On paper, Intel’s newest 14th-gen cell Core HX processors don’t provide laptop consumers distinguished in the intention in which of an upgrade over the outdated generation. Within the true world, that holds upright as properly. And, weirdly, that’s a number of of basically the most efficient news you’ll hear all year while you’re having a peek to address up a gaming laptop with out breaking the bank, because it is advisable smooth be in a procedure to address up older 13th-gen laptops at a cut model and barely gape a performance distinction between these and Intel’s newest, greatest CPUs.
And yes, I stated greatest. Intel’s 14th-gen Core i9-14900HX is the quickest cell PC CPU we’ve ever examined, though AMD’s AMD’s Ryzen 8000 Cell family of processors are ready in the wings. Intel’s newest 14th-gen Core HX processors sit alongside its Core Ultra laptop chips, even though the 2 aren’t basically designed to compete. The Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) chips tend to emphasize long battery existence, while the Core HX chips point of interest on performance first.
And it’s a beast: the modern Core i9-14900HX delivers 24 cores and 32 threads, combining 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores. Nonetheless it with out a doubt’s furthermore largely the same beast as the 13th-gen Core i9-13980HX that we examined a year ago. The replace of performance (P-cores) cores stays the same, as does the replace of efficiency cores (E-cores), plus the total replace of threads. Even the approach abilities stays the same, at the Intel 7 node.
Keep in mind, the 13th-gen Core i9-13980HX became a “Raptor Lake” chip. The Core i9-14900HX we examined is a “Raptor Lake Refresh” processor. Intel’s ARK database helpfully compares the 2 chips, which we’ve excerpted below.
The variation? Intel boosted the turbo clock dawdle from 5.6GHz to 5.8GHz, as it tweaked the ability and voltage curve in Raptor Lake Refresh. That performed out in varied systems in our testing.
Tag Hachman / IDG
Intel provided us with a unsightly MSI Raider GE78 notebook with a Core i9-14900HX and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 processor within. It’s very equal to the MSI Titan GT77 we outdated for the prior-generation testing of the Core i9-13980HX. (One after the other, we’ve furthermore reviewed an Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 with equally ferocious firepower within.)
We’re no longer going to point of interest on the MSI Raider as a notebook on this text, but point to how the 14th-gen HX chip differs from the 13th-gen in a number of CPU-advise benchmarks. That will largely get rid of the usage of video games, as a replace specializing in synthetic and true productiveness tests that test the CPU’s performance. Neglect battery existence, too. As a replace, we dialed up the Windows performance slider and the Raider’s cooling to maximum ranges, as we did for the 13th-gen MSI Titan GT77.
Put simply, this story is designed to abet you to address out whether or no longer or no longer you’d also contain to get rid of a 14th-gen Core HX laptop, or resolve for an older model as a replace.
14th-gen cell Core HX performance: extra of the same
Cinebench R23 is a tried-and-upright benchmark, utilizing all the CPU’s threads to render a scene. Alternatively, you would possibly maybe maybe well presumably furthermore test the benchmark to allocate real one core to raise out the job — at hand while you smooth address video games and apps which would possibly maybe maybe well be coded to make exhaust of a single core or thread, pretty than many.
Tag Hachman / IDG
Right here, we witness an 11 p.c enchancment in multi-core performance but real a 2 p.c enchancment in single-threaded performance. That’s a moderately first price enchancment the set up the multi-threaded performance is anxious.
Blender is a favored, open-provide 3D rendering instrument outdated for inviting movies. The instrument will even be space to make exhaust of real the CPU to render several scenes, as we provide out here. Nonetheless the approach is shrimp (2 p.c at most) presumably since the scenes will even be rendered in a real a pair of dozen seconds or so.
Tag Hachman / IDG
It’s a upright time to point to that CPUs in most cases soar from a frightful power stage into a turbo power inform, in most cases assuredly known as PL2. The time in which the processor can dwell in a turbo inform, assuredly known as the tau, impacts performance; if the laptop can dwell in a turbo inform for longer, it goes to gain extra work executed. Nonetheless the tau is on the entire real as dependent on the fabricate of the laptop and its cooling procedure as distinguished as the CPU itself, so we can’t read too distinguished into it. The reality that both notebooks are designed by the same MSI engineering team, though, helps.
We outdated a instrument known as HWInfo to extract a number of of this files. Within the Core i9-14900HX’s case, the HWInfo instrument reports that the tau ought to be about 56 seconds, in the future of which this 55-watt CPU sucks 150W of power and can climb to over 5GHz. After 56 seconds, the chip must smooth decrease its dawdle to a frightful clock dawdle (2.4GHz, HWInfo reports) to steer clear of overheating.
Which intention that extended tests in most cases push a chip past that tau time. We exhaust the Handbrake open-provide conversion instrument to transcode a 4K .MOV file to a H.265 layout and portray the time it takes to raise out so.
Unfortunately, we found an error in our 13th-gen Core HX testing, so we’re no longer including a formal comparison between the 2 gaming notebooks. Nonetheless we did test a 13th-gen Core i9-13950HX in a 2nd, thinner laptop, which generated a rating of 634 seconds while performing the job. Our 14th-gen Core i9-14900HX notebook performed the job in 554 seconds. Again, the 2 aren’t straight comparable, but that’s smooth a 10 p.c fall.
Unfortunately, that’s the set up the party ends. The V-ray (by Chaos) rendering drag-in on the entire would exhaust the laptop’s GPU, but we can test it to make exhaust of the CPU as a replace. It, too, completes expeditiously. The two laptop platforms are truly statistically equal.
Tag Hachman / IDG
So, too, is the Bapco CrossMark benchmark, which uses the CPU to contrivance true-world projects. In both V-ray and CrossMark, decrease than 1 p.c separates the 2 outcomes.
Tag Hachman / IDG
We furthermore when put next the 2 platforms utilizing the PugetBench test, which is a benchmark constructed by Puget Programs with person tests in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.
PugetBench has moved on to a brand modern “For Creators” benchmark, by the intention in which. We didn’t contain gain admission to to the older MSI 13th-gen laptop for testing, or we would contain bustle this benchmark. We centered on the older Photoshop test as a replace. Weirdly, we saw the same anomaly as we saw in our outdated tests; performance went backwards by 7 p.c.
The PugetBench test does purchase several minutes to total, alternatively, so lets need anticipated greater performance, a la the Handbrake benchmark, Nonetheless it with out a doubt became no longer to be.
Tag Hachman / IDG
Thunderbolt must smooth no longer have an effect on your resolution
What Intel would address you to contain in options while evaluating the 14th-gen HX platform, is, properly, the platform: 16 lanes of PCI Instruct Gen 5, toughen for DDR5-5600 memory, and lots of others. Nonetheless as soon as more, here is the entire same as the 13th-gen Core HX platform supplies.
There’s one distinction, type of: Thunderbolt 5. This next-gen I/O same outdated will provide 80Gbps (and in some cases, 120Gbps) of bandwidth to displays, GPUs, and other peripherals starting set up in the 14th generation of Core chips. Nonetheless no longer like Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 5 controllers will no longer be constructed-in in 14th-gen hardware, which intention that laptop makers must gain it in with a discrete chip. That’s going to require additional model. Extra to the point, neither Thunderbolt 5 laptop controllers nor Thunderbolt 5-certified peripheral hardware are in actuality readily on the market, and obtained’t be until mid-2024 or later.
On yarn of of Intel’s reluctance to certify non-Intel platforms as Thunderbolt compliant, AMD Ryzen notebooks exhaust the acceptable USB4 same outdated, as a replace. Nonetheless 80Gbps USB4 hardware isn’t here, both, and obtained’t be until later this year.
Is the 14th-gen Core HX worth the upgrade?
While you already salvage a 13th-gen Core HX notebook, it is miles totally no longer worth upgrading to a 14th-gen Core HX. While you salvage a 12th-gen Core gaming notebook or below, it’s a substantial extra compelling possibility. For that, we’d imply you re-read our older 13th-gen Core analysis for performance comparisons to 12th-gen hardware. (Spoiler alert: 13th- and 14th-gen Core chips are a huge enchancment over their predecessors, especially in multi-threaded projects and video games.)
Is the 14th-gen Core HX greater than AMD’s Ryzen 7000 HX sequence? We can’t definitively sigh for now. Ditto for Ryzen 8000 Cell, which became most efficient nowadays announced. Nonetheless contain in options that the Ryzen 9 8945HS supplies real 8 cores and 16 threads, and runs up to 5.2GHz at turbo speeds. The Intel 14th-gen Core HX tops that in core count, threads, and turbo clock dawdle — so if we were to guess, yes, AMD will lunge in the help of.
The reality that the 13th-gen Core HX and 14th-gen Core HX are extraordinarily equal is no longer a unsuitable ingredient, though, the set up you’re involved. Keep in mind, as the modern 14th-gen gaming notebooks roll out, outlets are going to hope to gain rid of their older hardware to produce room. And to raise out that, they’re going to provide the older notebooks at a cut model, as piece of a sale.
Nonetheless if a 13th-gen Core gaming notebook is form of as upright as a 14th-gen gaming notebook, that’s a possibility. Why get rid of a 14th-gen Core HX notebook while you would possibly maybe maybe well presumably get rid of a 13th-gen Core HX laptop that’s real as superior at a juicy cut model?
