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Prices for Intel CPUs are currently falling rapidly – ​​here you can find out why

There is a strange phenomenon going on right now: the prices of Intel processors are constantly falling – some are even cheaper than ever before. Three of the best processors are currently enjoying a spectacular price drop: Intel Core i9 14900K, Core i7 14700K and Core i5 14600K.

The Intel Core i9 14900K is on sale for $527.69, the Intel Core i7 14700K for $369.99, and the Intel Core i5 14600K for $288.99. The first two and last two are as cheap as they've ever been, and the second is close.

The 14900K offers an impressive 24 cores (eight P-cores and 16 E-cores), which gives a significant boost to performance, although you will need to invest in a quality CPU cooler. The 14700K still has an excellent 20 cores (eight P-cores and 12 E-cores), making it a great mid-range option. Finally, we have the far more affordable 14600K with 16 cores (six P-cores and eight E-cores), a solid choice for gaming and content creation.

Why does this happen?

There are several possible reasons for this huge price drop. One major factor is the persistent stability problems with 13th and 14th generation Intel processors.

Although the technology giant is currently a Microcode update for the problem – rather a preventive measure than an actual repair – those whose cards have been permanently damaged have no way to fight back. This could, of course, make buyers hesitant to invest in these chips, leading to lost sales.

There is also serious competition from AMD's Zen 5 launch, as those chips are quite powerful and have closed the performance gap significantly – in some cases even surpassed it. And even in the current generation, the Core i9-14900K is outperformed in gaming by the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, as used in newer AI PCs like the Dell XPS13 or the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, They were also a great success in terms of performance and efficiency.

Third, Intel will release its new product lines, with the Intel Arrow Lake desktop processors possibly launching as early as October 17, 2024, and the Lunar Lake series with improved AI processors coming to laptops sometime in 2024. So retailers like Amazon could lower prices to clear their inventory in preparation for the new chips.

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