Intel Core I9 13900K Raptor Lake Cpu Pre Launch Review Shows Strong Multi Threaded Performance 10 Gaming Improvement Higher Power Draw

Intel Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake CPU Review Shows Big Gains In Multi-Threading, Decent Gains In Gaming, All At The Cost of Higher Power

We have already seen a ton of Intel Core i9-13900K and other Raptor Lake CPU benchmarks from various leaks and there’s nothing that we don’t know already. However, the review from ESCM has been a collaboration with OneRaichu, one of the most prominent leakers on Twitter who has been super accurate with his reports. Enthusiast Citizen himself has been spot on with his info regarding various upcoming CPUs. So first up, the specifications.

Intel Core i9-13900K 24 Core Raptor Lake CPU Specs

The Intel Core i9-13900K is the flagship Raptor Lake CPU, featuring 24 cores and 32 threads in an 8 P-Core (Raptor Cove) and 16 E-Core (Gracemont V2) configuration. The CPU is configured at a base clock of 3.0 GHz, a single-core boost clock of 5.8 GHz (1-2) cores, and an all-core boost clock of 5.5 GHz (all 8 P-Cores). The CPU features 68 MB of combined cache and a 125W PL1 rating that goes up to 250W. The CPU can also consume up to 350W of power when using the “Unlimited Power Mode” which we detailed here.

Core i9-13900K 8+16 (24/32) - 3.0 / 5.8 GHz - 66 MB Cache, 125W (PL1) / 253W (PL2) Core i9-12900K 8+8 (16/24) - 3.2 / 5.2 GHz - 30 MB Cache, 125W (PL1) / 241W (PL2)

Intel Core i9-13900K Test Setup

For this specific review, the Intel Core i9-13900K was tested on both DDR5 and DDR4 platforms. A Z690 Taichi Razer Edition and an unnamed Z790 motherboard were used though due to NDA, they cannot reveal the actual product name. The motherboards were tested with DDR5-6000 CL30 & also, DDR4-3600 CL17 memory kits along with a Radeon RX 6900 XTXH graphics card. An NZXT Kraken X73 AIO was used to cool the CPU. The CPU can support native memory speeds of up to DDR5-5600 while Alder Lake only supports native JEDEC speeds of DDR5-4800.

Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K Performance Tests:

The testing was split into two parts with OneRaichu evaluating the memory, bandwidth, and cache performance between the Raptor Lake Core i9-13900K and the Alder Lake Core i9-12900K while Enthusiast Citizen ran the standard single-core, multi-core, and gaming application tests. First up, we have the latency benchmarks and OneRaichu shows how the new ring bus design that comes with a boosted frequency, allowing all P-Cores and E-Cores to achieve a uniform latency and not drop to a lower frequency resulting in higher latencies as we saw in the Alder Lake CPUs. While the IPC of the P-Core doesn’t see a big boost as detailed here, the overall frequency & cache uplift allows for higher overall single-threaded performance. Compared to Alder Lake, the Raptor Lake Core i9-13900K achieves a 12.5% single-threaded performance increase. The Gracemont E-cores do receive a small uptick in IPC performance of around 6% and the addition of more E-cores on the 13900K means that we can see some big multi-threaded performance increases. The 13th Gen flagship sees an average 42% performance uplift over the previous generation which is a big jump. There are also a range of games tested by the outlet and it looks like games that are dependent on CPU performance will see a decent boost, averaging around 10%. While the FPS does increase, the main improvement comes in the 0.1% lows which is thanks to the increased L2 and L3 cache sizes on the 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs. We have already seen how a higher amount of cache helps within games on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D from AMD. So to conclude the results showcased in this review:

Intel Core i9-13900K “Raptor Lake” vs 12900K “Alder Lake” MT - +42% Improvement Intel Core i9-13900K “Raptor Lake” vs 12900K “Alder Lake” ST - +12.5% Improvement Intel Core i9-13900K “Raptor Lake” vs 12900K “Alder Lake” Gaming - +10% Improvement

But all of this comes at the cost of a higher power. While the Intel Core i9-13900K consumes 253W at load within AIDA64’s FPU test, unlocking the “Unlimited Power Mode” makes Raptor Lake hit up to 343W. Now this is a stress test and real-world power usage in games and applications will vary but those numbers will be shared later by Enthusiast Citizen. You can read the full review here. It remains to be seen whether this much performance increase would be enough for Intel to tackle AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs which have also boosted the single and multi-threaded performance in a big way. Well we will have to wait till the dust settles by 20th of October next month.