The 13th-generation Intel Core desktop processor code-named Raptor Lake has been officially lifted. Although it seems that compared to the previous generation products, it is only a simple increase in the number of clocks and cores, the measured performance has surprisingly killed the Quartet. The game performance of mid-level products It can also surpass the previous generation flagship, let’s see how it does it.
Architecture and Specifications
Strictly speaking, the computing micro-architecture of Raptor Lake has not changed significantly compared with the previous generation of Alder Lake, but the cache memory capacity has been significantly increased.
Including the expansion of the L2 cache of the P-core from 1.25 MB to 2 MB per core, the L2 cache of the E-core doubled from the original 2 MB to 4 MB per cluster (4 cores), and the L3 shared by all cores Cache (Intel Smart Cache) expanded from 30MB to 36MB.
In addition, with the continuous improvement of the process, the P-core and E-core of Raptor Lake can have higher clocks, and even the E-core cluster can be doubled from the original 2 groups to 4 groups, which is the most Holds 16 E-cores. These factors add up and become the cornerstone on which practical application performance can grow.
test environment
In the next test, we aimed at the Core i9-13900K / i5-13600K processors provided by Intel, and found the previous generation of the same-level products Core i9-12900K / Core i5-12600K, as well as the rival AMD Ryzen 9 7950X / 7900X. Compete with the Ryzen 5 7600X and NVIDIA’s latest flagship GeForce RTX 4090 Founding Edition graphics card.
| CPU | Intel Core i9-13900K Intel Core i5-13600K Intel Core i9-12900K Intel Core i5-12600K |
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X AMD Ryzen 9 7900X AMD Ryzen 5 7600X |
| motherboard | ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero | ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero |
| Memory | Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-6000 16GBx2 | |
| heat sink | ASUS ROG Strix LC II 360 ARGB White Edition | |
| heat transfer medium | Thermalright TF8 | |
| graphics card | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition | |
| store | Kingston FURY Renegade SSD 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530 NVMe SSD 2TB |
|
| power supply | FSP Hydro PTM PRO ATX 3.0 (PCIe 5.0) 1200W | |
| working system | Windows 11 Professional | |
rendering operations
From the well-known Cinebench R20 / R23 point of view, the single-core score of the Core i9-13900K has once once more reached a new high, which is 12% higher than the Core i9-12900K, and also ahead of the Ryzen 9 7950X by regarding 9% ~ 10%, and the Core i5-13600K’s The single core is regarding to catch up with the Core i9-12900K.
In terms of multi-core, the Core i9-13900K has an explosive growth of 47% in Cinebench R20 / R23 than the Core i9-12900K, and also has a slight lead of 3% to 6% in the face of the Ryzen 9 7950X. However, in multi-core rendering applications such as Blender 3, V-Ray 5, and Cocona, compared to the Ryzen 9 7950X, it remains flat to a slightly behind 3% to 7% level.
Video editing/encoding/decoding
For video editing, we used PugetBench from Puget Systems to test once morest the two major editing software currently on the market, Adobe Premiere Pro and Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve.
The GPU resources used in the DaVinci Resolve test process are relatively small, so the CPU affects the performance of a large proportion. In terms of results, we can see that the Core i9-13900K has grown by 27% ~ 28% compared to the Core i9-12900K, and is also regarding 11% ~ 13% ahead of the Ryzen 9 7950X.
What is more surprising is that the Core i5-13600K even leads the Core i9-12900K by 7% ~ 9%, and even lags behind the Ryzen 9 7950X by only 3% ~ 6%.
The Premiere Pro’s scores vary relatively little, but the Core i9-13900K still leads the pack, slightly beating the Ryzen 9 7950X. The Core i9-12900K is a little further behind but on par with the Ryzen 9 7900X, and the Core i5-13600K is regarding 8% behind them.
Comprehensive efficacy
In the CrossMark commercial application software test, the Intel camp processor achieved better overall results with better productivity and response rate.
Geekbench lists the single-core and multi-core results separately. In terms of single-core, the Ryzen 9 7950X narrowly beats the Core i9-13900K by less than 1%, and the Ryzen 9 7900X and Ryzen 5 7600X also have better results, slightly better than other Intel processors. .
The distribution of multi-core scores is similar to core rendering.
3DMark
Since Intel processors are more likely to achieve good CPU scores in the Time Spy test that simulates DirectX 12 games, Intel processors also have an advantage in the overall score.
The CPU Profile score is similar to multi-core rendering. It is worth noting the 16-thread part. Since the Ryzen 9 7950X / 7900X has more large cores, both scores are better than the Core i9-13900K.
Game performance
Gaming performance is the most surprising aspect of the 13th-generation Intel Core processors this time around. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 reviewWhen running on the Core i9-12900K platform, it has been found that many games are CPU-bound (CPU limited) at medium and low resolutions. This time, the Core i9-13900K finally squeezed out more performance.
For example, the 1080p resolution of a first-person shooter game like “CS: GO” must be the bottleneck of CPU performance. This time, the Core i9-13900K directly made the frame rate exceed the 800 fps mark and approached 850 fps. , even the Core i5-13600K has a good score of 798.73 fps, far exceeding the opponent by a lot.
And “Rainbow Six Siege” (Rainbow Six Siege), AMD CPU has better results at 1080p, but Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X / 7900X stop before 800 fps, following the resolution is increased, Intel CPU Instead, it started to get better results.
Among the remaining 20 AAA games, AMD CPU only has an advantage in “FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker” and “Hitman 3” (Hitman 3), and the rest of the games are dominated by Intel CPU.
In the Full HD 1080p and WQHD 1440p resolution environment, the average performance of the Core i9-13900K leads the Ryzen 7950X / 7900X by 9%, and also increases by 7% ~ 8% compared with the Core i9-12900K.
Among them, the most surprising is the Core i5-13600K. The game performance is slightly ahead of the Core i9-12900K. The Full HD 1080p resolution environment is even ahead by an average of 2%, and of course, it is also ahead of the Ryzen 7950X / 7900X by nearly 3%. We speculate that the main reason is that the L2 and L3 cache memory is enlarged, and the Core i9-12900K can only reach 5.2 GHz for a single core, and the full-core operation will drop to 4.9 GHz, while the Core i5-13600K can maintain all cores at 5.2 GHz. 5.1 GHz, the result is formed following the superposition of the two phases.
Power consumption and temperature
Power consumption can be said to be the relative shroud of the 13th generation Intel Core processors. After all, the operating clock and the number of cores have increased, and the power consumption limit of the motherboard has been fully unlocked. The Core i9-13900K burns in Prime95. The instantaneous power consumption will reach 375W, even the AIDA64 FPU burn-in will have 314W, and the temperature will start to decrease when the temperature reaches 100°C.
However, the above situation only occurs in the severe burn-in test. The general use situation can still be used normally, but at least it needs to be equipped with an integrated water-cooled heat dissipation system with a 360mm radiator, and a good chassis ventilation environment.
The highest power consumption of the Core i5-13600K in the Prime95 and AIDA64 FPUs reaches 214W and 157W respectively, although it is a bit higher than the Core i5-12600K, but it is still acceptable when the performance is significantly improved.
Summarize
Although the core architecture has not changed significantly, the Raptor Lake 13th generation Intel Core processor relies on a more advanced process, the top Core i9-13900K pushes the operating clock to a maximum of 5.8 GHz, and the number of cores is also stacked to 8 P- core + 16 E-cores. In addition, the L2 and L3 cache capacity expansion brings better game performance, completely liberating the performance of the top GPU, and even making the mid-level Core i5-13600K game performance surpass the previous generation flagship.
Unfortunately, with the skyrocketing exchange rate of the US dollar, the retail price of the 13th generation Intel Core processor in Taiwan is much higher than the previous generation, but since it is still compatible with the existing Intel 600 series chipset motherboards, if not If the PCIe 4.0 SSD needs to be fully inserted, you can consider matching the Z690 / B660 motherboard with a relatively affordable price, but you must pay attention to whether the motherboard and power supply can handle the higher power consumption before purchasing.
Having said that, considering the measured results in various aspects, the Intel Core i9-13900K processor is undoubtedly the king of contemporary performance. If you want to have the most ferocious game performance, in addition to the top GPU, this top CPU is also indispensable.