Intel ‘Raptor Lake’ Core i9-13990K: Faster, and Hotter, Than AMD’s Zen 4

Intel’s flagship Raptor Lake CPU is finally here, and with AMD’s Zen 4 CPUs previously released, we can finally see where the chips have fallen. This time around, it appears Intel has prevailed, with a few caveats. The Core i9-13900K is generally faster than its Zen 4 competitor, at the expense of a lot of heat. This should come as no surprise, as it was the same with Alder Lake, and Raptor Lake is an evolution of that chip. Still, it’s impressive what Intel has done with an older process this time around. It cements Intel as firmly on the “comeback trail” in its battle to regain CPU bragging rights.

The Intel 13900K is a 24-core, 32-thread CPU, with eight more cores than its 16-core Ryzen 9 counterpart. It accomplishes this with 16 efficiency cores and eight performance cores. Since the latter are hyperthreaded, that equates to 16 Raptor Cove cores. This CPU was built on the Intel 7 process, formerly known as 10nm. It’s going up against the Ryzen 9 7950X made via TSMC’s 5nm process. In addition to adding more efficiency cores, Intel has also bumped clock speeds and L2 and L3 cache sizes. Our sister publication PCMag took the CPU for a spin and handed out its coveted Editor’s Choice award when the smoke cleared. That’s not a literal reference, but this CPU does run quite hot when pushed.

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One of the big advantages Intel has this time around is its support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. This gives upgraders a lot of options when choosing a motherboard. People who buy AMD’s newest CPUs are forced to upgrade their motherboard and memory, as it only supports DDR5. AMD’s new CPUs are not cheap also, so it’s an expensive proposition. People with existing 600-series motherboards can also upgrade to Raptor Lake, though that’s not really a wise investment usually. AMD has the longevity advantage though. LGA 1700 is not getting any more CPUs after this one, and AMD’s AM5 socket is brand new. It should be receiving updated CPUs for at least the next four years, if not longer.

In pure CPU tests, we must admit what we wrote yesterday about Intel hiding certain tests from its pre-launch slides was wrong. Intel had omitted Cinebench r23, and we guessed there was a nefarious reason for that. As it turns out, Intel was sandbagging. The 13900K handily beats the Ryzen 9 7950X, as well as every other CPU. Its score of almost 40k was just what was leaked ahead of launch, so it appears it is indeed that powerful in multi-core workloads. It was the fastest CPU in every content creation test except one. And in that test, Premiere Pro (Pugetbench), it was a very close call. Overall, it’s a pretty decisive victory for Intel on this front.

When it comes to gaming, things are not quite as clear. The Intel CPU fails to stand out, trading blows back and forth with AMD’s flagship. The result is no clear winner, with both CPUs performing admirably across the board. There are just a lot more variables when it comes to gaming performance. However, it seems like Intel’s pre-release proclamation of “leadership” in gaming really depends on the game in question.

And now for the “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” portion of the analysis. We thought it was a shame that AMD’s newest CPUs run at 95C, by design, but Intel has one-upped AMD. The 13900K will run at 100C, and that’s even with a 240mm AIO cooler. Total system power consumption was also the highest of any CPU on record at 633W. That makes the 565W the 7905X-based system sucks down seem almost economical.

In the final analysis, the Core i9-13900K is a slightly better all-around CPU than the Ryzen 9 7950X for two reasons: It’s faster in most processing tasks, and it costs less. Its gaming performance is a toss-up, but if you’re only interested in gaming, a flagship CPU is never a wise purchase. You’re always much better off going with a midrange part. Even the older i5-12600K is still a beast in games, and the same goes for AMD’s midrange CPUs too. Not to mention the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is still holding it down.

For now, Intel seems to have taken the “fastest CPU” mantel away from AMD’s Zen 4 platform. It won’t be long before AMD launches its V-Cache-enabled CPU. Of course, Intel has a binned version of the 13900K on standby, likely contained in a “break in case of emergency” glass structure. Whether sheer clock speeds will be enough to topple the cache-laded Ryzen chip is a fight for another day. Until then, PC builders now have two great options for their next rigs.

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