Adobe After Effects: Intel Core 14th Gen vs AMD Ryzen 7000

Introduction

Today, Intel is launching the latest in their “Intel Core” family of CPUs: the Intel Core 14th Gen processors. These CPUs use the same hybrid architecture with a mix of “P” (Performance) and “E” (Efficient) cores as the previous two generations and are socket-compatible with both 12th and 13th gen motherboards. These new processors are largely a fairly standard refresh of the 13th gen models, although the i7 variant (Core i7-14700K) features four additional “E”-cores over the 13700K which should help in heavily threaded workloads.

In this article, we will examine how these new processors perform, specifically in Adobe After Effects. Not only do we want to see how the performance has improved from the previous 13th Gen processors, but we also want to see if that changes whether Intel or AMD will give you the best performance for your dollar. Because there are so many CPUs to examine, we will break our analysis down into Intel vs AMD (Intel Core 14th Gen vs AMD Ryzen 7000) and performance versus the previous generation (Intel Core 14th Gen vs Intel Core 13th Gen).

If you want to read more about the new Intel 14th Gen Core CPUs and what separates them from the previous generation, we recommend checking out our main 14th Gen Intel Core Processors Content Creation Review article. That post includes more detailed information on the CPU specifications and an overview of testing results for a range of other applications, including Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, Blender, and V-Ray. Although these CPUs, like the previous generation, can draw a large amount of power, our testing was all performed with the system configured to match Intel’s base specifications. We are also running the CPUs at the “standard” power profiles, as this is how we currently ship out systems. For more information about the impact of the power profile and how larger coolers affect the performance of the CPUs, you can refer to our Power Draw and Cooling: 14th Gen Intel Core Processors article.

Raw Benchmark Data

Although our benchmark scores represent a balanced workload within their respective applications, we like to include individual results that you can examine. If there is a specific task or area where you do most of your work, or that represents the largest time-sink, focusing on those results will let you know in a much more detailed way how these components could influence your work.

Intel Core 14th Gen vs AMD Ryzen 7000 for Adobe After Effects

Before getting into our results, we want to note that we tested with After Effects 23.5. Adobe launched version 24.0 when we were wrapping up our testing, and there was unfortunately not enough time to re-test everything (including not only After Effects, but Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and Premiere Pro as well) before the 14th Gen review embargo. However, we have done some spot-checking, and performance does not appear to be significantly different in the new version.

With that said, one of the more interesting results we found was that the new Intel Core i7-14700K and i9-14900K performed almost exactly the same in terms of overall performance in After Effects. However, if you switch to the second chart which is looking at performance in heavier projects where the “Multi-Frame Rendering” feature makes more of an impact, the 14900K pulls ahead by about 15%. This means that while most users will be served by the 14700K just fine, power After Effects users will likely benefit from jumping up to the 14900K.

Compared to the AMD Ryzen 7950X and 7900X, that puts the Intel Core i9-14900K and i7-14700K ahead by about 11 and 13% respectively overall, although for heavier projects, AMD and Intel are within a few percent of each other.

While the i9-14900K and i7-14700K puts Intel marginally ahead of AMD, the Core i5-14600K is the real gem for most After Effects users. While it is 13-15% slower than the 14700K and 14900K overall, that puts it within a percent or two of the AMD Ryzen 7950X, 7900X, and 7700X; and 10% faster than the 7600X for the majority of Ae users. While we would recommend a more powerful CPU for heavy projects, it does reasonably well there as well, beating the more expensive 7700X by 11%, or the slightly less expensive 7600X by nearly 40%.

Intel Core 14th Gen vs Intel Core 13th Gen for Adobe After Effects

Since the new 14th Gen processors are only a refresh of the 13th Gen with minimal new technology, we aren’t expecting too much in the way of gen-over-gen performance in applications like After Effects. In terms of the Overall Score, the Core i9-14900K, i7-14700K, and i5-14600K are only 3-4% faster than the previous generation.

This holds true for the Multi-Core Score as well for the Core i9-14900K, although for these tests, the Core i7-14700K was 6% faster than the previous generation, and the Core i5-14600K 9% faster.

While these numbers mean very few will be looking to upgrade from 13th Gen to 14th Gen, since the new CPUs are the same price and use the same motherboards, it is at least essentially “free” performance for those already in the market for a new After Effects workstation.

How well do the Intel Core 14th Gen CPUs perform in After Effects?

Overall, the new Intel Core 14th Gen CPUs bring a relatively modest increase in performance for After Effects. In most cases, we only say about a 3-4% increase in performance versus the previous generation, which isn’t going to change much in the way of which CPU will fit your budget the best. It very slightly extends Intel’s lead over AMD (from ~10% with 13th Gen to ~13% with 14th Gen), although the difference is small enough that it can be heavily influenced by the exact pricing you are able to get based on region and current sales.

Since our pricing through distribution tends to be more stable than retail, we currently plan on continuing to offer Intel Core as the primary CPU of choice for After Effects workstations that do not need more than 128GB of RAM (or 192GB once 48GB RAM sticks are more readily available), and jump up to AMD Threadripper PRO for those that do.

Bear in mind that the benchmarks presented in this article are for Adobe After Effects and that performance can vary dramatically between different applications; each software will utilize the available hardware differently and so be impacted in a unique way by hardware changes. If you use other software packages in your workflow, we recommend checking out our 14th Gen Intel Core Processors Content Creation Review article, which includes results and links to in-depth testing for a range of other applications, including Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, Blender, and V-Ray.

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