So I previously had a 13900K which degraded over time. Constantly hitting thermal bottlenecks and just recently couldn't game without constant FPS drops even at 4K (cpu is still used at 4K just not as heavily as 2K or 1080p). I also gave at 4K a lot too but when I want max fps then I drop to 2K gaming with Ultra settings.
Intel gave me an a 14900K on RMA but decided to sell and go for the 14900KS. At first, there wasn't a major difference I could notice between the 13900K vs 14900KS. My 13900K was only clocked at 5.5GHz and was still hitting thermal bottlenecks. It was the worst. But remember, I had this since it first came out, and well before the degradation issues were being reported.
Deceided to spend some bit of time experimenting with dialing in the right OC values to do a few things:
- Overclkock the 14900KS so I can get the performance it offered
- Balance performance and power to get the best thermal values
- Aim for stability while achieving the latter 2 statements
Here is my setup for reference:
Latest BIOS update was applied: latest build date = 11/24/2025
- Asus Maximus Z690 Extreme
- G.Skillz 64GB Trident Z 6000 (x2 32GB)
- Asus Astral 5090 OC GPU
- x4 4TB Nvme, x1 1TB Nvme
- Asus Thor Platinum 1200W PSU
- Custom Water Cooling Loop (Corsair)
Here's a summary of what I've Tested with XPU Stress Testing and Cinebench
I've tried many different OC settings including Intel's limiting OC profile, XM1, XM2, and many different Performance Core Ratios (5.5GHz, 5.9GHz, 6.0GHz, 6.1GHz, 6.2GHz, 6.3GHz) and a few Efficient Core Ratios in combination (4.2GHz, 4.5GHz, and 4.6GHz). In every test, I've tried undervolting to achieve balance of performance and power to achieve ultimate thermal values. Core Voltage Offsets were also tested and changed when thermal were too high or when system instability crashes occurred (-0.00500 in increments to -0.05500).
Here were the best Asus Mobo values I've discovered for ultimate power, performance, and stability
Extreme Tweaker Settings
- Asus Advance OC Profile
- XMP I
- Intel(R) Adaptive Boost Technology = Enabled
- Asus Multicore Enhancement = Auto - Let BIOS Optimize
- Performance Core Ratio = Sync All Cores(+1 to 2) (THIS IS THE BIG ONE)
- All Core Ratio Limit = 60 (6.0GHz)
- Efficient Core Ratio = Sync to All Cores
- All Core Ratio Limit = 45
- IA VR Voltage Limit = 1450 (Prevents over voltage from occurring without using Intel's restrictive profile)
- CPU Core/Cache Current Limit Max = 400.00
- Long Duration Package Power Limit = 320
- Current Short Duration Package Power Limit = 320
- Global Core SVID Voltage = Adaptive Mode
- Offset Mode Sign = - (This ensures you can undervolt the CPU)
- Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage = Auto
- Offset Voltage = 0.05000 (THIS IS ANOTHER BIG ONE)
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Results
- Idle temps are high 30's and very low 40's thermally
- Under extreme load where all cores are maxed for a longer duration of time there are instances of cores reaching 100c which resulted in thermal throttling. Based on stress testing this is normal for this CPU. It's not a constant 100c but will fluctuate under extreme load from 60c to 100c with the average being in the 80s and low 90s. Normal workloads wouldn't be stress testing the CPU like this.
- The 14900KS was exceeding the Core Ultra 285K in Multi-Thread testing. If the "Performance Core Ratio = Sync All Cores" was set then the 14900KS would severly underperform the Core Ultra 9 285K. It took changing the value to "Sync All Cores(+1 to 2)" to outperform the Core 9 Ultra 285K while achieving optimal power, performance, stability, and reduced thermal values.
- Single Thread performance was slightly lower than the Core Ultra 9 285K. No data was given on Single Core but determined the 14900KS value resulted very high values.
Real World Results (Gaming, Lightroom, Photoshop, DaVinci)
- It's lovely to say that at 2k in WarZone I'm achieving 240+ fps, sometimes into the 400's fps where thermal values are steady in the 60c's to occasional 80s but remain on average in the 60c's. 70-80c are spikes caused by the perf boost but happen occasionaly as the cores are fluctuating constantly. I'll take thermal temps in the 60c range all day long with this CPU.
- Lightroom and DaVinci is the same. When renedering, it's rare to see CPU thermal go above 70c.
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Hope this helps others who are considering the 14900KS or already have it. I was determining on going the 9950x3d route but heard a lot of folks say that the intel chips are snappier in Windows and better for workloads outside of gaming. So, thought I'd give Intel another shot, and I do believe I'm here to stay and sticking with the i9-14900KS.
I would also recommend HWinfo64 over HWmonitor. Its such a better program
I'll give it a shot!
I have no idea what they did with the reference 285K multithread score, but it should be closer to 9500 to 10,000 for a stock 285k. It opens up even more when you crank up the E-cores.
https://imgur.com/a/z0tuoWr
Yea, I was totally wondering how the heck they came up with these numbers. Didn't make sense to me before I ran the test, and still didn't make sense to me after I ran the test.
You will see much more of a performance diffrence if you OC your RAM. 6000 is very slow for raptor lake
I've read a bunch of articles out on the interwebs where folks did OC their RAM on similar hardware and got neglible results. From what I read, it wasn't worth it. I'll look into it again and give it a shot.
In Warzone especially if you’re CPU bound it will scale pretty linearly with memory speed, if you’re GPU bound it might help 1% lows but in that case I’d just tighten some of the secondaries and call it a day tbh
Man how tf do you guys use these ridiculous curved monitors lmao.
This has to be the BEST curved monitor ever released! LG killed it on this one. Truthfully, a few years ago I purchased a Samsung one and instantly returned it. I deceided to give this another go with LG since they have a 2K mode at 330Hz and 5K at 165Hz. This monitor DOES NOT disappoint. Try it for yourself!
Curved monitors are whack.
Have you used one?
Not this exact monitor, but curved monitors in general, yes.
They offer no real benefit in my opinion and are 100% gimmick.
I also strongly dislike ultrawides (much rather just have two displays) but I actually understand why people like them.
I was right along the same line of thinking with you. I saw the $500 off with the LG 45” 5K. It’s not really curved all that much. If I were you, give it another try with this specific monitor. BestBuy gives you a return window anyway. Tell me what your thoughts are after trying it. I would bet any money you end up keeping it 🤣
Glad to hear you are enjoying. Alot of this stuff imo is silicon lottery I've had my 13900k since early last year with no regrets.
When I render my very simple 4k vids from davinci I just checked my temps they just barely and briefly go over 35 degrees on water cooling and it is very quick, over 2mins 4k drone footage simple transitions and it puts out in 1:14
Good enough for me.
Those are amazing temps! What is your cpu clock and voltage?
your setup isn't too different to mine:
Asus Maximus Z690 Extreme
RTX 5090 Astral LC
14900ks (Asus profile + PL1 253 PL2 350 307A)
IR VR 1400
Corsair vengeance 2 x32GB 6600MHZ CL30 (tight timings)
I'm not sure what games you play so i can't compare results but if you have a look at my post below you'll get an idea of my perfomance and how your OC compares to mine. 6GHZ is insane, i dont have the balls to run it like that i dont want to risk degredation.
Delid worth it with it with these results? : r/overclocking
Haha but you see my temps, right? As long as thermal temps aren’t constantly hitting 90c+ then there shouldn’t be any degradation. Previously, my 13900K was only running at 5.5GHz on its P cores and was constantly hitting the 90°C plus range. It was an earlier variant of that CPU when it was first released so I probably had one with the degradation issues.
As long as my temps are good, and I’m under volted by -0.05000, which was the sweet spot that I found, then I can run at 6GHz and not be worried. Also, I’ve been monitoring and it’s not a constant 6 GHz that the CPU runs at. It fluctuates between 5.3 and 6GHz depend depending on the task.
Remember, look at #9 in my tweaker settings in my post. That sets the guard rail to prevent any over voltages from occurring when the CPU does hit that 6GHz. It’s a safety measure, but also allows me to quantify hit that number while maintaining stability. This is the reason why I don’t have to use Intel’s safety profile. And honestly, I did test intel’s power limiting profile, and it ran much hotter than the settings that I have in place, with much lower performance.
Degradation is faster with high temps but the voltage that's killing the cpu. Thinking temps are fine so it won't degrade is wrong. I wouldn't risk it if I was in your shoes.
You see this is why i just avoid risking it all together, and mainly kept mine stock bar the xmp. I have a 0.7mv undervolt. Some people say its due to the power draw, some say its due to the transient spikes, and some say temperature lol. I have to say 6ghz all core with no delid is impressive. Yes I found intels extreme profile to be really weird so i used Asus Profile and manually editted the settings. Also noticed you are sat at 50 degrees while being in the bios. With mine it sits between 28-30 which is odd. you would have thought the cpu isn't doing much just sat in the bios.
System Agent voltage 1.4? you are gonna burn it down bro(IMC). No more than 1.3V. Otherwise nice results.
Thanks! One thing I noticed about that.... If I undervolt anything under 1.4 then it becomes unstable, likely due to the clocks it's hitting. Need more power to hit them upper clocks. Certainly not needed for anything ~5.5-5.7GHz but once it hits 6GHz it hits a new territory of voltage needed. This was my experience trying to figure out the best voltages. It was a bit of trial and error. This could be a result of Auto with the Asus OC Profile.... but I will try it now.
For instance, I've been sitting idle for >24hrs and here are my basline numbers:
HWinfo 24hr Baseline OC Values
My clocks are on average 5.7-5.9GHz with 6GHz being hit when doing certain tasks. This is where that 1.4 agent voltage is needed. But otherwise, I'm sitting in the mid 30c range. Based on these high clocks, and voltage provided, and the stability of the system, I feel very comofortable with these results.
I could perhaps try to lower to 1.3 again see what results I get. I'm fairly open minded about it, but it resulted in instability during the initial tuning stages. Yet, I did so much it's hard to remember the right combination of things I did.
You need to delid the 14900KS.
I recommend tuning your RAM. If you can run DDR5 6200-6400 with tight timings it will help gaming performance considerably.
The 14900KS being "snappier" in Windows is largely placebo effect. The Intel chips do have some advances in memory bandwidth but overall performance is largely in AMD's favour.
Can I exceed 6000MHz on the Trident Z to 62-6400? Should I select Tweaked Mode with 6200 to start? What parameters would need to be set?
Any resources would be helpful
That's largely dependent on your memory controller. For dual-rank sticks Hynix A-Die and assuming better than average memory controller on the 14900KS, 6400 to 7000 MT/s is likely doable with voltage adjustments.
Yes, most 6000 CL30 kits use Hynix A-Die chips which run high speeds easily.
The limitation will be your motherboard, anything above DDR5 6400 is unlikely to work.
Yes, if your motherboard has a tweaked 6200 profile that is a good place to start. From there you can gradually tighten each timing and stress test. Fully tuning your RAM can take days, but the low hanging fruit will only take a few hours.
Turning ecores off + getting actually top ram that can do 8000mhz at sub28 CL will massively increase the feeling of snappiness hand-on-mouse , even if you will definitely lose some average and even 1% low fps (not much tho), the game and windows will feel like 0 input lag and when you go back to ecores on you will feel weird stutters on your wrist that you cant actually see, even though fps numbers on benchmarks will be better.
8000C26? that would need 2V+ VDD_mem.
He isn't getting much above 6200-6400 to run on a Z690 4-DIMMer motherbaord.
These were my thoughts as well. From what I'm reading out there, folks with similar hardware aren't getting much performance gains out of overclocking their memory.
its a Maximus Extreme , motherboard's fine , his biggest worry will be the imc of the cpu which will largely depend on how lucky his sample was and obviously, getting the best ram die, which right now is a luxury beyond justification but since he's got a 5090 maybe money is his biggest concern.
The board has a decent vrm / uses die sense so it's decent enough to pair with a 14900ks but in terms of ram it is only qvld for 6600mt using 2 16gb sticks. This will ultimately be what holds the CPU back given how well RPL scales with faster ram
my bad, i just assumed it followed the same trend, back in 8th - 11th gen all maximus boards could push DDR4 BDie to the absolute limit.
Yeah he's definitely not getting 8000CL26 lol sorry , but i think you're lowballing with 6600mt, official ratings are the lowball, he can probably get 7200 CL28, the biggest issue is always the imc more than the motherboard.
The number of Z690 4-DIMM motherboards that can clock RAM above 6400 I can likely count on one hand. And that's total motherboards worldwide, not models of motherboard.
Part of the reason is the 4-DIMM slots, part of the reason is Z690 was the first generation of motherboards to be based on DDR5, and there were tons of issues.
yes, the first batch of ddr5 was rough, but bios updates have helped and even though the chipsets were very...rustic to put it nicely, the main driving force of you being able to push CL low and clocks high will inevitably always be the actual memory controllers of the cpu.
The 14900KS is kinda like a silver sample by default, i really think he can do 7200 on Z690.
I've read a bunch of articles that there could be diminishing result on turning off E-cores. Yes, for a few select games there are some performance gains, but for most games, they leverage and take advantage of the E-cores which contributes to increased performance.
im not talking about frames per second, the nano stutters that are produced by the game going from P to E are not quantifiable, you cannot make them appear in a benchmark.
turning ecores off will give you worse framerates on benchmark charts, 100% of the time or damn near.
What you get in return is essentially, a monolithic cpu that pretty much gets rid of all the scheduler and intra-core stutters that were there because of hybrid architecture, and im telling you that even though your fps will be lower, when you aim your mouse inside the game, its going to feel better in your wrist when you play the game with the lower framerate because your aim will feel more instant, specially if you are playing a high skill ceiling fps game and you have a good mouse.
Interesting, and it sounds logical. I’ll have to give it a try and let you know the results. I’ll try it tonight/ tomorrow.
good luck, and if you do tinker around with the ram, focus on getting that CL as low as possible, its even more important than pushing clocks (pushing clocks is extremely important still).
dont forget to tune your ringbus as well.
I appreciate it!!! I don’t have much experience tuning RAM but I’m looking into some guides right now that are well descriptive.
What about running half ecores (8 instead of all 16) and then assigning the game to only run on Pcores with Process Lasso?
There would not be much of an improvement if any, remember that the nanostutters happen because ecores are not the same as pcores just with lower clocks, ecores are fundamentally shittier cores with weaker ipcs and they are physically further away from the pcores, its not exactly chiplets but it takes the whole core extra time to reach them, plus the time it takes for the scheduler to look for them, and sadly even 4 years into this architecture, it still happens that sometimes windows doesnt know what to do with the ecores.
If you leave them on and assign the game to pcores only with lasso, the scheduler will 100% still look for them and the cache will still be shared in real time with the ecores even if you are only using p.