The results of a recent CPU-Z test on a purported Intel Core i9-14900K engineering sample CPU, which were released earlier this week by wnxod, were 978 points for single-core performance and 18117.5 points for multi-core performance. With improvements of 19.4% SC/59% MC over the i9-12900K (Alder Lake) and 9.7% SC/8.4% MC over the i9-13900K (Raptor Lake), this specific sample of the top-tier Raptor Lake Refresh CPU was able to easily outperform its predecessors. According to the stolen CPU-Z data, the i9-14900K can achieve a maximum 6.0 GHz clock speed (with P-cores) on 1.385 volts with to its Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) feature.

Through the use of Geekbench 6.1.0 on Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit, another sample was put to the test. This morning when the database item appeared, multiple PC hardware news outlets jumped at the chance to report on the numbers. Benchmarking the Core i9-14900K resulted in a single core performance score of 3121, shattering the previous record of 3089 held by a Core i9-13900KS CPU. Despite a less than ideal test system configuration—16 GB of DDR5-4800 RAM on a Biostar Z790A-Silver mainboard with Windows using a balanced power plan—Intel’s 14th generation competitor appears to be the fastest single-threaded CPU available. The multi-core score for the Core i9-14900K was lower than that of its major competitor: 19032 versus 21678 (respectively). As we come closer to Intel’s Innovation September event and the rumored release of K-series Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs in late October, it would be wonderful to see some finer test builds take shape.