Core i7-14700 vs Core i5-13600K

The short answer

The Core i5-13600K is the better value, though the Core i7-14700 is the faster gaming chip.

• •Gaming performance is effectively a wash at 1080p (index 72.3 vs 70.9); at 1440p and 4K the GPU sets the frame rate, so the gap shrinks further.
• •Core i7-14700 is roughly 8% faster in multi-core work, an edge in rendering, encoding and compiling.
• •Core i5-13600K is the cheaper chip right now, by roughly 36%.
• •Core i5-13600K delivers about 33% more gaming performance per dollar.
• •Core i7-14700 has more cores (20C/28T vs 14C/20T), which helps in heavily threaded workloads.
• •Core i7-14700 has a lower TDP (65W vs 125W), so it runs cooler and is easier to cool quietly.

Does the CPU matter at 1440p or 4K? Much less. At higher resolutions the graphics card sets the frame rate, so the gap between two CPUs shrinks — often to nothing. The 1080p figure above is the demanding case, where the CPU is stressed and the difference actually shows.

The Core i5-13600K gives about 33% more gaming performance per dollar at today’s prices.