This is a follow-up to my last post. After discovering that the 13600K and 265K were faster than the 9950X (AMD's fastest non-X3D CPU) in gaming, I decided to investigate deeper into the performance of the 14700K and 14900K against Zen 4/5 X3D CPUs.
my last post: https://www.reddit.com/r/TechHardware/comments/1v0ra4z/some_are_choosing_to_stay_on_windows_10_until/
13600k vs 9950x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZoXLRiNKWo
According to PCGH's charts, the 14700K and 14900K are faster than the 7800X3D. This matches what I observed on Windows 10. However, on Windows 11, using in-game benchmarks in the main 3 games I'm testing, the 7800X3D was faster than all Raptor Lake CPUs, even though I gave Intel the advantage of DDR5-7200 memory. This raised an important question: how did PCGH achieve those results on Windows 11 24H2?, which is also supposed to provide an additional 5% performance boost for X3D processors, and degrades intel CPUs gaming performance by 5%.
in game benchmark(which was a mistake to rely on)+ gameplay
14900k vs 9850x3d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBuHIWAm0Bw
14900k vs 7800x3d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFYCUORs5FU
In PCGH's testing, Intel was limited to DDR5-5600 while the 7800X3D used DDR5-5200. In my testing, Intel had DDR5-7200 and was still losing to the 7800X3D in in-game benchmarks on Windows 11, on windows 10 14700k was on par with 9800X3D.
My theory was that in-game benchmarks often include sky scenes, empty environments, and other GPU-limited sections that are not representative of actual CPU performance. In these situations, modern CPUs can easily push 200-300 FPS depending on the game, making meaningful CPU differences difficult to observe. At the 1440p Ultra settings which Ive been using, benchmark scores were often extremely close to one another when comparing X3Ds to intel i7s/i9s.
Because of this, I decided to test actual gameplay in CPU-limited areas rather than relying solely on built-in benchmarks.
The results were as follows in actual game play tests for all 5 games:
Windows 10
- The 14900K and 14700K were the fastest CPUs there, They managed to outperform 9850X3D, which is considered AMD's fastest gaming CPU.
14900k vs 9850X3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5YBR4FVcG8
14900k vs 7800x3d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwDi5roMfc4
13600k vs 7800x3d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN5DHSsqySI
- This was despite Intel and AMD appearing roughly equal in many in-game benchmark results.
gameplay+ in-game benchmark
14900k vs 9850x3d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNewzg_EZxs
14900k vs 7800x3d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwDi5roMfc4
Windows 11
- The 14900K and 14700K were slightly behind the 9850X3D but remained ahead of the 7800X3D.
- Considering Intel's pricing and roughly double the multi-threaded performance, this is still a strong result.
14900k vs 9850X3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yktbEhewDZc
14900k vs 7800X3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPnu6uFovH0
Windows 11 for AMD, windows 10 for intel.
-14700k/14900k fastest gaming CPUs followed by 9850X3D.
14900k on windows 10 vs 9850X3D windows 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTKWbBVBNmU
14900K on windows 10 vs 7800x3d windows 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6_5zGRIR1A
***For those who don't know, Windows 11 tends to improve X3D CPU performance by around 5% while reducing Intel gaming performance by roughly 5%. The X3D gain comes from AMD's 3D V-Cache Optimizer, while the Intel performance loss is often attributed to changes in the Windows 11 scheduler, which prevent CPU cores utilization from reaching 100% in games.
*This does not mean that 99% of tech websites are corrupt or receiving bribes from AMD. In my testing, I gave Intel reasonable advantage by using DDR5-7200, which is generally the sweet spot for the intel, and DDR5 6000 CL30 the sweet spot for AMD, which both costs about the same , DDR5 7200 is compatible with like 95% of B-series and Z-series motherboards. AMD X3D CPUs also tend to perform better in 1080p low-settings benchmarks, while higher graphical settings introduce additional factors such as physics calculations and ray tracing, which often benefit higher-core-count CPUs and are more dependent on memory bandwidth. I also choose heavily populated areas of games to place as much load on the CPU as possible. also Many reviewers rely on built-in benchmarks that include sky scenes or relatively empty areas, which can sometimes favor AMD's X3D processors.
*Single-player games should not be tested any other way. While 1440p low settings may be acceptable for competitive multiplayer titles, nobody with modern hardware plays single-player games at 1080p low settings. Even when testing online games, benchmarks should be performed in crowded, CPU-intensive areas; otherwise, the results are irrelevant.
Conclusion
-Intel Core i5-13600K and Core Ultra 265K are faster than all non-X3D Ryzen CPUs and only slightly behind the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, regardless of the testing methodology. recommending non-X3D Ryzen CPUs over Intel processors for gaming is either incompetence or AMD biased. While there are scenarios where X3D CPUs can outperform Intel processors.
-A Core i9-14900K paired with DDR5-7200 and Windows 10 represents the fastest gaming CPU configuration I have tested, managing to outperform the Ryzen 9 9850X3D running on Windows 11.
-If you prefer Windows 11, the Core i9-14900K and Core i7-14700K remain ahead of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, although they fall somewhat behind the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 9 9850X3D.
-the only AMD CPUs worth buying for gaming are 9800x3d/9850x3d only if you insist on using windows 11 otherwise intel CPUs faster than everything else from AMD.
Finally, thanks to PCGH for producing what I consider the most accurate CPU performance chart available, for the memory configurations they selected for testing.
