Intel Core i7 13700K Review

Raptor Lake is here and to start off our extensive coverage of the 13th generation of processors, we’re doing things a little differently. While I’m sure lots of media outlets are taking a look at the i5 13600K and i9 13900K, we’ll have those in the coming days, but we actually managed to source our own i7 13700K which I feel could be a strong contender for those looking to spend a somewhat reasonable amount of money, while getting the very best performance, mainly in terms of gaming.

Intel Core i7 13700K

So the i7 13700K, codenamed Raptor Lake. I don’t want to delve too much into the ins and outs of it, because we have an unboxing video that goes through all of that from the other day, so that’s definitely worth checking out below if you want a bit more of a deep dive into things.

Specifications

It is worth looking at the main specs though. So the i7 13700K is a 16-core processor comprising of 8 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores, of which as per usual, much like the 12th gen, the performance cores all have hyper-threading, giving us a total of 24 threads. Clock speed-wise, with the right cooler to keep things under control, you’ll be able to boost up to 5.4GHz, a healthy 8% uplift from the 12700K’s maximum boost clock. The gains don’t stop there as the 13700K comes with 24MB of L2 cache and 30MB of L3 cache, or as Intel call it, Smart Cache. Being a K series processor, also means that the 13700K can be overclocked beyond its rated spec, and that’s something we’ll likely look at in further content after we’ve gone through the stock performance of all of the chips launching today.

The 13700K keeps the maximum number of PCIe lanes at 20 as well as the base power at 125 Watts though the PL1 and PL2 power draw has seen an increase from 190 Watts on the 12700K to a staggering 253 Watts. As you’d expect, there’s support through the 13700K for DDR4 and DDR5 but the accepted speed of DDR5 has now been increased to 5600MT/s or MHz, up from 4800MHz on the 12700K and comes with the same Intel UHD 770 graphics iGPU built onto the CPU.

Features

• Total Cores: 16
• # of Performance-cores: 8
• # of Efficient-cores: 8
• Total Threads: 24
• Max Turbo Frequency: 5.40 GHz
• Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 Frequency: 5.40 GHz
• Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency: 5.30 GHz
• Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency: 4.20 GHz
• Performance-core Base Frequency: 3.40 GHz
• Efficient-core Base Frequency: 2.50 GHz
• Cache: 30 MB Intel® Smart Cache
• Total L2 Cache: 24 MB
• Processor Base Power: 125 W
• Maximum Turbo Power: 253 W

For more information, please visit the official product page here.

Video

If you want to see our full video going through this, you can do so below.

How We Test

We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones.

Replicate Our Results

When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software.

Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with.

Processor Test Systems

Additional Hardware

• ElmorLabs PMD-USB Power Measurement Device With USB

Software

We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible.

Software Used

• 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download)
• 7-Zip (download)
• AIDA64 (download)
• Blender 3.3.0 (download)
• CapFrameX 1.6.9 (download)
• Cinebench R23 (download)
• Corona 1.3 (download)
• CPU-Z (download)
• Geekbench 5 (download)
• Google Octane 2.0 (link)
• GPU-Z (download)
• HWMonitor (download)
• Keyshot Viewer 11.2.1 (download)
• Mozilla Kraken 1.1 (link)
• PCMark 10 Express (download)
• Super PI 2.1 WP (download)
• V-Ray 5.00.20 (download)
• WebXPRT 4 (link)
• WPrime 2.11 (download)

Gaming

To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we’ve began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible.

Games

While we test a lot of games, it’s not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well.

What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested.

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• Cyberpunk 2077
• F1 22
• Far Cry 6
• Forza Horizon 5
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Shadow Of The Tomb Raider
• Watch Dogs: Legion

Resolutions

• 1080p (Full HD)

Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features.

Power Consumption

Not being content on simply reading total system power draw at both idle, we now have the ability thanks to the ElmorLabs PMD-USB device that allows us to measure power draw directly through the EPS power connectors. We test at idle, during gaming load, of which we measure drawing a run of Cyberpunk 2077 and during Cinebench R23 at load too.

Temperatures

We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered during the same runs as when we measure power consumption, being during our Cyberpunk 2033 run, and during Cinebench R23 at load too.

Super PI 2.1 WP

Super PI is a single-threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. It uses the Gauss-Legendre algorithm and is a Windows port of a program used by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 to compute pi to 232 digits

Available now on Super PI.

Taking a look at calculation benchmarks, and starting with Super PI where we see just under a minute shaved off when comparing the i9 12900K and i7 13900K so a nice generational leap and coming in faster than both the Ryzen 9 7900X and 7950X, of which both are considerably more expensive.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver, a utility used to place groups of files within compressed containers known as “archives”. It is developed by Igor Pavlov and was first released in 1999. 7-Zip has its own archive format called 7z, but can read and write several others.

Available now on 7-Zip.

In 7-Zip and looking at compression, the i7 is only 1% behind the more expensive 7900X though in decompression tests, that gain increases to around 20% in favour of the 7900X.

AIDA64

AIDA64 is a system information, diagnostics, and auditing application developed by FinalWire Ltd that runs on Windows, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Tizen, Chrome OS and Sailfish OS operating systems. It displays detailed information on the components of a computer.

Available now on AIDA64.

Lastly, for our synthetic tests, it’s worth looking at AIDA64 memory performance and it’s clear to see that Intel are still the champion when it comes to sheer speed and memory bandwidth with anywhere up to 24% more speed than the AMD Ryzen 9 flagship processor.

It does fall slightly behind in terms of latency, but with such a big lead for memory throughput, it’s unlikely to even be noticed in real-world usage.

Blender 3.3.0

Blender Open Data is a platform to collect, display and query the results of hardware and software performance tests – provided by the Blender community.

Available now on Blender.

In rendering tests, we see a healthy uplift in performance generation to generation, while the 7900X manages to pull ahead of the 13700K by just over 5%. They always say in the production world that time is money, so you’d need to decide if that 5% is worth the extra 22% in cost.

Cinebench R23

Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 23 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Best of all: It’s free.

Available now on Maxon.

Moving onto everyone’s favourite, Cinebench, and in single-core performance, Intel has clearly worked on things, as the higher clock speeds really do see a large increase in performance over the last generation, though more interesting than that is how the 13700K comes in 5% faster than the 7950X and 6.5% faster than the 7900X. Maybe they can make up for it in multi-core performance?

Corona 1.3

Test and compare the performance of your CPU using this free benchmark application, which is built upon Corona Renderer 1.3.

Available now on Corona

In Corona, we again see a decent increase in performance when compared to the previous generation, and again find that it’s enough to edge ahead of the more expensive 7900X, while the 7950X furthers its lead, though we will be looking at exactly how that compares to the i9 13900K in future content, so you won’t want to miss that.

Keyshot Viewer 11.2.1

KeyShot Viewer is a free, stand-alone desktop application that enables secure sharing of KeyShot scenes for interactive, photo-realistic 3D model viewing, presentation and configuration, using the same real-time ray tracing render engine as KeyShot to produce amazing visuals with speed and quality.

Available now on KeyShot.

In Keyshot Viewer, that battle between the 7900X and 13700K is heating up as they both come in with very similar scores, which again, due to the extra cost from the 7900X, I can’t not see the 13700K as the victor in this test.

V-Ray 5.00.20

V-Ray® Benchmark is a free standalone application to test how fast your system renders. It’s simple, fast and includes three render engine test.

Available now on Chaos.

In V-Ray, again, it’s a very close fight between the 7900X and 13700K with the Ryzen CPU just coming out on top, again, by a small margin of less than 3%, so at least from a value for money perspective, I’m just not seeing AMD as doing enough.

3DMark Firestrike

3DMark tests your system’s GPU and CPU performance by rendering extremely demanding game-like scenes in real-time. The faster the benchmark runs, the better your score. Now your quest begins. What can you do to get a better score?

3DMark is available on Steam here.

Starting with 3DMark FireStrike and we straight away start to see the 13700K pushing ahead of the i9 12900K by just under 4% but what’s more interesting is that the 13700K has a lead over the more expensive 7900X by 8% while the physics score sees a slightly larger lead of just under 10% over the Ryzen 9 CPU.

3DMark Timespy

Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for gaming PCs running Windows 10 and above only. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, built from the ground up to support the latest API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal benchmark for testing the DirectX 12 performance of modern graphics cards and is typically a good benchmark for mid-to-high-end hardware. Furthermore, Timespy Extreme is designed for 4K performance testing.

3DMark is available on Steam here.

As we move onto Timespy, it’s a very similar story with the 13700K edging ahead of last generations 12900K, though this time we see the 13700K sitting at the top of our stack, ahead of the 7950X by just under 6% and finding that shiny new 7950X sitting behind the last generation i9 as well.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench 5 is a cross-platform benchmark that measures your system’s performance with the press of a button. How will your mobile device or desktop computer perform when push comes to crunch? How will it compare to the newest devices on the market? Find out today with Geekbench 5.

Available now on Geekbench.

In Geekbench and taking a look at single core performance, there is a small 3% performance improvement on the new i7 when compared against the Alder Lake i9 processor, though the 7900X still manages to push ahead, albeit, by 2%, which considering the Ryzen CPU is 22% more expensive than the i7, I’ll happily chalk this up as a win for Intel.

Moving onto multi-core and again, generation to generation, we see some pretty impressive gains, and on top of that, see the 13700K pushing just under 7% more performance than the more expensive Ryzen 9 7900X.

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With a range of performance tests, custom run options, Battery Life Profile, and new Storage benchmarks, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office.

Available now on Steam.

In PCMark 10 Express, the Ryzen 7900X fights back with a 3% lead over the 13700K and even sees the Ryzen 5 7600X around 2% faster than the new i7 as well.

Google Octane 2.0

Octane 2.0 is a benchmark that measures a JavaScript engine’s performance by running a suite of tests representative of certain use cases in JavaScript applications.

Google Octane now on Google Developers.

Taking a look at web browsing performance and we see some pretty respectable gains again, in favour of the 13700K with an 8% lead over the 7900X, and a 4% lead over the Ryzen 7950X, so at this point, it’s not looking great for AMD.

Mozilla Kraken 1.1

Kraken is a JavaScript performance benchmark created by Mozilla that measures the speed of several different test cases extracted from real-world applications and libraries.

Mozilla Kraken now on Github.

In Mozilla Kraken, AMD managed to fight back taking the top spots over the 13700K, but with less than 2% in it, again, for the extra cost, it doesn’t impress me much for team red.

WebXPRT 4

WebXPRT 4 is a browser benchmark that compares the performance of almost any web-enabled device. It contains HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly-based scenarios created to mirror the tasks you do every day: Photo Enhancement, Organize Album Using AI, Stock Option Pricing, Encrypt Notes and OCR Scan using WASM, Sales Graphs, and Online Homework. Use WebXPRT to see exactly how well different devices handle real-world tasks.

Mozilla Kraken now on Principled Technologies.

In WebXPRT 4, again, we see some small gains over the 12900K of around 4% but also see gains over both AMD Ryzen 9 CPUs, albeit of under 1%, but considering the 13700K comes in significantly cheaper, it’s another pretty big accomplishment for the blue team.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major instalment in the Assassin’s Creed series and the successor to 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Principally set in the years 872–878 AD, the game recounts a fictional story during the Viking expansions into the British Isles. Players control Eivor Varinsdottir, a Viking raider who becomes embroiled in the centuries-old conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood, who fight for peace and liberty, and the Templar Order, who desire peace through control. The modern-day portion of the story is set in the 21st century and follows Layla Hassan, an Assassin who relives Eivor’s memories so as to find a way to save the Earth from destruction.

Available now on UPlay.

Moving onto games and starting with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where we straight away, we see that various CPUs don’t make a huge difference in this title but the 13700K does offer up better 1% lows overall compared to every other CPU.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be?

Available now on Steam.

Moving onto Cyberpunk and we see the 13700K topping our charts with a 2.5% lead over the 12600K, but again, those 1% lows is where it really stands out especially as we see a huge 10% lead in those lows over the next best performing 7950X.

F1 22

Enter the new era of Formula 1® in EA SPORTS™ F1® 22, the official video game of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship™. Take your seat for a new season as redesigned cars and overhauled rules redefine race day, test your skills around the new Miami International Autodrome, and get a taste of the glitz and glamour in F1® Life.

Race the stunning, new cars of the Formula 1® 2022 season with the authentic lineup of all 20 drivers and 10 teams, and take control of your race experience with new immersive or broadcast race sequences. Create a team and take them to the front of the grid with new depth in the acclaimed My Team career mode, race head-to-head in split-screen or multiplayer, or change the pace by taking supercars from some of the sport’s biggest names to the track in our all-new Pirelli Hot Laps feature.

The official video game of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship™:

Available now on Steam.

In F1 22, AMD processors are clearly favoured here though the 13700K still manages to keep up with the 7950X only sitting less than 1% ahead in the averages, though the Raptor Lake CPU does slip slightly in the 1% lows.

Far Cry 6

Welcome to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time. As the dictator of Yara, Antón Castillo is intent on restoring his nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps. Their oppressive rule has ignited a revolution.

Available now on Ubisoft Connect.

Far Cry 6 doesn’t really see any benefit with 13th gen over a lower SKU part from the Alder Lake lineup, and again, the competition from AMD just performs better overall in the averages, and the 1% lows.

Forza Horizon 5

Your Ultimate Horizon Adventure awaits! Explore the vibrant and ever-evolving open world landscapes of Mexico with limitless, fun driving action in hundreds of the world’s greatest cars. This is Your Horizon Adventure Lead breathtaking expeditions across the vibrant and ever-evolving open world landscapes of Mexico with limitless, fun driving action in hundreds of the world’s greatest cars. This is a Diverse Open World Explore a world of striking contrast and beauty. Discover living deserts, lush jungles, historic cities, hidden ruins, pristine beaches, vast canyons and a towering snow-capped volcano. This is an dventurous Open World Immerse yourself in a deep campaign with hundreds of challenges that reward you for engaging in the activities you love. Meet new characters and choose the outcomes of their Horizon Story missions.

Available now on Steam.

Things pick back up in Forza Horizon 5 where the 13700K is pretty much neck and neck with the Ryzen 9 7900X. A chip that is considerably more expensive and does also come in 2% faster than the 5800X3D.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Experience Aloy’s entire legendary quest to unravel the mysteries of a world ruled by deadly Machines. An outcast from her tribe, the young hunter fights to uncover her past, discover her destiny… and stop a catastrophic threat to the future.

Unleash devastating, tactical attacks against unique Machines and rival tribes as you explore an open world teeming with wildlife and danger. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action role-playing game – and this Complete Edition for PC includes the huge expansion The Frozen Wilds, featuring new lands, skills, weapons and Machines.

Available now on Steam.

Horizon Zero Dawn sees figures that again, are just too similar between every CPU, and margin of error could have a lot to play, though again, those 1% lows is where we see the most significant talking point, pushing ahead of every other processor tested.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC.

Available now on Steam.

Now we all know that Microsoft Flight Sim loves the 5800X3D and it continues to top our charts, followed behind by the 13700K by 9%, but with 13% stronger performance in the 1% lows, you’re going to see much more fluid gameplay overall.

Red Dead Redemption 2

With all new graphical and technical enhancements for deeper immersion, Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC takes full advantage of the power of the PC to bring every corner of this massive, rich and detailed world to life including increased draw distances; higher quality global illumination and ambient occlusion for improved day and night lighting; improved reflections and deeper, higher resolution shadows at all distances; tessellated tree textures and improved grass and fur textures for added realism in every plant and animal.

Available now on Steam.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is another title where it feels like throwing money into a beefier or newer CPU, both from Intel or AMD just feels a bit worthless as between all processors tested, you’re not going to notice a difference in this title.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.

Available now on Steam.

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider is where we find our 13700K sitting at the bottom of our stack, albeit by less than 2% and at 283 frames per second, I don’t see anyone complaining anyway.

Watch Dogs: Legion

Build a resistance from virtually anyone you see as you hack, infiltrate, and fight to take back a near-future London that is facing its downfall. Welcome to the Resistance. Recruit and play as anyone in the city. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set.

Hack armed drones, deploy spider-bots and take down enemies using an Augmented Reality Cloak. Explore a massive urban open world featuring London’s many iconic landmarks and fun side activities. Take your recruits online and team up with your friends as you complete missions and challenging endgame content.

Available now on UPlay.

Lastly, we have Watch Dogs: Legion, where we see the 13th generation i7 pushing ahead by a small 2% margin over the 12th generation flagship and again, some very strong numbers in those 1% lows.

Overall Game Average FPS

Testing a variety of games allows you to see how a particular piece of hardware performs in that title, but with the ability to look at overall game averages and how they perform across all titles, we can extrapolate the positioning of that hardware compared to similar hardware on the market.

Ok, so coming into this, we and the general public had no real claims from Intel as to how things would be in terms of performance, but it’s clear to see that the i7 13700K is pretty stellar when it comes to performance, especially when it comes to synthetic benchmarks, where for the most part, the i7 was battling it out between the more expensive Ryzen 9 CPUs. If the i7 didn’t come in with the best results we’ve seen, then it wasn’t that far behind the more expensive processors.

In terms of gaming, it’s always good to look at averages across the ten titles we tested and there’s definitely an increase over the last generation where it’s almost like the i7 13700k is nigh on identical to the i9 12900K, which is quite nice to see. Last generation’s flagship performance, for less money overall. Even when compared to the Ryzen 9 processors, the i7 manages to give them a run for their money and offer exceptional gaming performance across ten titles, even when compared to the gaming monster, 5800X3D.

Cost Per Frame

Looking at the cost per frame allows us to see where a particular product is positioned relative to the competition and previous generation products. By taking the price of the product and dividing it by the overall game average FPS, we have a simple formula that allows us to see if a product offers superior value for money.

US Dollars (USD)

British Pound (GBP)

Now obviously pricing is a big thing and something that needs to be factored in, and we can clearly see again, that compared to AMD’s Ryzen 9 series, which gave us similar performance, the i7 13700K just offers much better value for money overall at £2.42 per frame, though the 5800X3D still manages to offer superior value, but for what could be deemed older tech, like having a platform that is made for DDR4.

In the US, it’s a similar story, with the i7 offering up better value than the new Ryzen offerings, but the 5800X3D still manages to offer a better value for money prospect, but that’s what you get as part of the early adopter premium on a new product.

Power Consumption

Power consumption is measured at idle, during a Cinebench R23 run and during a gaming benchmark run of Cyberpunk 2077, which is a very CPU-intensive game. By getting 3 performance metrics, it allows us to see a better picture of the average user and what they are typically going to see in terms of power draw for just the processor itself.

Now when it comes to power, there was no real surprise that the 13th generation would use more power, but it was interesting to see that the 13th generation processors use more power at idle, though it’s still around 50% less when compared to AMD. As we move upto gaming load, we see a jump of around 15% when comparing the i9 12900K to the i7 13700k which also means it uses more power than the 7950X while gaming and dramatically more during our cinebench R23 torture test as well.

Operating Costs

With the cost of living increasing across the world, especially when it comes to the cost of electricity, it’s worth looking at the cost of running a processor and how it compares to similar products on the market. By taking the average cost per kWh, we can calculate a rough running cost at idle, during a simulated workload test (Cinebench R23), to give us worst-case scenario costs, as well as gaming costs during a run of Cinebench R23.

US Dollars (USD)

British Pound (GBP)

Overall, what that means for operating costs is that in the UK at an average of 34 pence per kWh, the i7 13700K comes in around the same as the i9 12900K at less than half a penny per hour at idle, around 6 pence per hour during gaming and at just under 9 pence per hour during a rigorous Cinebench torture test and compared to the competition, AMD has it won here. In the US, based on $0.15 cents per kWh, we see the same pattern, though at a much closer margin, AMD still has Intel beat across the whole Zen 4 lineup.

Temperatures

Thermals are a key point to any processor, as it allows it to boost for a prolonged amount of time and depending on the task that’s being performed, thermals can be either higher or lower. To get the best possible picture, we have recorded thermals for idle, during a simulated Cinebench R23 load test, and during a typical gameplay benchmark run of Cyberpunk 2077.

In terms of temperatures, it’s no surprise that more cores and threads equal more heat and again, AMD seems to have the upper hand here, though during gaming load, it’s nigh on identical to the Ryzen 9 7950X, and it’s only really in the Cinebench torture test where things are a little higher, due to the limits imposed by Intel but still no real cause for concern.

How Much Does It Cost?

The i7 13700K comes in at $449 in the US and £499 in the UK which puts it cheaper than the 7900X, but around $50 more than the 7700X, so as I said in my unboxing, I kind of feel that from a money point of view, it’s competing with the unreleased and unannounced, though I’m sure it’s coming, 7800X from AMD.

Overview

So I think it’s clear to see that the i7 13700k offers up some pretty sizeable improvements over the 12th generation, and rivals AMD’s newest flagship as well, but for a lot less money. Now obviously so much of deciding how good this processor is really comes down to your use case, but it’s pretty evident that for production, rendering, calculation and web browsing, it’s good, and for gaming, it’s able to hold its own and offer some of the best value we’ve seen for the latest features.

Yes, it runs warm, but so does Ryzen, and it now paves the question for me about how the i9 13900K is going to improve on it because the performance is the best there is for the money, so can the i9 do better? That’s what we’ll find out soon enough, so definitely make sure you check that out.

Value for Money

For now, I think the i7 could end up better one of the best-selling processors for Intel, where you get strong performance, good value for money, and all of the latest features that come with it and if anything, it’s going to make AMD potentially re-evaluate things and maybe even seen some price cuts to compete. Who knows, let’s see what happens.

Should I Buy One?

For now, what do you think? Are you team blue or have AMD done enough? I think if anything, AMD 7000 3D cache versions, could be their only saving grace to fend off the competition. Do you agree? Let me know in the comments. For now though, it looks like the i7 is hitting the market pretty strong, so long as you provide it with a decent cooling solution, it’s a potent CPU for everything from work to gaming.