CheckMag | Intel totally mishandled the 13/14th Gen desktop CPU crisis

Like many other tech enthusiasts and reviewers, I no longer feel comfortable recommending 13th and 14th generation desktop Intel CPUs to anyone simply because the chances of such a chip having stability issues appear rather high. I realized this a couple of days ago when an acquaintance of mine asked me which CPU they should get to power a new gaming/content production rig.

My initial thoughts were that a system based on the i5-14600K would be a great all-around PC. I reconsidered shortly, saying that they shouldn't really get a 14600K because of the reported stability issues and that they might be better off getting a Ryzen 7 7700X instead.

That was Intel losing a customer, right then and right there. I don't want to tarnish my reputation as a knowledgeable techie by getting someone to buy a potentially unusable processor.

Don't get me wrong. The i5-14600K is a very capable chip, I believe - one that can handle all kinds of workloads. Seeing how the Ryzen 7 9700X and the Ryzen 5 9600X are not exactly shaping up to be the performance monsters that some expected them to be, the 14600K looks stronger than ever. The microcode updates set to alleviate the stability issues are finally rolling out which is a good thing. However, there is no guarantee that these updates will solve the stability issues once and for all.

Intel is still in hot water and the fact is, things did not have to be like this. Team Blue just should never have put these issues in the back burner.

A few years of extra warranty is nice and all, but the fact is that it is now harder than ever to trust Intel. Hopefully, the company will show more grace at handling this crisis going forward.

In the meantime, those in need of a good all-around CPU that suffers from zero stability issues can get the Ryzen 7 7700X on Amazon.com for around $273 (at this writing).