The Intel Core i9-13900KS Review: Taking Intel's Raptor Lake to 6 GHz
by Gavin Bonshor on January 27, 2023 10:00 AM ESTGaming Performance: 720p And Lower
The reason we test games in CPU reviews at lower resolutions such as 720p and below is simple; titles are more likely to be CPU bound than they are GPU bound at lower resolutions. This means there are more frames for the processor to process as opposed to the graphics card doing the majority of the heavy lifting.
There are some variances where some games will still use graphical power, but not as much CPU grunt at these smaller resolutions, and this is where we can show where CPU limitations lie in terms of gaming.
We are using DDR5 memory on the 12th and 13th Gen Core parts, as well as the Ryzen 7000 series, at the following settings:
- DDR5-5600B CL46 - Intel 13th Gen
- DDR5-5200 CL44 - Ryzen 7000
- DDR5-4800 (B) CL40 - Intel 12th Gen
All other CPUs such as Ryzen 5000 and 3000 were tested at the relevant JEDEC settings as per the processor's individual memory support with DDR4.
Civilization VI
World of Tanks
Borderlands 3
Grand Theft Auto V
Red Dead Redemption 2
F1 2022
Hitman 3
Total War: Warhammer 3
When it comes to raw processor performance in gaming, lower resolutions showcase the ability best of all. In the case of the Core i9-13900KS and Core i9-13900K, both processes, as expected, are very competitive against each other. Sometimes, the higher-clocked KS SKU comes out on top, and sometimes it doesn't.
There can be some weight put on the fact in some cases, the Core i9-13900KS hits thermal limits much more easily, even with a premium 360mm CLC cooler that we are using. In World of Tanks at 768p, the Core i9-13900KS bridges the gap to the fast yet older Core i9-12900KS, which seems to benefit from a mixture of IPC, core frequency, and core count.
Looking at our Borderlands 3 results at 360p, the Core i9-13900KS plows through the test with flying colors, although the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and its 96 MB of 3D V-Cache make it competitive. This is relevant as AMD plans to release the updated Ryzen 7000 X3D SKUs very soon.
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Slash3 - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
They won't, but for a practical reason. It's an always online, frequently updated game, and test data would only be relevant for a single, back to back comparison between parts. No way to accurately compare to previous test results.Peskarik - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
Exactly!Please add Microsoft Flight Simulator, Anandtech!!!
dontlistentome - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
There was a screenshot floating around not too long ago (from Anandtech iirc) showing why not - the activation process is a nightmare if you try to flip it between machines for testing. The want to use it, MS stand in the way.scottrichardson - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
I know this is primarily a PC/Windows oriented review but I would have loved to have seen the M2 pro/max included in here. I know that it would have been smoked in most of these benchmarks, especially multi-core, but it would still be interesting to see the power usage and relative performance. Whether we want it or not, there’s a 3rd player in the CPU game now!dontlistentome - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
There's a 3rd player taking part, but in a different game. If it can't run the same software or platform, it's irrelevant other than for comparing instruction sets.Tunnah - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
1/3rd more power for single digit performance increase, how very Intel.Peskarik - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 wins for me.Carmen00 - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
10-20Mhz extra on average, for the "Favoured Cores" only, and for an additional $110 and 25W more. I know there are plenty of Greater Fools in the tech space, but surely there is a limit to how much even they will tolerate?albie_ - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
"The peak power figures from our power testing show that the Core i9-13900K drew an impressive 359.9 W at full load."I'm dumbfounded by this statement. Is this supposed to be selling point and good to have? What sort of tech journalist are you?
Ryan Smith - Saturday, January 28, 2023 - link
"What sort of tech journalist are you?"The sarcastic kind.
That statement was fully tongue in cheek. Intel made a consumer desktop chip that draws 360 Watts. It's all a bit silly, innit?