Intel Core i9 13900K Review

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.