Intel’s Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake Is 5% Faster Than Core i9-12900K Alder Lake on Average In Leaked Gaming Benchmarks
The Intel Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake CPU tested in the leaked benchmarks is a QS sample that features 24 cores and 32 threads in an 8 P-Core and 16 E-Core configuration. The CPU carries a total of 36 MB of L3 cache and 32 MB of L2 cache for a combined 68 MB of ‘Smart Cache. It also comes with a base (PL1) TDP of 125W & an MTP of around 250W. This chip is running around the same 3.0 GHz base and 5.5 GHz boost clocks that we saw in the previous benchmarks by the same leaker. The final chip is expected to hit single-core boost clocks of up to 5.7-5.8 GHz though that remains to be seen till the final variant makes it to the market. In terms of performance, we have more detailed gaming and synthetic benchmarks with the Intel Core i9-13900K (5.5 GHz) and Core i9-12900K (4.9 GHz) running at their stock frequencies on a Z690 platform with 32 GB of DDR5-6400 memory and a GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card. The Core i9-13900K already has a 12.2% clock speed advantage over the Core i9-12900K so it should be faster by default even if the architecture is the same. The extra uplift comes from the increased cache as it gets over a 50% bump (68 MB vs 44 MB). Intel Raptor Lake Core i9-13900K vs Alder Lake Core i9-12900K Synthetic Benchmarks (via Extreme Player): The gaming performance was tested in various titles at 2160p, 1440p, and 1080p resolutions. The average performance improvement seems to be around 5-10% across all three resolutions for the Intel Core i9-13900K Raptor Lake CPU versus its Core i9-12900K Alder Lake predecessors. There are only a few cases where the chip showed huge gains. The cache and higher clocks really seem to be benefitting the minimum frame rate with around 25-30% jumps in a few titles such as PUBG, Forza Horizon 5, and up to 70-80% gains in Red Dead Redemption 2. The same was the case with the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D which not only saw average performance go up with its extra 3D V-Cache but the minimum FPS numbers also went up quite a bit thanks to the increased cache. Notably, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D offered a much bigger cache size compared to the Raptor Lake cache bump (vs Alder Lake CPUs). Intel Raptor Lake Core i9-13900K vs Alder Lake Core i9-12900K Gaming Benchmarks (via Extreme Player): Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K Full Gaming Benchmark Performance Breakdown: One interesting comparison that has been made is the power consumption figures where the Intel Core i9-13900K consumes up to 52% higher in games than the Core i9-12900K and an average of 20% higher power consumption across all three resolutions tested. This means that the next-gen Raptor Lake CPU lineup is going to be more power-hungry than Alder Lake, even in games. The breakdown of average FPS at each resolution is as follows:
Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1080p: 4.22% Faster Performance on Average Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1440p: 6.97% Faster Performance on Average Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 2160p: 3.30% Faster Performance on Average Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K All Res Avg - 4.83% Faster
As for the minimum FPS, the breakdown at each resolution is as below:
Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1080p: 27.93% Faster Minimum FPS Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1440p: 21.83% Faster Minimum FPS Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 2160p: 12.82% Faster Minimum FPS Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K All Res Min Avg: 20.86% Faster
And finally, we have the maximum FPS breakdown for each resolution as listed below:
Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1080p: 6.29% Faster Maximum FPS Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1440p: 4.42% Faster Maximum FPS Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 2160p: 2.58% Faster Maximum FPS Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K All Res Max Avg: 4.43% Faster
Following are all of these results as compiled by @Harukaze5719: Breaking down the power consumption figures for each resolution tested, we get the following results for the Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K:
Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1080p: 19.1% Higher Power Consumption Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1440p: 19.8% Higher Power Consumption Intel Core i9-13900K vs Core i9-12900K at 1440p: 26.2% Higher Power Consumption
Intel Raptor Lake Core i9-13900K vs Alder Lake Core i9-12900K Power Consumption (via Extreme Player):
Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake-S & 13th Gen Raptor Lake-S Desktop CPU Comparison (Preliminary):
The Intel Core i9-13900K delivered around 10% faster single-threaded and 35% faster multi-thread performance on average versus the Core i9-12900K in the previously leaked benchmarks. Overall, it looks like the CPU will be faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X in workload-specific tasks while being on par in gaming benchmarks. But with AMD releasing its Ryzen 7000 3D V-Cache chips based on the same Zen 4 core architecture later this year, Intel’s gaming crown, if they manage to grab it from Zen 4, will be short-lived. The Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake Desktop CPUs including the flagship Core i9-13900K is expected to launch in October on the Z790 platform. The CPUs will be going up against AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPU lineup which also launches in Fall 2022.
