What should I buy then?
SO THIS IS where things get interesting. Right now, from a purely value perspective, if your intention is to game at 4K and nothing else (a bit of light webwork or otherwise), then an Intel Core i5-14600K makes the most sense. Pair that with an RTX 4090 or 4080, or GPU of your choosing, and you’re going to have a good time regardless. At 1080p, there is a difference between the two, but again, as you’re already going to be gaming at such high frame rates anyway, it’s not going to be noticeable between the two.
The one caveat to this is from the future-proofing standpoint, and with that, we’re actually going to make reference to a Terry Pratchett quote, namely Sam Vimes’’ ‘ Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness (it’s a thing, well worth looking up).
In the short term, right now, the Intel Core i5-14600K is a good pick. It’s solid, reliable, performs as well as the 14900K in-game, and is a darn site cheaper than its 24-cored cousin. But (and it’s a big but), for exactly how long? As games continue to advance in complexity, and titles get more demanding on resources, at 1080p, 4K and beyond, there could very well be a point in the next three to four years where that humble 14600K isn’t looking so hot. At this point, you’re inevitably going to have to upgrade and buy a new chip, new motherboard, memory, and more, which will be quite an investment.
On the other hand, if you pick up the 14900K today, and intend to use it for the next six to eight years, you might just be able to eke out a bit more life from the old girl before you need to swap it out for something newer.
Similarly to Sam Vimes’ Boots theory, the former could cost more in the long run (at least that’s how we’re going to justify it to our better halves). The only downside to all this? It’s anecdotal evidence leading the fray on this front. After all, we’ve seen it occur in the past, and things like the Intel Core i5-2500K were still fairly competitive for a good six years before it ultimately had to be retired, although admittedly that was mostly down to a lack of competition from AMD.