Most Intel Black Friday CPU deals are rubbish, but you can save £20 on the best Raptor Lake Refresh chip

The Intel Core i7-14700K comes to the rescue, again

IntelCPUshave disappointed twice this year, first with the why-even-botherRaptor Lake Refresh generationand now with a notable lack of decentBlack Fridaydeals. There’s a small handful of 13th-gen chips at good prices, but nothing on par with theAMD Ryzen 7 5800XorRyzen 7800X3Dthat Will highlighted earlier this week.

I have, however, spotted a surprise £20 discount on the Intel Core i7-14700K, which just happens to be the only CPU in the new 14th-gen lineup that actuallyisworth buying. And so, just as it carried the Raptor Lake Refresh launch, so too must it redeem Intel’s Black Friday showing.

I admittedly haven’t had the time to scribble down a full Core i7-14700K review, but I have tested it in all our gaming, productivity and temperature benchmarks, and it’s simultaneously faster than the Core i5-14600K and much better value than the Core i9-14900K. It even outpaced the latter in a few 1080p games, averaging 166fps inTotal War: Warhammer IIIon anRTX 4070 Ti; with the i9, I got 158fps.Horizon Zero Dawnalso scored 194fps, edging out the i9’s 188fps. So, even if £20 isn’t the meatiest saving you’ll see this Black Friday week, it’s still a fair few coins off what is arguably Intel’s best current-gen CPU.

The main drawback is heat: the Core i7-14700K doesn’t get particularly toasty while gaming, but even on an AIO watercooler it was hitting 100°c on some of its Performance cores while running Cinebench R20. Make sure you’ve got some premium cooling hardware if you intend to use your PC for more rigorous work than occasionally rendering some men shooting each other.

We’ve got a few more CPUs going cheap in our mainbest Black Friday PC gaming dealshub. Want more frames by different means? Thebest Black Friday graphics card dealsmay well have what you need.