The 24-core Intel Core i9-13900KS Particular Version processor carries an eye-watering $699 price ticket, but it surely has a characteristic that Intel feels warrants the worth tag — that is the primary client PC chip to run at 6 GHz with out overclocking, extending Intel’s lead over AMD’s quickest Ryzen 7000 processors. Nonetheless, with a whopping 250W base energy specification, this Thirteenth-Gen Raptor Lake chip can also be now formally probably the most power-hungry desktop CPU in historical past — its voracious urge for food even peaks at 320W in a brand new Excessive Energy Supply Profile.
Intel’s Raptor Lake processors have taken the lead in gaming, productiveness, and worth over AMD’s Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 processors, however the competitors stays stiff. The comparatively low-profile 13900KS launch comes as AMD preps three new Ryzen 7000X3D processors with its disruptive 3D V-Cache tech that delivers explosive features in gaming efficiency.
The 3D V-Cache tech’s first iteration, AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D, overtook Intel’s Alder Lake as the very best CPU for gaming, however Intel later retook the crown with Raptor Lake. AMD’s Ryzen 7000X3D chips are poised to return to market in mere weeks, and the Core i9-13900KS is supposed to maintain Intel’s silicon entrenched on the prime of the CPU benchmark charts when AMD’s new chips arrive.
| MSRP | Cores / Threads (P+E) | P-Core Base / Increase (GHz) | E-Core Base / Increase (GHz) | Cache (L2/L3) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-13900KS | $699 | 24 / 32 (8+16) | 3.0 / 6.0 | 2.2 / 4.3 | 68MB (32+36) | 150W / 253W / 320W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Core i9-13900K / KF | $589 (Okay) – $564 (KF) | 24 / 32 (8+16) | 3.0 / 5.8 | 2.2 / 4.3 | 68MB (32+36) | 125W / 253W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
That may be a tall order — the Ryzen 7000X3D chips look exceptionally promising because of their unique performance-enhancing tech. In distinction, the 13900KS is constructed on the identical structure because the 13900K, simply with a better velocity binning to accommodate 200 MHz quicker clock charges. In any other case, it makes use of the identical basic design as its commonplace counterpart, but it surely comes with a hefty upcharge that destroys any trace of a price proposition for all however the excessive overclocking crowd.
Naturally, for those who’re trying to purchase a $699 chip, worth concerns exit of the window — it is a pure velocity play for these with deep pockets. For now, we do not know if the Core i9-13900KS will hold Intel within the prime spot when the Ryzen 7000X3D chips arrive subsequent month, but it surely seems to be like it is going to be shut. Here is how the Core i9-13900KS stacks up in opposition to the present competitors.
Intel Core i9-13900KS Specs and Pricing
Intel Core i9-13900KS Specs and Pricing
| MSRP | Cores / Threads (P+E) | P-Core Base / Increase (GHz) | E-Core Base / Increase (GHz) | Cache (L2/L3) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-13900KS | $699 | 24 / 32 (8+16) | 3.0 / 6.0 | 2.2 / 4.3 | 68MB (32+36) | 150W / 253W / 320W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Core i9-13900K / KF | $589 (Okay) – $564 (KF) | 24 / 32 (8+16) | 3.0 / 5.8 | 2.2 / 4.3 | 68MB (32+36) | 125W / 253W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Ryzen 9 7950X3D | ? | 16 / 32 | 4.2 / 5.7 | – | 144MB (16+128) | 120W / 162W | DDR5-5200 |
| Core i7-13700K / KF | $409 (Okay) – $384 (KF) | 16 / 24 (8+8) | 3.4 / 5.4 | 2.5 / 4.2 | 54MB (24+30) | 125W / 253W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
| Ryzen 9 7900X3D | ? | 12 / 24 | 4.4 / 5.6 | – | 140MB (12+132) | 120W / 162W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 7 7800X3D | ? | 8 /16 | 4.x / 5.0 | – | 104MB (8+96) | 120W / 162W | DDR5-5200 |
| Ryzen 7 5800X3D | $358 ($449) | 8 /16 | 3.4 / 4.5 | – | 104MB (8+96) | 105W | DDR4-3200 |
The 13900KS is the quickest Intel desktop PC chip, and even at inventory settings, it drew as much as 328W and ran at 100C to scrape out each final little bit of efficiency. As a result of the 13900KS is a Particular Version, the corporate will solely produce a restricted (however unspecified) variety of these processors — therefore the $699 price ticket. Regardless of the excessive pricing, Intel has truly lowered the ceiling for entry to its most premium silicon: The previous-gen 12900KS debuted at $739, however Intel later elevated the pricing of all its Twelfth-Gen chips, bringing it to $823 as we speak.
Intel selects its premium-binned 13900K silicon for the 13900KS, so it’s assured to be among the many best possible silicon the corporate has to supply. That can make the chips very enticing to overclockers, as paying the additional $110 for the KS mannequin improves your odds within the silicon lottery, primarily assuring you are getting a cherry chip.
As with the Core i9-13900K (structure particulars right here), the KS mannequin comes with eight hyperthreaded p-cores and 16 single-threaded e-cores, for a complete of 24 cores and 32 threads. The KS mannequin’s p-cores have a 3 GHz base clock and attain as much as 6 GHz on two cores by way of Thermal Velocity Increase (TVB) tech. This enables the processor to shift into barely larger frequencies if it stays underneath a sure temperature threshold (70C for desktop chips). In the meantime, the usual Turbo Increase 3.0 clock charges attain 5.8 GHz. We discovered that the chip simply peaks at 6 GHz, although the impression on workloads can range.
The e-cores kick in for background and multi-threaded duties with a 2.2 GHz base and 4.3 GHz enhance, similar to the 13900K. Most different options, just like the supported DDR4-3200 and DDR5-5600 switch charges, 32MB of L2, and 36MB of L3 cache, stay the identical.
As earlier than, the LGA 1700 chip is appropriate with 600-series motherboards, however you may need one of many best-equipped Z-series boards to quench the 13900KS’ thirst for energy. Nonetheless, choosing the proper motherboard is a little more difficult for the 13900KS as a result of new 320W “Excessive Energy Profile.”
| 13900K / KS Efficiency Energy Supply Profile | PL1 (PBP) | PL2 (MTP) | ICCMax |
| 13900K and KS Default Profile | 253W | 253W | 307A |
| 13900K Excessive Energy Profile | 253W | 253W | 400A |
| 13900KS Excessive Energy Profile | 320W | 320W | 400A |
Intel’s energy profiles have a couple of key variables. The PL1 energy spec quantifies prolonged use at base clocks and is also called the Processor Base Energy (PBP). In distinction, PL2 energy quantifies when the chip is underneath full load for brief intervals (enhance) and is also called the Most Turbo Energy (MTP). ICCMax denotes the utmost present the chip can pull when underneath heavy load.
Intel additionally used to outline a Tau variable that specified the length of the enhance/PL2 state earlier than the chip dropped again into PL1. Intel has since stopped defining Tau for Okay-series fashions as a result of it assigns PL1 and PL2 as the identical worth for Alder Lake and following gens within the reference BIOSes that it sends to OEMs — a primary. This implies the chip at all times operates in a boosted/PL2 state.
Intel’s new coverage of sending reference BIOSes with PL1=PL2 settings principally invalidates even having a PL1 worth, and the truth that it nonetheless exists on the spec sheet as a “Processor Base Energy (PBP)” setting — the decrease of the 2 energy specs — is deceptive.
Intel outlined an Excessive Energy Profile for its common 13900K — the 253W PL1/PL2 values stay the identical for each the usual and excessive profile, however the excessive profile’s ICCMax reaches 400A (up from 307A).
The KS mannequin has the identical default profile because the 13900K but in addition has its personal new Excessive Energy Profile that enables for a 320W PL1/PL2 and 400A ceiling. You will want to make sure that your motherboard can ship the height present if you wish to unleash the total energy of the KS, as not all motherboards can for a protracted time period. Motherboard distributors enable assigning a better ICCMax worth within the BIOS, usually underneath settings like “Core/CPU Present Restrict” (the title varies by mobo maker), however that does not imply the motherboard can truly ship that quantity of present. Clearly, B- and H-series boards do not make the reduce.
Intel defines these really useful energy profiles however permits motherboard distributors to disregard them utterly, and exceeding the default values would not void the guarantee. Thus, by default, most motherboard makers utterly ignore the bounds and assign the utmost values for PL1, PL2, and ICCMax, leading to larger efficiency and extra warmth.
Even at inventory settings, the Core i9-13900KS hit as much as 328W of energy and 100C in our testing. We’ll see what energy draw, efficiency, and thermals appear like after the gaming and productiveness benchmarks.
Gaming Efficiency on Intel Core i9-13900KS — The TLDR
- Intel Core i9-13900KS @ 6.0-5.7: Turbo multiplier: Two cores at 6 GHz, 5.7 GHz all-p-core, 4.4 GHz e-core, 1.29V vCore, DDR5-6800 XMP 3.0
- Intel Core i9-13900K @ 5.6: 5.6 GHz all-core p-core, 4.4 GHz e-core, 1.32V vCore, DDR5-6800 XMP 3.0
- AMD PBO Configs: Precision Increase Overdrive (Motherboard), Scalar 10X, DDR5-6000 EXPO
Yow will discover the particulars of our overclock and check setup additional under. Right here we’ve got the geometric imply of our gaming assessments at 1080p and 1440p, with every decision break up into its personal chart. We’re testing with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 to cut back GPU-imposed bottlenecks as a lot as doable, and variations between check topics will shrink with lesser playing cards or larger resolutions and constancy. You will discover additional game-by-game breakdowns under.
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The Core i9-13900KS is now the quickest gaming CPU on the planet, however solely by a hair. Utilizing a geometrical imply of our 1080p gaming outcomes, the $699 Core i9-13900KS is a mere 1.5% quicker than the usual $589 13900K. That is imperceptible to most customers and definitely not price the additional ~20% you may pay at retail. Additional, the efficiency delta shrinks to a mere 0.5% with 1440p gaming, so that you completely shouldn’t purchase the KS mannequin for gaming solely.
The Core i9-13900KS contends with the $699 Ryzen 9 7950X within the pricing division, however the usual Core i9-13900K mannequin already holds a robust sufficient lead in gaming to make the additional $110 for the KS mannequin a non-starter for many customers.
Naturally, the pre-binned Core i9-13900KS will attraction to overclockers — your odds of scoring a cherry chip are elevated dramatically. Nonetheless, you are still on the whims of the silicon lottery with each the KS and the Okay mannequin, so you possibly can get fortunate with both chip.
In actual fact, our assessments did not present a really huge lead for the KS mannequin over the Okay, and we might have possible dialed in a 5.9 GHz overclock on two of the Okay mannequin’s cores and diminished the delta additional. Not that there is a huge distinction between the chips anyway — the overclocked KS mannequin was just one% quicker than the Okay-series mannequin after overclocking.
Total, the KS mannequin would not make a lot of a distinction to the positioning of the Thirteenth-Gen processors in opposition to the Ryzen lineup, and it’s a poor worth. This chip will attraction to deep-pocketed people both intent on constructing the highest-end system possible or excessive overclockers chasing world information. The Core i7-13700K stays the chip to beat for those who’re on the lookout for a high-end gaming and productiveness chip, because the 13900KS is barely 2.5% quicker but prices a whopping $290 extra.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the quickest AMD gaming chip by far because of its 3D V-Cache, however its additional 96MB of L3 cache would not speed up all video games, and you may even have to simply accept a lot decrease efficiency in nearly each different sort of productiveness utility. When you’re on the lookout for an unique 3D V-Cache gaming chip, the best choice is to attend till subsequent month when AMD launches the brand new Zen 4-powered Ryzen 7000X3D fashions. These chips appear like they’re going to have a way more balanced efficiency profile and may beat the KS mannequin in gaming, too.
The deltas in these charts could be slim, and enormous deltas in particular person sport titles, like with the 5800X3D, impression cumulative measurements. The competitors between AMD and Intel chips can range based mostly on the title and the GPU you employ. It is best to make an knowledgeable resolution based mostly on the forms of titles you continuously play, so you should definitely take a look at the person assessments under.
The person sport benchmarks under are predictable — the KS reliably scores one to 2 % larger than the usual Okay mannequin throughout the board. As such, we can’t touch upon the person sport outcomes under.
| Tom’s {Hardware} | 1080p Recreation Benchmarks |
| $699 — Core i9-13900KS / OC | 100% / 105% |
| $589 — Core i9-13900K / OC | 99% / 104% |
| $409 — Core i7-13700K / OC | 97% / 102% |
| $365 — Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 95% |
| $474 — Ryzen 9 7900X | 88% |
| $699 — Ryzen 9 7950X / OC | 88% / 92% |
| $349 — Ryzen 7 7700X / OC | 88% / 94% |
Cyberpunk 2077 on Intel Core i9-13900KS
Far Cry 6 on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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F1 2021 on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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Hitman 3 on Intel Core i9-13900KS
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2021 on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2021 clearly advantages tremendously from L3 cache — the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a whopping 28% quicker than the Core i9-13900K flagship on this check. This huge benefit is superb however would not symbolize the 5800X3D’s efficiency in most titles. It additionally illustrates how outliers could make the 5800X3D appear extra spectacular in cumulative measurements.
In both case, this does bode nicely for the Zen 4 Ryzen 7000X3D fashions, which ought to convey all of the goodness of the capacious L3 cache with fewer tradeoffs in commonplace purposes.
Pink Useless Redemption 2 on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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Warhammer 3 on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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Flipping over to the 1440p charts reveals us that larger resolutions are sometimes the nice equalizer that ranges the enjoying discipline for chips with related lodging.
Watch Canines Legion on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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Productiveness Benchmarks on Intel Core i9-13900KS — The TLDR:
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We are able to boil down productiveness utility efficiency into two broad classes: single- and multi-threaded. These slides present the geometric imply of efficiency in a number of of our most essential assessments in every class, however you should definitely take a look at the expanded outcomes under.
Total the identical common developments that we noticed in our gaming benchmarks seem in our utility testing — the Core i9-13900KS does nothing to vary the aggressive positioning in opposition to AMD’s Ryzen, and whereas the 13900KS is the quickest chip on the planet in each single- and multi-threaded work after overclocking, its excessive price ticket makes the slight features merely not price it.
The Ryzen 9 7950X clings to its lead in multi-threaded work over the Core i9-13900KS by a mere 0.5%, however that is within the noise of the benchmarks. We should always think about these two chips tied. Overclocking flips the benefit again in Intel’s favor, however that is shut sufficient to name a tie. We additionally see slight features over the Core i9-13900K in multi-threaded work, however this is not definitely worth the elevated pricing.
Flipping over to single-threaded work reveals that the 13900KS holds a transparent win over all contenders — it’s 14% quicker than the Ryzen 9 7950X and a couple of% quicker than the usual 13900K. Nonetheless, that is a comparatively slim delta over the usual 13900K.
You will have to simply accept extreme efficiency tradeoffs for those who go for AMD’s quickest gaming chip, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The 5800X3D is considerably slower than the newer chips as a result of it comes with the previous-gen Zen 3 structure, and the additional dollop of L3 cache would not impart any significant speedups in most traditional desktop PC purposes. When you’re on the lookout for an X3D chip, look ahead to the 7000X3D chips that launch subsequent month.
| Tom’s {Hardware} | Multi-Thread | Single-Thread |
| $699 — Core i9-13900KS / OC | 100% / 104% | 100% / 101% |
| $589 — Core i9-13900K / OC | 99% / 102% | 98% / 96% |
| $569 — Ryzen 9 7950X / OC | 100% / 103% | 88% / 89% |
| $409 — Core i7-13700K / OC | 79% / 83% | 91% / 94% |
| $474 — Ryzen 9 7900X | 80% | 87% |
| $349 — Ryzen 7 7700X / OC | 56% / 57% | 86% / 86% |
| $365 — Ryzen 7 5800X3D | 42% | 66% |
Rendering Benchmarks on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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Intel’s Raptor Lake rivals or beats AMD’s most interesting in multi-threaded productiveness purposes at each worth level. These outcomes, like most of the outcomes all through our different utility assessments under, mirror the established developments of the KS barely extending the lead relative to the 13900K. As such, we’ll have restricted commentary for the applying benchmarks.
Encoding Benchmarks on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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Most encoders are typically both closely threaded or virtually completely single-threaded — it takes an agile chip to grasp each disciplines.
Adobe, Internet Shopping, Workplace and Productiveness on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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The ever-present net browser is among the most continuously used purposes. These latency-sensitive assessments are typically calmly threaded, so a quick response time is crucial.
Compilation, Compression, AI Chess Engines, AVX-512 Efficiency on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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This collection of assessments runs the gamut from the exceedingly branchy code within the LLVM compilation workload to the massively parallel molecular dynamics simulation code in NAMD to encryption and compression/decompression efficiency. Y-cruncher computes Pi with the AVX instruction set, making for an exceedingly demanding benchmark.
Intel Core i9-13900KS Thermals, Energy Consumption, and Increase Clocks
Intel’s Adaptive Increase Know-how (ABT) dynamically boosts to larger all-core frequencies based mostly on obtainable thermal headroom and electrical situations, so peak frequencies can range. By design, this tech permits the chip to function at 100C throughout regular operation — if the chip runs underneath the 100C threshold, it’ll enhance its energy consumption till it reaches the secure 100C restrict, thus offering extra efficiency. Nonetheless, this characteristic is barely energetic on the Core i9-13900K/F and the Core i9-13900KS, so different Raptor Lake processors will not exhibit the identical conduct.
You possibly can consider ABT very similar to a dynamic auto-overclocking characteristic, however as a result of the chip stays inside Intel’s spec of a secure 100C temperature restrict, it’s a supported and warrantied characteristic that does not fall into the identical classification as overclocking. ABT uplift will range by chip — a lot of the frequency uplift relies upon upon the standard of your chip. Therefore, the silicon lottery comes into play, together with cooling and energy supply capabilities.
Bear in mind, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 additionally runs at its restrict of 95C at inventory settings, so larger temperatures have develop into the norm for each chipmakers.
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To take away thermals as a limitation, we at all times use the identical 280mm Corsair H115i AIO cooler for all our check methods. Nonetheless, Intel says that it achieved the very best outcomes with the KS paired with a 360mm radiator, so we examined the impression by working the identical assessments with all energy limits eliminated on a 280mm and a 360mm AIO. Our single-threaded check additionally reveals that the 13900KS boosted to six GHz continuously, whatever the cooler.
The chip reached 100C with each coolers throughout a collection of closely multi-threaded apps, like y-cruncher, Cinebench, Blender, and POV-Ray, simply as Intel designed it to do. The 360mm cooler config ran the identical 5.6 GHz all-core clock throughout heavy work because the 280mm setup, but it additionally consumed round 20-25W extra throughout some forms of work.
That 360mm’s extra cooling capability allows that additional little bit of energy consumption, however the ~7% to 9% enhance happens on the prime of the chips’ voltage frequency curve the place elevated energy consumption is extremely inefficient: As you close to peak energy, double-digit share will increase in energy consumption typically solely yield single-percentage efficiency features. Meaning this barely larger energy won’t make a lot distinction in precise benchmarks, which we’ll element under.
We additionally overclocked the chip by way of turbo multipliers to six GHz on two p-cores and 5.7 GHz when greater than two cores are energetic, whereas dialing in a 4.4 GHz all-core overclock on the e-cores. The chip solely required a 1.29V vCore to maintain these frequencies, indicating it’s a cherry chip. The overclocked config makes use of much less energy than inventory settings, exhibiting that the chips’ native energy administration is inefficient. As you may see under, the overclocked settings enabled way more efficiency than the inventory settings that consumed extra energy.
The chip barely pushed over 300W with commonplace purposes, however switching gears to the strenuous however not-at-all-realistic Prime95 stress check yielded a a lot larger peak energy consumption of 328W. Energy consumption leveled off after a brief interval, so it is doable a customized watercooling loop might enable the chip to devour extra for an extended time period. However, once more, this would possibly not end in very significant efficiency enhancements in real-world workloads — this chip is tuned to absolutely the prime of its voltage/frequency curve.
| Tom’s {Hardware} – Prime95 | Peak Energy | Common Energy |
| 13900KS, No Energy Restrict, 360mm AIO | 328W | 295W |
| 13900KS, Overclocked, 360mm AIO | 321W | 296W |
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There is not an enormous distinction in cooling capability between our 280mm and 360mm AIOs (we would see an even bigger distinction with a 240mm vs 360mm comparability). As you may see in our cumulative efficiency measurements above, the improved cooling would not end in a linear enchancment in efficiency in our gaming or utility benchmarks.
The advance in real-world gaming and productiveness purposes with the 360mm cooler was round 1%. As such, we used the check outcomes from our 280mm configuration for our gaming and productiveness benchmarks.
Our overclock gave us an additional 5% in 1080p gaming and 4% in threaded work, however bear in mind that the elevated reminiscence throughput (we used DDR5-6800 for the overclocked config) is an enormous contributor right here. Moreover, the overclocked vanilla 13900K trailed by just one% in video games and a couple of.5% in threaded apps. Additional tuning, or extra luck within the silicon lottery, might slim that hole.
Temperatures can restrict your efficiency throughout inventory operation, so if you buy the 13900KS, plan for a strong cooler to extract the total efficiency. We expect a 280mm AIO can be ample, however for those who’re chasing the final 1% of efficiency, a 360mm AIO will get you there.
Energy Consumption on Intel Core i9-13900KS
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These energy measurements present that the Core i9-13900KS will hardly ever attain its 320W energy restrict with commonplace purposes — there merely is not sufficient thermal headroom as a result of issue of dissipating this quantity of warmth from such a small space (thermal density).
Extra unique cooling, like customized water loops or sub-ambient, would possible enable the chip to tug extra energy inside its 100C thermal envelope, albeit for little sensible efficiency acquire.
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Right here we take a barely completely different take a look at energy consumption by calculating the cumulative vitality required to carry out x264 and x265 HandBrake workloads, respectively. We plot this ‘job vitality’ worth in Kilojoules on the left facet of the chart.
These workloads are comprised of a set quantity of labor, so we are able to plot the duty vitality in opposition to the time required to complete the job (backside axis), thus producing a very helpful energy chart.
Do not forget that quicker compute occasions, and decrease job vitality necessities, are superb. Meaning processors that fall the closest to the underside left nook of the chart are the very best.
The 13900KS sucks considerably extra energy than the 13900K in these assessments, however that does not ship a lot of a efficiency acquire — growing energy consumption when the chip is already close to the highest of the voltage/frequency curve is an extremely inefficient technique to acquire little or no additional efficiency.
Intel Core i9-13900KS Overclocking and Take a look at Setup
- Intel Core i9-13900KS @ 6.0-5.7: Turbo multiplier: Two cores at 6 GHz, 5.7 GHz all-p-core, 4.4 GHz e-core, 1.29V vCore, DDR5-6800 XMP 3.0
- Intel Core i9-13900K @ 5.6: 5.6 GHz all-core p-core, 4.4 GHz e-core, 1.32V vCore, DDR5-6800 XMP 3.0
We used DDR5 reminiscence with all chip testing on this article. Notably, for those who go for DDR4 with the Raptor Lake processors, you may lose a couple of share factors of efficiency, on common (testing right here). The overclocked Ryzen configs (marked as ‘PBO’ within the charts) use DDR5-6000 reminiscence, Precision Increase Overdrive, and a Scalar 10X setting.
We overclocked the Core i9-13900KS by way of turbo multipliers to six GHz on two p-cores and 5.7 GHz when greater than two cores are energetic, whereas dialing in a 4.4 GHz all-core overclock on the e-cores. The chip solely required a 1.29V vCore to maintain these frequencies. You possibly can see the warmth output from our stress assessments within the thermal part above.
We did not use Intel’s “Excessive Energy Profile” for our inventory Intel assessments; as a substitute, we’re sticking with our commonplace coverage of permitting the motherboard to exceed the really useful energy limits, supplied the chip stays inside warrantied working situations. This implies our energy settings exceed the ‘Excessive’ suggestions — virtually all enthusiast-class motherboards ignore the facility limits by default anyway. Therefore, our utterly eliminated energy limits mirror the out-of-box expertise. Naturally, these lifted energy limits equate to extra energy consumption and, thus, extra warmth.
Microsoft lately suggested avid gamers to disable a number of security measures to spice up gaming efficiency. As such, we disabled safe boot, virtualization assist, and fTPM/PTT for max efficiency. Yow will discover additional {hardware} particulars within the desk on the finish of the article.
Paying the Worth for 6GHz
The $699 Core i9-13900KS Particular Version is the quickest gaming chip on the planet with its record-setting 6 GHz peak turbo clock. Nonetheless, for all however excessive overclockers, collectors, and the well-heeled trying to construct the final word system at any price, the pricey chip’s comparatively small efficiency benefit over the vanilla 13900K is not definitely worth the $110 upcharge.
Beneath, we’ve got the geometric imply of our gaming check suite at 1080p and 1440p and a cumulative measure of efficiency in single- and multi-threaded purposes. We carried out our gaming assessments with an Nvidia RTX 4090, so efficiency deltas will shrink with lesser playing cards and better decision and constancy settings.
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Whereas the 13900KS is now the quickest gaming CPU cash should buy, it solely holds a slim 1.5% benefit over the usual 13900K in our 1080p gaming assessments. That delta shrinks to a mere 0.5% once we flip over to 1440p gaming, which means it’s primarily within the noise of the benchmarks. That definitely is not price paying ~20% extra.
We see the same development in multi-threaded workloads — the KS mannequin solely gives a slight 1% enchancment over the usual 13900K and primarily ties the Ryzen 9 7950X. We see a extra noticeable enchancment in single-threaded work in opposition to Ryzen, because the 13900KS is 14% quicker than the Ryzen 9 7950X. Nonetheless, the KS is barely 2% quicker than the usual 13900K, so the massive $110 upcharge is not definitely worth the slight efficiency lead.
The large attraction for the KS is that you just’re assured to get Intel’s greatest silicon, principally providing you with the successful ticket for the silicon lottery. That can undoubtedly make the chip common with excessive overclockers, particularly these chasing world information. Nonetheless, once more, the overclocking benefit can range, and we solely noticed a couple of share factors of distinction in our personal head-to-head overclocking in opposition to the usual 13900K.
Total, the KS mannequin would not make a lot of a distinction to the positioning of the Thirteenth-Gen processors in opposition to the Ryzen lineup, and it’ll solely be bought in restricted portions. Intel now permits pairing its client chips with ECC reminiscence on motherboards with the workstation-geared W680 chipset, so the Core i9-13900KS might make for a strong workstation machine. Nonetheless, it’ll nonetheless solely ship small features over the 13900K.
The Core i9-13900KS simply is not a sensible purchase for almost all of us, particularly contemplating that it’s going to want the priciest of lodging, just like the highest-end motherboard and PSU to pump 320W of energy to the processor and a potent cooler to deal with the 100C working temperatures when the chip is underneath heavy load. All of which is a excessive worth to pay for a couple of share factors (at greatest) of additional efficiency.
If you wish to put money into the quickest gaming chip, you must wait to see how AMD’s Ryzen 7000X3D chips carry out once they launch subsequent month. These chips include 3D V-Cache tech that supplied explosive gaming efficiency features for Zen 3, and it is doable that it might push Zen 4 right into a stable lead in gaming over Raptor Lake. Pricing stays the wild card, however we anticipate the high-end Ryzen 9 7950X3D to land in the identical vary because the 13900KS.
Within the meantime, the Core i9-13900KS represents Intel throwing worth and energy consumption out the window in an effort to retain the efficiency crown, significantly in gaming. Nonetheless, the Core i9-12900KS may enable Intel to cling to the title of getting the quickest gaming chip on the planet, a virtually priceless distinction for the Thirteenth-Gen Raptor Lake model. Make no mistake: the Particular Version Core i9-12900KS is the quickest desktop PC chip ever constructed. Not less than for now. Nonetheless, AMD’s Ryzen 7000X3D is quick approaching. Keep tuned.
| Intel Socket 1700 DDR5 (Z790) | Core i9-13900KS, i9-13900K, i7-13700K, i5-13600K |
| MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi | |
| G.Talent Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6800 – Inventory: DDR5-5600 | OC: XMP DDR5-6800 | |
| AMD Socket AM5 (X670E) | Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X |
| ASRock X670E Taichi | |
| G.Talent Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 – Inventory: DDR5-5200 | OC/PBO: DDR5-6000 | |
| AMD Socket AM4 (X570) | Ryzen 9 5950X, 5900X, 5700X, 5600X, 5800X3D |
| MSI MEG X570 Godlike | |
| 2x 8GB Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600 – Inventory: DDR4-3200 | OC/PBO: DDR4-3800 | |
| All Methods | Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC |
| Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 Eagle – ProViz purposes | |
| Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE – Software assessments | |
| 2TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus, Silverstone ST1100-TI, Open Benchtable, Arctic MX-4 TIM, Home windows 11 Professional | |
| Cooling | Corsair H115i, Corsair H150i |
| Overclocking be aware | All configurations with overclocked reminiscence even have tuned core frequencies and/or lifted energy limits. |
