On January 9, CES2024 officially opened in Las Vegas, USA. At this electronics event, Intel also released a new 14th generation Core non-K processor, and launched two exclusive models for the Chinese mainland market. Core i7-14790F and Core i5-14490F. What I bring to you today is the test and experience of Core i7-14790F.
In order to give full play to the performance of the CPU, we have prepared a test platform for it. The specific configuration is shown in the figure below:
Architecture introduction
The i7-14790F continues the new hybrid heterogeneous design launched by Intel since the 12th generation Core. Under this design, the processor is often equipped with more cores and collaborates with the performance core (P core) and the energy efficiency core (E core). The flexible scheduling mechanism of work comprehensively improves CPU performance and energy efficiency. The microarchitecture of i7-14790F is still Raptor Cover Refresh. After all, as a “black box” product, it is unlikely to make major changes in the architecture and core.
As far as the 14th generation Core processor itself is concerned, Intel has mainly optimized the multi-threaded processing capabilities of the CPU, increasing multi-threaded performance by 18%. For gamers, Intel has improved the performance experience of the CPU-dependent parts of the game through thread managers and architecture optimization, as well as lower-latency connections or improved overclocking capabilities. In addition, the 14th generation Core also has certain AI performance. The official even provides an AI Assist overclocking assistant application with intelligent automatic overclocking function. I believe everyone will also pay some attention to its performance in AI.
Performance Testing
As Intel's “Black Edition” product exclusively for mainland China, the i7-14790F is equipped with 16 cores and 24 threads, including 8 high-performance P cores and 8 energy-efficient E cores. Open CPU-Z to view more specific parameter information. The base TDP of i7-14790F is 65W, the L2 cache is 24MB, the L3 cache is 36MB, the CPU base frequency is 2.1GHz, and the acceleration frequency can reach up to 5.4GHz. Compared with the previous generation i7-13790F, it is basically slightly adjusted in specifications such as level 3 cache and CPU frequency.
In the CPU-Z built-in running test, the i7-14790F achieved a single-core score of 854 points and a multi-core score of 12,295 points. Compared with the previous generation i7-13790F, the single-core score increased by 1.5% and the multi-core score increased by 3%. It can be said that there has been an improvement, but it is really not much.
In the CineBench R23 test, the i7-14790F scored 2080 points in single-core and 30615 points in multi-core. Compared with the previous generation i7-13790F, the single-core performance increased by 1.4% and the multi-core performance increased by 4.8%.
At the same time, when we ran the CineBench test, we also checked the current status of the CPU through the task manager. During the multi-core benchmarking process, the CPU occupancy rate reached 100%, and the CPU frequency reached 4.92GHz for all cores.
In the 3D Mark CPU PROFILE running score, the i7-14790F has a full-core maximum thread score of 12771 points, and a single-core score of 1141 points.
In addition to the CPU itself, we also tested the memory performance, because the Core 14th generation has further optimized the memory performance of DDR5. We entered the BIOS and turned on the XMP function, and then ran the AIDA64 memory test. We can see that the memory frequency at this time is 6000MHz, the memory read, write and copy speeds are basically above 9W +, the memory latency is 66.5ns, but the L3 cache The delay is a bit high, reaching 20ns. When automatic XMP reaches this result, the performance is quite good.
Game testing
I believe everyone has certain expectations for the game session, so we won’t do any complicated tests this time. To emphasize the monotony, in order to reduce the impact of excessive high resolution on CPU performance testing, the following tests are conducted using 1080P (default) high/highest image quality. Some games have parameter adjustments that will be explained separately.
First, test 2 online competitive games. In the “CS2” game, select 1080P resolution + default image quality (high), play a game, and capture the game data through Frame view. The average number of frames measured by i7-14790F is 369 frames, 1% Low frame is 148 frames, and the average delay is only 5.3ms when the low latency option is turned on. With this kind of performance, the gaming experience is very good.
In another competitive game “Rainbow Six: Siege”, we used the built-in benchmark test tool to run scores. The average frame rate of i7-14790F reached 662 frames, and the 1% Low frame was 504 frames. The game experience was silky smooth. slip.
Next are several 3A games, the first is “Shadow of the Tomb Raider”. Running the game's own benchmark test at the highest quality of 1080P, the average number of frames of the i7-14790F is 279 frames, and the average number of frames of the i7-13790F is 270 frames, an increase of about 3.3%.
Another action-adventure game “Assassin's Creed: Visions”, 1080P resolution + extremely high image quality, running the game's own benchmark test, the average number of frames of the i7-14790F came to 175 frames, and the average number of frames of the i7-13790F was 169 frames, improved by about 3.5%.
In the well-optimized racing game “Forza Horizon 5”, running the game's own benchmark test at 1080P resolution + extreme image quality (high ray tracing level) settings, the average number of frames of the i7-14790F Up to 254 frames, the average number of frames of i7-13790F is 247 frames, an increase of about 4.9%.
Finally, there is “Cyberpunk: 2077”, which has the highest performance requirements. After entering the game, we chose 1080P resolution and super image quality, and ran the benchmark test that comes with the game. The average number of frames of the i7-14790F can reach 188 frames, and the average number of frames of the i7-13790F can reach 188. The average number of frames is 187 frames, which is within the error range.
Overall, the i7-14790F may have more frame improvements in competitive games with the help of a larger cache, but in stand-alone 3A masterpieces, the gap between it and the previous generation i7-13790F is very limited. The biggest gap is “Forza Motorsport” “: Horizon 5” is less than 5%, and “Cyberpunk: 2077” with the smallest gap has almost no difference. How much performance improvement can be achieved is a matter of personal opinion.
creative production
However, in terms of the scores of the three sub-items, the i7-14790F paired with the RTX 4080 graphics card has reached a score of 1.1W + or more, which is no problem for daily office use.
Next is the highly representative professional modeling and rendering software V-Ray. Run its own running test and select the CPU project. The final score of i7-14790F is 21426 points. There is nothing to say about this. There's nothing to worry about with the software either.
In the CrossMark test, which tests the overall productivity efficiency of the CPU, the i7-14790F scored a total of 2428 points, and the three sub-scores also reached 2227 points (productivity), 2685 points (creativity) and 2326 points (responsiveness) respectively, easily passing the test.
Summarize
The positioning of this generation of i7-14790F is a little confusing, because it has the same price as the already released i7-14700F, but the difference is that the i7-14790F has larger three buffers, and the i7-14700F has more cores. Two models There is no absolute advantage between the products, and the gap in actual performance is not obvious. From a player's point of view, since Intel has moved on triple buffers, I hope that it can look at the 100M triple buffers of some CPU models from other merchants, further explore the performance of the CPU in popular games, and provide players with A good reason to buy.