Core i5-14600K vs Ryzen 9 7900

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Core i5-14600K and the Ryzen 9 7900 are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Core i5-14600K has 14 cores and 20 threads, and the Ryzen 9 7900 has 12 cores and 24 threads. The extra cores of the Core i5-14600K help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5.3 GHz and 5.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i5-14600K uses the LGA1700 socket and the Ryzen 9 7900 uses AM5, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 125 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That difference changes the cooler you need, and it shows up in heat and noise.

At launch the Core i5-14600K cost $319 and the Ryzen 9 7900 $429, which gives 24.5 and 18.2 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Core i5-14600K can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 9 7900 reaches the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i5-14600K if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 9 7900 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.