Intel Core i9 13900K Review

So yesterday, we looked at the Intel Core i7 13700K that formed part of Intel’s new 13th generation Raptor Lake range of processors and carrying on with content based around that, today sees us looking at the flagship, at least for now, i9 13900K. I say for now, as I’m sure, based on the rumours we can expect another CPU that further improves on it by hitting over 6GHz boost, but for now, let's focus on what’s available. Intel Core i9 13900K So the i9 13900K. It’s the daddy, the flagship, the successor to the 12900K. A CPU that saw Intel completely change the way that things were done with the introduction of efficiency cores combined with hyperthreaded performance cores in a bid to improve single and multi-core performance across a variety of workloads and of course in gaming. Now for anyone who missed our Intel Raptor Lake unboxing, I’d definitely advise checking that out as I go through quite a lot of info, but for the sake of this review, let’s have a little recap. Features P-core Max/Base Frequency: 5.8/3.0 GHzE-core Max/Base Frequency: 4.3/2.2 GHzIntel Turbo Boost Technology 3.0Processor Base Power: 125WIntel Smart Cache: 36 MBMotherboard Compatibility: 600 and 700 seriesTotal CPU PCIe Lanes: 20Memory Speed: DDR5, DDR4 So the i9 13900K is a 24-core processor that comprises 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, giving us a total of 32 threads due to the hyperthreading on the performance cores, so a nice 50% increase in physical cores and 33% uplift in total threads, now actually giving us more physical cores than the newly released 7950X from AMD, and the same amount of threads. Clock speed-wise, things are increased dramatically, coming in with a max turbo speed of 5.8GHz, a sizeable 11% increase in clock speed over the predecessor, 12900K. As with all of the 13th gen Raptor Lake processors, we also see a large uplift in both the L2 and L3 or Intel Smart Cache where the L2 cache has seen a HUGE 128% increase from 14MB to 32MB, and the L3 cache with a 20% increase from 30MB on the 12900K to 36MB total on the new flagship. Unlocked Like the other 13th generation processors that are launching denoted by a K, the 13900K is fully unlocked meaning that users can overclock it beyond its rated speeds, and if there’s enough interest, we’ll take a look at that in a further video, whereas today, we’ll be putting a larger focus on its stock and max turbo performance. Other points worth noting is that the PCI-Express lanes have stayed at the same amount on this generation, with the 13900K supporting 20 in total, and while the TDP has stayed the same at 125W, PL1 and PL2 have been increased from 241W up to 253W with the only other major change being the support on Raptor Lake for DDR5 5600MHz without the need for overclocking or XMP. 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 Test System (AM5) Motherboard Changes Per Review Processor AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Review Buy Now GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (AM4) Motherboard Changes Per Review Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Review Buy Now GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z690) Motherboard MSI Z690 UnifyBIOS Version 7D28v17 Processor Changes Per Review Review Buy Now GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z590) Motherboard ASUS Maximus XIII HeroBIOS Version 1402 Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 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 ValhallaCyberpunk 2077F1 22Far Cry 6Forza Horizon 5Horizon Zero DawnMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2020Red Dead Redemption 2Shadow Of The Tomb RaiderWatch 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. In Super Pi, we have our first consumer processor that calculates in less than 5 minutes at 4 minutes and 47 seconds, which is almost half a minute faster than the flagship Ryzen 7000 series CPU. 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. Taking a look at compression within 7-Zip and we see the 13900K again topping our chart with a 5% performance lead over the 7950X though in the decompression test, the 7950X manages to stretch its legs with a 17% margin over the 13900K 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. Finally, to finish up our synthetic benchmarks, in Aida64, it’s evident to see that Intel have the superior processor when it comes to handling memory throughput as we used the same kit for all of our testing and that’s clear to see in the read, write and copy speeds. AMD’s 7950X does manage to come out with better latency overall, but with such varying margins in bandwidth, it’s a bit of a hollow victory. 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. Moving onto rendering tests and within Blender, the 7950X manages to take the crown with a 10% lead over the 13900K, but with a 6% increase in price over the 13900K, it’s a tough one to call based on this single test. More performance for more money yes, but as we’ve seen so far, it’s not that consistent across multiple tests. 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. In trusty Cinebench, the single core performance of the flagship 13th generation CPU sees a 12% gain over the 7950X which actually falls behind the i7 13700K as well, showing that the 13th generation range as a whole clearly has better performance overall. In Multi-core performance, the battle draws closer, but the i9 still manages to take the lead by a margin of less than 1%, which considering it’s priced so much better than the 7950X, gives Intel the crown for both single core and multi-threaded 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 Corona ends up becoming a fierce battle with both the 7950X and 13900K tying for that top spot at 36 seconds to render the complete scene, which is insanely fast and a nice step up from the 12900K when comparing how far Intel have come in one generation, 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, the more expensive 7950X does push ahead by 4% over the 13900K, but we still see very strong performance from the 13900K which leaves the 7900X behind with a 27% lead. 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, the 13900K loses out to the 7950X which pushes ahead with a 12% lead, though the 13900K does sit just under 20% faster than the 7900X but is also 20% more expensive so I guess you could say you really do get value for money based on performance. 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. So starting things off with 3DMark FireStrike and we start to see some anomalies with the overall score, as the i9 13900K actually scores less than the 13700K and less than the previous generation 12900K. I can only assume that with CPUs getting so much more powerful as of late, that the likes of FireStrike are just becoming somewhat CPU bound or not optimised for newer tech. Saying that though, the physics score is something that honestly made me laugh as the 13900K sits with a 24% lead over the Ryzen 9 7950X and a 34% improvement over its predecessor, the 12900K 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. Moving onto Timespy and the 13900K tops our charts with the closest AMD CPU being the 7950X which sits 6% behind the 13900K and even comes in performing worse than the 12900K from the last generation. 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 single-core performance, Intel manages to take the crown over the 7900X by a staggering 1.8%. So not much in it, but when looking at results like this, winning, even if by a small margin, is great for marketing more than what the average consumer would see. In multi-core performance, it’s another win for Intel, with a clear 9.7% lead over the Ryzen 9 7950X which, when you factor in the Intel being $40 cheaper to buy, it makes for an even more convincing argument as well. 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, we see some interesting results with the 13900K sitting around 2% faster than the 7950X, but the 7900X also has the same lead over the 13900K of around 2% so I guess we could deem that all as a draw. 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. When looking at web browser performance, it’s pretty clear to see that the 7950X from AMD fairs very well, but the 13900K just manages to do it better and comes in 8% faster overall. 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. It’s a very similar story when looking at Mozilla Kraken with the 13900K leading the pack with the fastest time to finish, again, by quite some margin. 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, the i7 3700K was already ahead of everything AMD had to offer by a small margin of less than 1%, while the 13900K managed to push ahead further by just under 5% cementing its lead as the most powerful CPU in this test. 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. So in terms of gaming, starting with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and it’s one of those games, where when you’re at the high-end, having a better CPU doesn’t seem to make all that much of a difference, and instead, we find the 12th generation 12900K outperforming the 13900K by 1 whole frame per second, so could be argued margin of error, though the 1% low does improve slightly, but again, could be argued as the same. 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. Cyberpunk sees a small 3% gain over the 12900K though more importantly, sees a 17% increase in the 1% low, though with the 13700K seeing a very similar result, it feels like you’re paying for wasted gains with the i9 in this title. 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. F1 sees the 13900K coming in the middle of the stack, again, very closely followed by the i7 13700K and not with any sizeable gain over the previous generation, and instead, we see the complete Zen 4 lineup higher up the stack in performance. 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. In Far Cry 6, we sadly see a performance drop from generation to generation, which could be for multiple reasons, including not being optimised for Raptor Lake in general and this could be fixed in further updates of the game, though performance is very similar across all processors tested from the 13900K and up. 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. Forza Horizon 5 already seems like it’s at peak performance with both the i9 from the 12th generation and 13th generation with less than 1% in it, which I’ll chalk up as margin of error. It does still allow for the 13900K to beat the competition from AMD with the exception of the 7950X which performed nigh on identically. 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. In Horizon Zero Dawn, the performance moving from the 12900K to the shiny new 13th generation processor actually saw a hit, but again, like we’ve already seen, margin of error rears its ugly head. In the 1% lows though, we see the 13900K coming in with a 5% lead over the 13900K, followed closely by the 13700K showing that these CPUs really do help iron out the dips a lot better than any others. 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. Finally, we see a game that makes a bit of a difference, with Microsoft Flight Sim giving us a hefty 14% improvement over the 12900K and putting it ahead of the competition from AMD including a 10% lead over the Ryzen 9 7950X. We also, again, continue to see really strong performance in the 1% lows to give a better gameplay experience 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 doesn’t really give much to go on when you’re using processors of such a high calibre, as they all perform within the same range of performance in both overall averages, and the 1% lows. 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 threw up some interesting results, that we also saw with the 13700K. Again, much like Far Cry, we could see some game optimisations occur in the future that sees these numbers increase. 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. Finally, in Watch Dogs: Legion, the 13900K storms to the top, only being beaten by its little brother, the 13700K i7 processor with very similar results. Compared to the 12900K, which was already ahead of AMD’s offerings, we see just over a 1% uplift in the averages and again, a slightly larger gain in the 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 positioning of that hardware compared to similar hardware on the market. Ok, so, if you’ve already checked out our content on the 13700K, we had to talk about where it fits in, between various processors from the existing lineup, and of course, compared to AMD, but the i9 13900K is a bit of a simpler story. Now, when it comes to synthetics, it’s a beast. So much so, that it feels like some of the software, like Firestrike, just isn’t optimised for it, while other benchmarks, like Timespy, 7Zip, Cinebench, Geekbench and anything to do with rendering, just laps up every drop of performance that the Raptor Lake i9 processor had to offer. Obviously, to get the most out of it, you’ll want to be on Windows 11, with certain things enabled, but even then, we did some testing on the side and saw, there wasn’t huge amounts of performance there on top of what we already had. Now, gaming is a slightly different story, because it can be argued one of many ways. Depending on the game you play, will kind of dictate as to what direction you go, but also looking at the overall averages, gives you an indication as to how things compare across the whole spectrum of tests, and it’s here where we see AMD just ahead, but not by much, though the 13900K just make up for it with the better performance in the dips, and them 1% lows. Sadly, while the performance is fantastic, so are the products from the competition, and even from themselves, with the 13700K performing about the same, and that’s where cost per frame comes in, which does see the 13900K coming in cheaper in the UK than the 7950X per frame by around 10%, though as you look further down the stack, yes, it works out cheaper, but remember, this is only focussing on gaming performance, which was pretty great on every CPU we tested here today. 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) The margin between the 7950X and 13900K draws closer by around 5% when comparing the cost per frame, as prices are slightly different in the US, but again, we see the same trend as we move down the stack, showing us that of course, we pay more for the top dogs from both AMD and Intel, so which one to choose, is an even tougher decision. 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. When it comes to power, it’s a little simpler, as the 13900K uses the most power in everything other than idle and interestingly, actually using more power during gaming, than the 7950X did during our Cinebench torture test, so with the cost of electricity going up, it could make quite a difference. 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) How much is clear to see when you look at the cost per hour, where in the UK, the 13900K tops our chart, and in this case, that’s not a good thing. I mean, yes, you get more power, it has to come from somewhere, but AMD just have the superior product in terms of power, which isn’t what you’d expect, given the efficiency cores, but sadly they don’t really even come into play, when looking at load and pure performance power. In the US, where electricity comes in around 15 cents per kWh, you’re looking around 3 cents per hour, to run the 13900K in gaming, which is 56% above the 7950X during the same task, which kind of puts it all into perspective a bit more. 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. Now, with all this power, heat comes into the equation, and under our NZXT Z73 cooler, we’re seeing quite a dramatic uplift from the 12900K as we move to the 13th generation flagship, where we frankly struggled at 100 degrees. Obviously, this is a limit baked in by Intel, but this is the first CPU to hit 100 degrees during gaming, and I wonder what that means for longevity, though of course it’s only the max temperature recorded and could be for a split second. How Much Does It Cost? In terms of the price, the 13900K is launching slightly more expensive than what the 12900K did, which now can be had for under $600. The 13900K will set you back $659.99 in the US and £699.95 in the UK which puts it $50 cheaper than the Ryzen 9 7950X in the US and about £80 cheaper than the 7950X in the UK. You can check for up-to-date stock and prices on Amazon here. Overview Ok, so I’m stupidly torn with the 13900K. In a way, I think the best way I can describe it, is by calling it Alder Lake 2.0. As I said with the RTX 4090 being what Ampere should have been, it now feels like we’re going through the same with Raptor Lake. As you reach the top tier with any product, you’re going to struggle to get every ounce of performance from it, and the downsides are always going to be more evident, in power, and temperatures, but to me, it feels like the 13900K, while it’s pretty damn special and with gaming aside, is frankly amazing, some of those downsides are a bitter pill to swallow, given the price, and that again, comes back down to power and temperatures. The big issue for the 13900K, while it does improve a lot on the 1% lows compared to its predecessor, and of course, how it compares to AMD, the i7 13700K in a lot of things was very close, and comes in a lot cheaper. What I’m trying to say, is that unless you’re rendering, or doing something workstation based, the i7 is the better choice, as for gaming, it’s too close in performance, but given its performance in workstation based tasks, AMD have some great products too. It’s a real tricky one, though I do feel that Windows updates, and software and gaming optimisations could see it become even better over time, so maybe we’ll see that and I’ll be retesting it in the very near future. For now, what do you think? You could class it as the best, but at what cost? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.