Core i9-14900HX vs Core i5-14500

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Core i9-14900HX scores 74 and the Core i5-14500 scores 70, about 6% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Core i9-14900HX has 24 cores and 32 threads, and the Core i5-14500 has 14 cores and 20 threads. The extra cores of the Core i9-14900HX 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 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i9-14900HX uses the BGA socket and the Core i5-14500 uses LGA1700, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 55 W for the first and 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

We do not have launch prices for both chips, so we cannot compare value.

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

At 1080p the Core i9-14900HX can feed a card up to the Radeon RX 9070 XT before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i5-14500 reaches the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i9-14900HX if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Core i5-14500 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.