Intel Core i9-13900KF, 8C+16c/32T, 3.00-5.80GHz, boxed ohne Kühler

Die Jagt hat begonnen! AMD hat dieses Jahr bereits vorgelegt, doch nun zieht Intel nach und kämpft um die Krone der schnellsten Gaming-CPU der Welt. Ob Intel dieses Kunststück gelungen ist, erfahren Sie in diesem ausführlichen Review zum Intel Core i9-13900K und dem Intel Core i5-13600K.

Intel Raptor Lake als Refresh der Alder-Lake-Architektur ist da. Zum Start hat ComputerBase Core i9-13900K, i7-13700K und i5-13600K unter die Lupe genommen: Der Test mit Benchmarks in Apps und Spielen sowie IPC-, Takt- und Effizienz-Analysen vermittelt einen umfassenden Eindruck der neuen Generation – Überraschungen inklusive.

The raptors are here! We're reviewing the Intel Core i9-13900K, which leads the company's new 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop processor series. This gains significance as it is the company's final generation of processors built on a monolithic die with a uniform silicon fabrication node, with the CPU cores, iGPU, caches, and platform controllers sitting on a single die. With future generations, Intel is expected to put its IDM 2.0 product development strategy into motion, and we'll see processors made from multi-chip modules (MCMs). The Intel Core i9-13900K in this review doubles down on the Hybrid architecture, which dealt a blow to AMD's leadership in the segment with the 12th Gen "Alder Lake." The idea behind Hybrid is not to chase down AMD's lead with CPU core-counts, as Intel did with the 8th through 11th generations; but to place two distinct kinds of CPU cores, with different performance and power bands. The larger performance cores (or P-cores) handle the most demanding workloads, and Intel calculates that eight of these should suffice, as even workloads such as games don't need more than 16 threads from performance cores; while a Zerg swarm of physically smaller efficient cores (or E-cores), with reasonably high IPC, could help the processor overcome the multi-threaded performance deficit to AMD processors in creator tasks. The E-cores also give the processor a low power footprint in everyday workloads.

The Core i9-13900K offers truly exquisite performance, and it runs a little less hot (overall) than Ryzen 7000. The single-threaded performance, by the way, we find to be really good. It has to be stated that today you'll see very different reviews on performance throughout a lot of media. See, the motherboard manufacturers get to decide how the CPU is configured concerning PL1/PL2 states (the maximum allowed energy consumption during a set timeframe, and these values will differ everywhere. We also noticed that when you run a benchmark, often the score is never 100% the same. We tested on a Z790 motherboard that allows the multi-core configuration to be set at reference specification, and we did that. So you're seeing as close to reference performance as possible. That means on a lot of platforms, this CPU will perform faster and hotter. When we loaded up motherboard optimized defaults, we noticed that that would increase the CPU's heat levels as well, hitting even 100 Degrees C in short bursts. The processor can take that, it will however require satisfactory cooling. It's a somewhat similar story to the top-end Ryzen 7000 SKUs. If you're a gamer, then the new L2 caches do make up for a lot of extra performance, and this is probably also why the 13600K is probably the more exciting processor, be sure to check out that review. Realistically we feel we should call the 13900K with a Z790 motherboard Intel's new HEDT platform for the consumer market. The cost of running that performance will be tailed by heat levels and big numbers in energy consumption. Next to that, the cost of ownership is steep if you convert to a new Z790 platform with DDR5 memory. If you can cool it good enough (Tjmax is 100°C), then the 13900K is listed by Intel at a boost of (up to) 5.8GHz, which we can confirm. So this means that the flagship processor may reach speeds of 5.8 GHz at stock on a small number of performance cores. In an all-core configuration, we noticed 5500 MHz mostly. If you purchase a motherboard that optimizes PL2 states even further and harder, a 360 mm AIO will likely be necessary to keep temperatures below the thermal threshold for more demanding tasks that necessitate pushing the CPU to its maximum when you desire optimal turbo frequencies.