Question about 13th/14th generation Intel CPUs

This might be a stupid question...

I have an i7 13700KF and it is working really well. In case it blows a core or something, I am considering an i9 14th generation (14900KF if I remember correctly) to replace it if it happens.

Does the i9 series have the "problem" that the 13th and 14th gen processors have? I have done all of the BIOS mediation on my mobo and I don't really feel like buying a new one to get the new socket if I can help it.

The i9-14900KF IS a 14th gen cpu.

Catnip said:

I am considering an i9 14th generation (14900KF if I remember correctly) to replace it if it happens.

Does the i9 series have the "problem" that the 13th and 14th gen processors have?

Click to expand...

Apparently yes.....

If you have the latest bios installed and don't go and mess too much with the settings, the i9 is fine. I purchased my i9 in November 23, this was before Intel acknowledge the issue avd before the bios updates. That cpu eventually stated acting odd. Replaced it under RMA, new one has been fine so far. Pity it cannot be overclocked bit it runs really well.

glasskuter said:

The i9-14900KF IS a 14th gen cpu.

Click to expand...

Yes, I am aware of that. I was asking if it suffered the same degradation problem.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I believe @Bree clarified it well.

Catnip said:

Yes, I am aware of that. I was asking if it suffered the same degradation problem.

Click to expand...

Yes it did, I experienced it first hand

Hi Catnip,

This isn't a stupid question at all—it's been the biggest topic in the PC community for the last year. To give you some peace of mind and a couple of alternatives you might want to look into:

Yes, the i9-14900KF is highly susceptible to the degradation issue. It was actually the worst hit because it pushed factory voltages and frequencies right to the absolute limit. However, if you bought a brand-new retail unit today, the manufacturing side has been fixed, and keeping your BIOS updated to the latest microcode (look for the 0x12b update) stops the voltage spikes entirely.

That said, don't buy a replacement out of pocket just yet! Intel officially extended the factory warranty by an extra 2 years for all 13th and 14th gen chips. Your current i7-13700KF has a 5-year warranty from its purchase date, so if it ever does start acting up or crashing, Intel will replace it for free via RMA.

If you do decide to upgrade down the road anyway without swapping motherboards, I'd actually recommend looking at the standard i7-14700K instead of another "KF" or an i9:

• A True Upgrade: It's the only 14th-gen chip that actually added physical cores (4 extra E-cores), giving it a big multi-threaded bump over your 13700K.
• Better Stability & Thermals: It doesn't push the crazy 6.0GHz factory voltages of the i9, meaning it will run much happier and cooler on your Noctua NH-D15 air cooler.
• The "K" Asset vs. "KF": Getting the version with integrated graphics is a massive asset. It gives you a built-in troubleshooting backup if your RTX 3070 Ti ever acts up, and it includes Intel Quick Sync, which handles video decoding/timeline scrubbing beautifully and frees up your main GPU.

One final tip for your current setup: look into getting an LGA 1700 CPU Contact Frame (Thermal Grizzly or Thermalright make great ones for around $10–$25). The stock motherboard latch applies uneven pressure and physically warps these long rectangular CPUs over time, creating a gap between the chip and your cooler. Swapping to a contact frame keeps the CPU perfectly flat, fixes that surface contact, and can easily drop your load temps by 5°C to 10°C on that Noctua cooler.

It was actually the KS version as that pushed the cpu oo far, the K & KF variants we also affected bit were not pushed excessively by default. Biggest issue was voltage being too high by default

"Good point, PurSpyk!!—the KS definitely took the brunt of it pushing things to the absolute bleeding edge out of the box, but those high default voltages gave plenty of K and KF owners a headache too before the microcode updates rolled out. Glad your RMA replacement is holding up well!"