Intel Core i9 13900K Review

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.