Intel's PC Chip Business Still Has 1 Big Problem

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) launched its latest lineup of desktop CPUs on Tuesday. There was nothing groundbreaking – the new chips are refreshed versions of the company's Raptor Lake CPUs that launched in late 2022. Raptor Lake, and now the refreshed Raptor Lake, are highly competitive in terms of performance. Intel's chips generally beat Advanced Micro Devices' (NASDAQ: AMD) standard Ryzen 7000 CPUs, although they lose in gaming to AMD's specialized 3D V-Cache CPUs. In terms of all-around performance, Intel is in a great position.

The refreshed Raptor Lake CPUs perform well, according to a review from Tom's Hardware. Intel's chips have the advantage in single-threaded workloads, and they hold their own in multi-threaded workloads as well. In gaming, Intel's latest chips beat AMD's standard Ryzen chips. AMD's 3D V-Cache variants still reign supreme, but they come with the serious downside of lackluster performance in nearly everything outside of gaming.

Intel's refreshed Raptor Lake chips come with one significant downside: They are wildly inefficient at the high end of the lineup. The top-tier i9-14900K uses 262 watts of power in one benchmark, according to Tom's Hardware, nearly 100 watts more than AMD's Ryzen 7950X and 50 watts more than the last-gen i9-13700K. The big problem here is the heat generated. Pair an i9-14900K with a powerful graphics card, and you'll need a serious cooling setup to get the most out of those components. The mid-range i5-14600K fares much better, using only a bit more power than AMD's Ryzen 7700X.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com