Intel Unveil its Raptor Lake Desktop Processors – Core i9-13900K = $589(?)

Intel has formally announced the launch of its new upcoming Raptor Lake (Raptor Lake-S) desktop processors with an October 20th release date. – Yes, their next-generation of CPUs have been finally unveiled, and, on the whole, the initial information provided by Intel certainly looks good with seemingly solid performance uplift, and, perhaps most notably, some pretty attractive price points for all levels of the platform.

Intel Raptor Lake Desktop Processors

Cutting down the bloat, Intel has effectively confirmed that its Raptor Lake processors will offer circa 15% faster single-core performance and up to 41% additional multi-core functionality. Some pretty nice figures for a generation-on-generation uplift. Albeit, the overall enhancements do primarily seem to be coming from faster clock speeds, more power, and more threads. This, rather than any outright technological innovation. – In that regard, we’re probably going to have to wait for their next-next-gen Meteor Lake CPUs.

With that being said though, while independent comparisons are clearly not possible just yet, Intel Raptor Lake does seem to be taking a fairly big swing back at AMD Ryzen 7000.

Gaming Performance

For a significant period of time, Intel was the undoubted King (or Queen if you prefer) of outright gaming performance. While AMD tried, they never really came close to trading blows with the best Intel had to offer. – That was, of course, until the release of their higher-end AMD Ryzen 5000 processors and particularly so the 5800X3D.

With this in mind, therefore, Intel has placed a key focus on the gaming performance of their Raptor Lake processors and especially so in the flagship i9-13900K. – As you can see below, Intel certainly hasn’t been shy in showing, at least in theory, that the i9-13900K is set to become the new champion of gaming performance!

Surprisingly Good Prices!

What perhaps surprised me the most was that Intel has been seemingly rather reserved in its pricing for Raptor Lake. I was expecting to see some pretty hefty MSRPs compared to Alder Lake, and, quite frankly, they’re actually surprisingly decent!

While their i9-13900K is slightly more expensive than the Ryzen 7900X ($549), coming in at $589, in the grand scheme of things this isn’t much more for a processor which, at least in theory, might offer significantly greater comparative performance.

In fact, looking at the pricing for their initial Raptor Lake releases, this is genuinely going to create a lot of battlegrounds between Intel and AMD throughout the entire spectrum of cost to performance. – The i5-13600KF/i5-13600K is, after all, pretty much price matching the AMD Ryzen 7600X and for a consumer who may have last week been tempted for Team Red in this affordable end of the market, this is definitely going to represent some food for thought!

Albeit, with some UK retailers already listing Raptor Lake CPUs for well above the official US price tags, (£759.98 for the i9-13900KF), don’t get too excited about those so-called official MSRPs just yet. I mean, at the very least, UK and Europe as a whole might be set for a rougher ride here than our American cousins!

What do you think though? Are you impressed by Intel Raptor Lake? – Let us know in the comments!