I just pull the trigger on the 14700K/KF, or keep on searching for a 13700K?
4 Answers
Have you considered the i7-14600K? It sounds like the extra P-cores might not be necessary for you, and it avoids most of the common issues with the i7/i9 chips. I've got one running under a Thermalright Phantom Spirit, and it's staying around 60°C in my setup. It's definitely worth thinking about!
Why the aversion to AMD? The 13th and 14th Gen Intels are experiencing a lot of issues lately, so I’d personally lean towards waiting or going with AMD instead.
That makes sense! Thanks for clarifying that—might help narrow down my options.
I’d recommend waiting for the 13th-gen chip. You might want to avoid the 14th-gen if you're concerned about potential heat issues. No need to deal with that stress if you can find the older model.
Honestly, there's not a huge difference between the two. The 13700K also runs hot, and if you disable four e-cores on the 14700K, they perform almost the same. If you were leaning towards the 13700K initially, I don't see any reason not to go for the 14700K now.
Intel's 14th-gen can work with DDR4, which I already have, using Z790 or Z690 boards, but high-end AMD CPUs don't support DDR4 and the DDR5 prices are sky-high now.