On paper, Intel’s newest 14th-gen cell Core HX processors don’t provide laptop computer consumers a lot in the best way of an improve over the earlier technology. In the actual world, that holds true as properly. And, weirdly, that’s a number of the greatest information you’ll hear all 12 months if you happen to’re trying to choose up a gaming laptop computer with out breaking the financial institution.
Intel’s 14th-gen Core i9-14900HX is the quickest cell PC CPU we’ve ever examined, although AMD’s AMD’s Ryzen 8000 Mobile family of processors are ready within the wings. Intel’s newest 14th-gen Core HX processors sit alongside its Core Ultra laptop computer chips, though the 2 aren’t essentially designed to compete. The Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) chips have a tendency to emphasise lengthy battery life, whereas the Core HX chips deal with efficiency first.
And it’s a beast: the brand new Core i9-14900HX delivers 24 cores and 32 threads, combining 8 efficiency cores and 16 effectivity cores. But it’s additionally largely the similar beast because the 13th-gen Core i9-13980HX that we examined a 12 months in the past. The variety of efficiency (P-cores) cores stays the identical, as does the variety of effectivity cores (E-cores), plus the overall variety of threads. Even the method expertise stays the identical, on the Intel 7 node.
Remember, the 13th-gen Core i9-13980HX was a “Raptor Lake” chip. The Core i9-14900HX we examined is a “Raptor Lake Refresh” processor. Intel’s ARK database helpfully compares the two chips, which we’ve excerpted under.
The distinction? Intel boosted the turbo clock pace from 5.6GHz to 5.8GHz, because it tweaked the ability and voltage curve in Raptor Lake Refresh. That performed out in several methods in our testing.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Intel supplied us with a monstrous MSI Raider GE78 pocket book with a Core i9-14900HX and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 processor inside. It’s similar to the MSI Titan GT77 we used for the prior-generation testing of the Core i9-13980HX. (Separately, we’ve additionally reviewed an Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 with equally ferocious firepower inside.)
We’re not going to deal with the MSI Raider as a pocket book on this article, however show how the 14th-gen HX chip differs from the 13th-gen in a number of CPU-specific benchmarks. That will largely eradicate using video games, as an alternative specializing in artificial and precise productiveness checks that take a look at the CPU’s efficiency. Forget battery life, too. Instead, we dialed up the Windows efficiency slider and the Raider’s cooling to most ranges, as we did for the 13th-gen MSI Titan GT77.
Put merely, this story is designed that can assist you determine whether or not or not it’s essential to purchase a 14th-gen Core HX laptop computer, or accept an older mannequin as an alternative.
14th-gen cell Core HX efficiency: extra of the identical
Cinebench R23 is a tried-and-true benchmark, utilizing the entire CPU’s threads to render a scene. Alternatively, you may also ask the benchmark to allocate only one core to do the job — helpful if you happen to nonetheless favor video games and apps which are coded to make use of a single core or thread, reasonably than many.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Here, we see an 11 p.c enchancment in multi-core efficiency however only a 2 p.c enchancment in single-threaded efficiency. That’s a reasonably first rate enchancment the place the multi-threaded efficiency is worried.
Blender is a well-liked, open-source 3D rendering device used for animated movies. The device could be set to make use of simply the CPU to render a number of scenes, as we do right here. But the development is slight (2 p.c at most) probably as a result of the scenes could be rendered in a simply a few dozen seconds or so.
Mark Hachman / IDG
It’s a great time to level out that CPUs sometimes soar from a base energy stage right into a turbo energy state, generally known as PL2. The time through which the processor can stay in a turbo state, generally known as the tau, impacts efficiency; if the laptop computer can stay in a turbo state for longer, it may possibly get extra work performed. But the tau is usually simply as depending on the design of the laptop computer and its cooling system as a lot because the CPU itself, so we are able to’t learn an excessive amount of into it. The indisputable fact that each notebooks are designed by the identical MSI engineering staff, although, helps.
We used a device known as HWInfo to extract a few of this information. In the Core i9-14900HX’s case, the HWInfo device studies that the tau needs to be about 56 seconds, throughout which this 55-watt CPU sucks 150W of energy and might climb to over 5GHz. After 56 seconds, the chip ought to decrease its pace to a base clock pace (2.4GHz, HWInfo studies) to keep away from overheating.
That signifies that extended checks sometimes push a chip previous that tau time. We use the Handbrake open-source conversion device to transcode a 4K .MOV file to a H.265 format and document the time it takes to take action.
Unfortunately, we found an error in our 13th-gen Core HX testing, so we’re not together with a proper comparability between the 2 gaming notebooks. But we did take a look at a 13th-gen Core i9-13950HX in a second, thinner laptop computer, which generated a rating of 634 seconds whereas performing the duty. Our 14th-gen Core i9-14900HX pocket book carried out the duty in 554 seconds. Again, the 2 aren’t immediately comparable, however that’s nonetheless a 10 p.c drop.
Unfortunately, that’s the place the social gathering ends. The V-ray (by Chaos) rendering plug-in usually would use the laptop computer’s GPU, however we are able to ask it to make use of the CPU as an alternative. It, too, completes shortly. The two laptop computer platforms are primarily statistically equal.
Mark Hachman / IDG
So, too, is the Bapco CrossMark benchmark, which makes use of the CPU to carry out real-world duties. In each V-ray and CrossMark, lower than 1 p.c separates the 2 outcomes.
Mark Hachman / IDG
We additionally in contrast the 2 platforms utilizing the PugetBench take a look at, which is a benchmark constructed by Puget Systems with particular person checks in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.
PugetBench has moved on to a brand new “For Creators” benchmark, by the way. We didn’t have entry to the older MSI 13th-gen laptop computer for testing, or we might have run this benchmark. We centered on the older Photoshop take a look at as an alternative. Weirdly, we noticed the identical anomaly as we noticed in our earlier checks; efficiency went backwards by 7 p.c.
The PugetBench take a look at does take a number of minutes to finish, nonetheless, so we’d have anticipated higher efficiency, a la the Handbrake benchmark, But it was to not be.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Thunderbolt shouldn’t have an effect on your resolution
What Intel would really like you to think about whereas evaluating the 14th-gen HX platform, is, properly, the platform: 16 lanes of PCI Express Gen 5, assist for DDR5-5600 reminiscence, and so forth. But once more, that is all the identical because the 13th-gen Core HX platform provides.
There’s one distinction, type of: Thunderbolt 5. This next-gen I/O customary will provide 80Gbps (and in some instances, 120Gbps) of bandwidth to shows, GPUs, and different peripherals starting within the 14th technology of Core chips. But not like Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 5 controllers will not be built-in in 14th-gen {hardware}, which signifies that laptop computer makers must construct it in with a discrete chip. That’s going to require extra price. More to the purpose, neither Thunderbolt 5 laptop computer controllers nor Thunderbolt 5-certified peripheral {hardware} are literally out there, and received’t be till mid-2024 or later.
Because of Intel’s reluctance to certify non-Intel platforms as Thunderbolt compliant, AMD Ryzen notebooks use the appropriate USB4 customary, as an alternative. But 80Gbps USB4 {hardware} isn’t right here, both, and received’t be till later this 12 months.
Is the 14th-gen Core HX well worth the improve?
If you already personal a 13th-gen Core HX pocket book, it’s completely not value upgrading to a 14th-gen Core HX. If you personal a 12th-gen Core gaming pocket book or under, it’s a way more compelling possibility. For that, we’d advocate you re-read our older 13th-gen Core review for efficiency comparisons to 12th-gen {hardware}. (Spoiler alert: 13th- and 14th-gen Core chips are an enormous enchancment over their predecessors, particularly in multi-threaded duties and video games.)
Is the 14th-gen Core HX higher than AMD’s Ryzen 7000 HX sequence? We can’t definitively say for now. Ditto for Ryzen 8000 Mobile, which was solely not too long ago introduced. But understand that the Ryzen 9 8945HS provides simply 8 cores and 16 threads, and runs as much as 5.2GHz at turbo speeds. The Intel 14th-gen Core HX tops that in core depend, threads, and turbo clock pace — so if we have been to guess, sure, AMD will lag behind.
The indisputable fact that the 13th-gen Core HX and 14th-gen Core HX are extraordinarily comparable is not a nasty factor, although, the place you’re involved. Remember, as the brand new 14th-gen gaming notebooks roll out, retailers are going to wish to eliminate their older {hardware} to make room. And to try this, they’re going to supply the older notebooks at a reduction, as a part of a sale.
But if a 13th-gen Core gaming pocket book is just about nearly as good as a 14th-gen gaming pocket book, that’s a possibility. Why purchase a 14th-gen Core HX pocket book when you should buy a 13th-gen Core HX laptop computer that’s simply as superior at a juicy low cost?