Intel AI Assist: A Better Guess At Auto Overclocking

Below, we'll give Intel's latest AI Assist feature via the Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) software to see what it believes is the best overclock for our system and how it compares to default settings. After applying Intel's AI Assist to our Core i9-14900K, it concluded that the following settings are suitable for our test setup:

Intel's AI Assist believes our system and Core i9-14900K is capable of 6.1 GHz on the two of the P-cores and 6.0 GHz on the remaining 6 P-cores, which, based on some preliminary testing with XTU, is very ambitious, to say the least. When running a CineBench R23 MT, the system was as stable as a kite in a hurricane; not very stable at all. We did manage to get a couple of CineBench R23 MT runs in, but with thermal throttling happening instantaneously, we saw some regression in performance with a score of 39445; temperatures went straight into the red, and the system dialed back the core frequencies and CPU V-Core.

The feature is a good idea in principle, but once enabled, even though it's an Intel-marketed feature, it voids the CPU's warranty. The other element is that the additional heat and power make the applied settings under intense workloads unstable. While this is still an early feature, we would have expected more stability with the applied settings than we saw in our testing.

Intel Core i9-14900K and Core i5-14600K Review: Raptor Lake Refreshed Test Bed and Setup: Moving Towards 2024
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  • mga318 - Tuesday, October 17, 2023 - link

    Well, I just built a new system with an Ryzen 9 7900x that I got on sale for $380 a couple weeks ago and have set at a 105w TDP. Looks like I have no regrets here either in performance or efficiency.
  • Farfolomew - Tuesday, October 17, 2023 - link

    The new Pentium 5!
  • Gradius2 - Tuesday, October 17, 2023 - link

    So 13900k is better as you can get one for $450
  • charlesg - Tuesday, October 17, 2023 - link

    Re all the justified comments about excessive power draw, is this not only when using it at peak capacity?

    If you're using it at peak capacity, all the time, then I agree, you've got the wrong CPU. It's like driving your vehicle at or over 6000rpm all the time.

    For everyone else who's using a compatible MB and prior gen intel cpu, who wants a drop in upgrade, this may be useful?

    (I'm using an amd 5950x here, with no regrets. When I need the cores (and I do use them), it's there. The rest of the time, it just idles..)
  • rUmX - Tuesday, October 17, 2023 - link

    I have 4 7950x machines where I encode using Handbrake SVT-AV1 almost 24/7. AT shows that the Intel is faster, but @ 2x the power consumption literally, AMD is still better. Besides my ambient rises at least 6-7c with the machines going 100%, I can't imagine how the 13900k/14900k will behave. Insane. Besides having all the machines going 100% with a 5000BTU AC it blows my circuit breaker, so I run the AC power with an extension from another room. I can't imagine how the 13900k/14900k will behave.

    PS: Before anyone says I should have gone for a 64+ core EPYC, it was still cheaper to build these 4 systems over a 64c Eypc, taking into consideration 12CH memory, server board, etc. and these run at least 5.1ghz all core over a Epyc at 3.5~ GHZ
  • flgt - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link

    The insane part of what you are doing is encoding in SW. Give up on some quality and run quicksync on an intel processor along with ARC GPU's for AV1.
  • rUmX - Monday, October 23, 2023 - link

    I did mess around with HW AV1 encoding on a Intel ARC A380. Quality was pretty good, but the file sizes are at least double (for GPU) for very very similar or even better quality (for SVT-AV1). I'm not doing live streaming, more like encoding for VOD, in this case filesize and bitrates are important as well as storage use. I'm using SSDs so smaller filesize = better. At that, the smaller the size, the more users I can serve at port speed.
  • meacupla - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link

    You can certainly drop it in, but it's not an upgrade going from 13th to 14th gen. It's a sidegrade at best. For the price, you would be better off upgrading to watercooling with a 280mm or 360mm radiator.
  • SanX - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link

    Ideally comparisons have to include previous gen competition too like AMD 5950x to convince people to upgrade
  • SanX - Wednesday, October 18, 2023 - link

    AMD has to start selling 32-core consumer chips based one their new 16-core chiplets versus older 8-core ones

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