Core i9-14900 vs Ryzen 5 9600X

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Core i9-14900 and the Ryzen 5 9600X are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Core i9-14900 has 24 cores and 32 threads, and the Ryzen 5 9600X has 6 cores and 12 threads. The extra cores of the Core i9-14900 help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5.8 GHz and 5.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i9-14900 uses the LGA1700 socket and the Ryzen 5 9600X 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 65 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Core i9-14900 cost $549 and the Ryzen 5 9600X $279, which gives 14.6 and 28.3 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 i9-14900 can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 4080 Super before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 5 9600X reaches the GeForce RTX 4080 Super. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i9-14900 if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 5 9600X if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.