Question I just bought an i7-14700k -- Is it OK, has the degradation problem been fixed for sure ?

[ccoo84]

So I am living in Europe, from the USA & bought a i7 14700k off Newegg & have it sent to my Dads house in CA.
He's going to mail me it later this week. Should I send it back to newegg & get a AMD CPU later instead, or will I be ok since I've just learned about the degradation issues with them & the micro code. I really want to keep this processor but I'm scared that it will be a headache in the making. I bought the processor for $330. Thank you in advance.

 

[Eximo]

We won't ever really know, but there hasn't been a lot of reporting of CPU failures in recent times. The occasional person who didn't get the news and update the BIOS though.

The good news is the 14700K has an extended warranty of 5 years.

 

[CelicaGT]

Just make sure your BIOS is up to date and you run the Intel recommended power settings and you should be fine.

 

[ccoo84]

So no over clocking then? I guess that took the K out of 00k. lol

 

[Eximo]

No you can still do stuff to make it go faster, just not messing with certain power settings. Most of the boards that offer auto-overclocks and overclocked profiles still bypass the new Intel settings so it isn't simple.

Really you gain a lot by undervolting as compared to actually overclocking. These chips run hot and getting the boost algorithm to last longer is of more benefit.

With Ryzen you would gain some upgradeability, but you would need to look an 400+ chip to get roughly the same gaming performance. Lot more power efficient though. But if you plan to keep the system for a few years with maybe a GPU upgrade at some point, you are likely to want the next thing and not AM5.

"i7" 265K is another option. Not quite as good at gaming as the 14700K or 7800X3D/9800X3D, but runs a lot cooler. Different motherboard though.

 

[ccoo84]

No you can still do stuff to make it go faster, just not messing with certain power settings. Most of the boards that offer auto-overclocks and overclocked profiles still bypass the new Intel settings so it isn't simple.

Really you gain a lot by undervolting as compared to actually overclocking. These chips run hot and getting the boost algorithm to last longer is of more benefit.

With Ryzen you would gain some upgradeability, but you would need to look an 400+ chip to get roughly the same gaming performance. Lot more power efficient though. But if you plan to keep the system for a few years with maybe a GPU upgrade at some point, you are likely to want the next thing and not AM5.

"i7" 265K is another option. Not quite as good at gaming as the 14700K or 7800X3D/9800X3D, but runs a lot cooler. Different motherboard though.

Do you know of a good guide to underclock a chip, Or the recommended undervolting for this perticular processor?

 

[ilyas8485]

If you can update your motherboard BIOS to the latest version with Intel’s microcode fixes, the i7-14700K should work fine for most use cases. However, if you prioritize long-term reliability or plan heavy workloads (e.g., gaming, rendering), consider returning it and switching to an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D or 9800X3D for better stability and efficiency

 

[drjohnnyfever]

Do you know of a good guide to underclock a chip, Or the recommended undervolting for this perticular processor?

Give these videos a try and then the Reddit. Until you are familiar with the whole overheating issue make sure the basic Intel recommended settings are what you have the Bios set to. Use HWMonitor to check your temps running Cinebench23. I was very careful with my 14600K not to allow it to get to throttling or 100C. With some patience it's undervolted, low temps, and up to 5.5Mhz. It's a sweet chip. Yours should be even better.

Here's the link:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/i7-14700k-temps-too-high.3871729/page-2#posts
post #50

Put the K back in and enjoy.