Intel Core i5-13600K Review: Is It Worth It?

Intel has successfully launched the Raptor Lake series desktop processors, termed as 13th generation. The Core i5-13600K is among the options put forward to the users. Intel is continuing the hybrid architecture design introduced with the Alder Lake but with further refinements and advancements. Intel has introduced new “Raptor Cove” cores in the new desktop processors, which have larger cache sizes, higher IPC than the Alder Lake, and high clock speeds. Intel is expected to release some 22 variants in this generation.

About I5-13600k Technology

Intel has introduced up to a +600MHz boost in the high-end offer of Core i9 13900k, making it the fastest desktop processor. This is not it, as we are seeing a +200MHz boost for Core i5-13600K and a +400MHz boost for Core i7 13700k CPUs. Intel has introduced new performance cores dubbed “Raptor Cove” cores. There is a 2MB cache per core with an L2P advanced algorithm for prefetching.

Intel has managed to up the V/F curve with some fine tuning to go with a 50 mV reduction in iso-frequency and over 200 MHz iso-voltage.

This contributes to some nice gains in the turbo boost. Intel has mentioned that a single-threaded performance gain on the new desktop CPUs is 15% [when comparing the i9 13900k with the i9 12900k]. This would mean the IPC uplift coming from the new platform.

Intel has upped the size of the E-Cores on the Raptor Lake CPUs. The Core i5-13600K has a total of 8 E-Cores. The Core i5 12600k has 4 E-Cores. The clock speeds have been fine-tuned as well, with Core i9 13900k E-Cores reaching up to 4.3GHz, whereas the Core i5-13600K E-Cores are rated for up to 3.9GHz.

The E-Cores are essentially the same “Gracemont” that we saw on Alder Lake. However, Intel has increased the core count in addition to higher clock speeds compared to Alder Lake. At the same time, the L2 cache is doubled from Alder Lake to Raptor Lake. It seems like Intel has grouped the E-Cores with each group called a cluster and a cluster sharing an L2 cache among the cores.

Intel has also focused on the Memory side. The Raptor Lake CPUs can now support DDR5 speeds of up to 5600MHz. The compute fabric is also made faster by up to 900MHz. The L3 cache size is now 36MB for the Core i9 series CPUs. This is 30MB for the Core i7 CPUs and 24MB for the Core i5 CPUs. The new Dynamic INI (inclusive/non-inclusive) architecture in the Raptor Lake allows the sub-components to reserve portions of the L3 cache.

This would improve the reliability of the operations with reduced cache misses. The new CPUs support dual-channel DDR5 and DDR4 memory. There are 2x 64-bit channels for DDR4 and 4x 32-bit channels for DDR5. The DDR5 support is now at 5600MT/s, and the DDR4 support is 3200MT/s.

Intel has also worked on the software side to bring out balanced and enhanced performance from all perspectives.

Intel Thread Director has been further fine-tuned. The Microsoft Windows 11 22H2 can now optimize the processing of background services which is where the E-Cores will be handy.

The above picture shows the initially announced SKUs in the Raptor Lake desktop CPUs.

The above picture summarizes the key features of the new series. The series is based on Intel 7 Process technology. Intel has focused on the PCIe Gen 5 connectivity as well as Gen 4. The new platform has more Gen 4 base PCIe lanes for the chipset and increased USB connectivity.

The CPUs offer 16x PCIe Gen 5 lanes. Let us not forget that Intel is still providing platform support for the DDR4, and this is where the Intel 12th and 13th generation platforms have gained popularity, as the general price trend of DDR5 kits is still on the higher side.

The new CPUs now support DDR4 up to 3200MHz or MT/s. We have Intel Turbo Boost, Thermal Velocity Boost, and Adaptive Boost technologies to gain every possible performance benefit that the silicon can provide, subject to the conditions.

This generation is built on the same socket which we saw on the Alder Lake, i.e., LGA1700. The new desktop processors are compatible with the 600 series chipsets though Intel has released a new chipset series for this generation. The new Z790 is a high-end, enthusiast-class chipset offering. The partner motherboard manufacturers have released a plethora of motherboards in the new series. The good news is that the Alder Lake users can use the 13th gen CPUs on the 600 series motherboards using a BIOS update. This is because the new CPUs support the same I/O package, PCIe slots wiring to the socket, and downward connectivity to the chipset.

Product	Core i5-13600K
Manufacturer	Intel
Price	$320 (At the time of review)
Motherboard Support	The BEST Motherboards For i5-13600K
Cooler Support	Best CPU Coolers For i5-13600K [Top Rated]
RAM Support	Best RAM For Core i5-13600K: DDR4 & DDR5

This time, we are testing the Core i5-13600K. The processor has 6 P-Cores and 8 E-Cores. Since hyper-threading is enabled on this CPU, hence we have a thread count of 12 for the P-Cores. There is no multi-threading on the E-Cores. This would effectively make the thread count 20 on this SKU. The base clock of P-Cores is 3.50GHz, and that of E-Cores is 2.60GHz. The Max Turbo Frequency is 5.1GHz overall for the P-Cores. The max turbo frequency for the E-Cores is 3.9GHz. The total L2 cache is 20MB, and that of the L3 cache is 24 MB. The processor’s power at base clocks is 125W, whereas it is 181W on the max turbo frequency.

This SKU uses Intel UDH 770 GPU and has a base clock of 300MHz with a boost clock of 1.5GHz. It comprises 32 processing units. The maximum supported resolution using HDMI is 4096×2160 @60Hz. The output resolution on DP is 7680×[email protected]. It supports Intel Quick Sync Video and Clear Video HD technology with maximum support of up to 4x displays.

The SKU uses 8 DMI lanes based on DMI 4.0 revision. The PCIe lanes count is 20, with up to 16 lanes for the graphics card and four lanes for the supported NVMe SSD. The SKU supports PCIe Gen 4.0 and 5.0. The thermal junction is still at 100°C. The “Raptor Lake” die measures 23.8 mm x 11.8 mm (257 mm² die-area).

Specifications

General Specs

• Architecture: Raptor Lake
• Socket Supported: FCLGA1700
• Codename: Products formerly Raptor Lake
• Lithography: Intel 7
• Total Cores: 14
• No. of Performance-cores: 6
• No. of Efficient-cores: 8
• Total Threads: 20
• Performance-core Base Frequency: 3.50 GHz
• Efficient-core Base Frequency: 2.60 GHz
• Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency: 5.10 GHz
• Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency: 3.90 GHz
• Max Turbo Frequency: 5.10 GHz
• Cache: 24 MB Intel® Smart Cache
• Total L2 Cache: 20 MB
• Die Size: 257 mm²
• Instruction Set: 64-bit
• Instruction Set Extensions: Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2
• Intel® Gaussian & Neural Accelerator: 3.0
• Maximum Junction Temperature: 100°C
• Processor Base Power 125 W
• Maximum Turbo Power 181 W
• Direct Media Interface (DMI) Revision: 4.0
• Total no. of DMI Lanes: 8
• Scalability: 1S Only
• PCI Express Revision:  5.0 and 4.0
• PCI Express Configurations: Up to 1×16+4, 2×8+4
• Maximum no. of PCI Express Lanes: 20

Memory Specs

• Supported type: Both DDR5 and DDR4
• Max Memory Size: 128 GB (May vary with memory type)
• Memory Speed:
  • Up to DDR5 5600 MT/s
  • Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s
• Total no. of Memory Channels 2
• Maximum Memory Bandwidth: 89.6 GB/s
• ECC Memory Supported: Yes

Integrated Graphics

• Integrated Graphics: Yes
• Graphics Model: Intel® UHD Graphics 770
• Execution Units: 32
• GPU Base clock: 300 MHz
• GPU Max Dynamic clock: 1.50 GHz
• Multi-Format Codec Engines: 2
• Total no. of Displays Supported: 4
• DirectX* Support: 12
• Graphics Output: eDP 1.4b, DP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1
• Max Resolution (HDMI): 4096 x 2160 @ 60Hz
• Max Resolution (DP): 7680 x 4320 @ 60Hz
• Max Resolution (eDP – Integrated Flat Panel): 5120 x 3200 @ 120Hz

Packing and Unboxing

The CPU is shipped inside the blue color-themed paperboard packing box.

We can spot the IHS of the CPU over here. There is no cooling solution provided with the K/KF series CPUs and i5-13600K is no exception to that.

The above picture shows the CPU itself. We have two notches on the top and two on the bottom with an arrow marking on the bottom left corner. These are your hints when installing the cooler in the socket.

The above picture shows the backside of the CPU.

The above picture shows the CPU-Z run from the system. Our sample was boosted to 5.4GHz out of the box.

Testing

Following is the configuration of the test benches that have been used for this content.

Intel Z790

• Intel i5-13600K [Stock, Auto]
• GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX
• XPG Lancer RGB 32GB 6000MHz Kit
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVMe SSD
• MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio
• AlphaCool Custom Loop Setup using 1260mm Radiator with 9x 140mm Fans
• be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W Platinum
• Praxis Wetbench

AMD X670E

• AMD Ryzen 7 700X [Stock, Auto]
• GIGABYTE X670E AORUS MASTER
• XPG Lancer RGB 32GB 6000MHz Kit
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVMe SSD for data and OS
• Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD for Games
• MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio
• DeepCool LS720 AIO
• be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W Platinum
• Praxis Wetbench

Intel Z690

• Intel i7 12700k [Stock, Auto]
• GIGABYTE Z690 AERO G
• XPG Lancer RGB 32GB 6000MHz Kit
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB NVMe SSD
• MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio
• DeepCool LS720 AIO
• be quiet! Straight Power 11 1000W Platinum
• Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open-frame layout

 Intel Z390

• Intel i5 9600k
• Ballistix Elite 16GB @ 3000MHz
• Asus Strix Z390-E Gaming Motherboard
• Asus Ryujin 360 CPU Cooler
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• HyperX 120GB SSD
• Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD
• Thermaltake ToughPower RGB 750 Gold-rated PSU

 Intel Z390

• Intel i9 9900k
• Ballistix Elite 16GB @ 3000MHz
• Asus Strix Z390-E Gaming Motherboard
• EK-AIO 240 D-RGB CPU Cooler
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• Lexar 250GB NVMe SSD
• Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD
• CORSAIR AX1200i PSU

Intel Z370

• Intel i7 8700k
• Ballistix Elite 16GB @ 3000MHz
• Gigabyte Ultra Durable Z370-HD3
• Asus Ryujin 360 CPU Cooler
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• HyperX 120GB SSD
• Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD
• Thermaltake ToughPower RGB 750 Gold-rated PSU

Intel Z490

• Intel i7 10700k
• Ballistix Elite 16GB @ 3000MHz
• EK-AIO 240 D-RGB
• MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• Addlink S70 256GB NVMe SSD
• Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD
• CORSAIR AX1200i

 AMD X470

• AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• Ballistix Elite 16GB @ 3000MHz
• Asus Ryujin 360 CPU Cooler
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• HyperX 120GB SSD
• Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD
• Antec HCP1300 PSU

AMD X570

• AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• Ballistix Elite 16GB @ 3000MHz
• Asus Ryujin 360 CPU Cooler
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 FE
• HyperX 120GB SSD
• Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD
• Antec HCP1300 PSU

Special Note To Thank Our Sponsors: AMD, ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, Sabrent, DeepCool, be quiet!, and ANTEC.

Methodology

The following was ensured for each test:

• Each test is done on the Auto and Stock settings.
• Default tweaking/performance enhancement options are disabled in the BIOS.
• XMP is loaded for each test. DRAM timings and Voltage are set manually.
• All other voltages are left at Auto.
• The pump and fans of the cooling solution are set to run at 100% during the testing.
• Games are benched on the stock clocks.
• The overclocking results of the processor under discussion are shown.
• The Graphics card is not overclocked.
• The motherboards’ BIOS is updated to their latest.
• Nvidia’s driver 517.48 is used.
• HWinfo64 is used to monitor the sensors.
• Each game was tested on maxed setting using the built-in benchmark utility where available, and the MSI After Burner was used to record the FPS from the actual gameplay.

The following test suite has been used for the testing:

• AIDA64 Engineer
• CPU Profile
• Performance Test (for CPU and Memory)
• PCMark 10
• 7-Zip
• Blender Benchmark (BMW27, Classroom)
• FryBench FryRender
• Corona
• Indigo Benchmark
• V-Ray
• POV-Ray
• Cinebench R23
• Geekbench 5.0
• X264 HD 5.0 Benchmark
• X265 HD 1.4 Benchmark
• Kraken
• Octane
• Web XPRT 4
• Fritz Chess
• Super-PI

Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks:

• FireStrike
• TimeSpy

Games:

• Assassin’s Creed Origins [DX11, Ultra High]
• Far Cry 5 [DX11, Ultra]
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider [DX12, Highest]
• DOOM Eternal [Vulkan, Ultra Nightmare]
• Metro Exodus [DX12, Ultra]
• Battlefield V [DX11, Ultra]
• Red Dead Redemption 2 [Vulkan, Ultra]
• CONTROL [DX12, High]
• CYBERPUNK [DX12, Ultra]
• The Witcher 3, The Wild Hunt [DX11, Ultra with Hair works off]

We have also tested the following games, but the results will be provided in the next CPU contents since there is no comparison available at present.

• Far Cry 6
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• DeathLoop
• Forza Horizon 5

Let’s start with the results.

The testing was done on Microsoft Windows 11 x64 version 22H2.

General Tests

7-Zip

7-Zip is free software with open source. Most of the code is under the GNU LGPL license. Some parts of the code are under the BSD 3-clause License. 7-Zip has a high compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression with supported formats of Packing/unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, and WIM and unpacking only: AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VMDK, WIM, XAR and Z.

For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip This software has a built-in benchmark which tests the performance of the given CPU by compressing and decompressing the load. The results are in MIPS, and a higher count is preferable.

The i5-13600K is showing impressive performance compared to the i7 12700k and Ryzen 7 7700X.

AIDA64

AIDA64 Engineer has a hardware detection engine unrivaled in its class. It provides detailed information about installed software and offers diagnostic functions and support for overclocking.

As it monitors sensors in real time, it can gather accurate voltage, temperature, and fan speed readings, while its diagnostic functions help detect and prevent hardware issues. It also offers a couple of benchmarks for measuring either the performance of individual hardware components or the whole system.

The following built-in benchmarks were run in this software:

• CPU AES
• CPU Queen
• Memory

CPU AES

This integer benchmark measures CPU performance using AES (a.k.a. Rijndael) data encryption. It utilizes Vincent Rijmen, Antoon Bosselaers, and Paulo Barreto’s public domain C code in ECB mode.

CPU AES test uses only the basic x86 instructions, and it is hardware accelerated on VIA PadLock Security Engine capable VIA C3, VIA C7, VIA Nano, and VIA QuadCore processors; and on Intel AES-NI instruction set extension capable processors. The test consumes 48 MB of memory, and it is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP), and multi-core (CMP) aware.

CPU Queen

This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10×10-sized chessboard.

The Ryzen 7 7700X is thriving the results in both tests. Intel i5-13600K is managing a fine closure over the i7 12700k.

Memory

This test measures the system memory’s read, write and copy speeds as well as the latency.

The Intel i7 12700k has a solid performance when it comes to memory operations. i5-13600K is sitting in closer proximity, though.

Impressive performance again. In fact, in the DDR5 test benches, the lowest time comes from this test bench powered by i5-13600K.

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is the latest version in the series of industry-standard PC benchmarks. PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With express, extended, and custom run options to suit your needs, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office.

It is the ideal test for organizations that are evaluating PCs for a workforce with a range of performance needs. The tests in this benchmark cover a wide range of activities, from everyday productivity tasks to demanding work with digital media content.

The i5-13600K is sitting between the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Intel i7 12700k.

Performance Test

PassMark PerformanceTest allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers. We have used only CPU and Memory benchmarks.

The i5-13600K has shown an impressive performance in this testing.

Super-PI

Super PI is a single-threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. It uses the Gauss-Legendre algorithm and is a Windows port of a program used by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 to compute pi to 232 digits.

The reported results are converted into seconds from minutes and seconds. i5-13600K has a marginal lead over the Ryzen 7 7700X.

wPrime

wPrime uses a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions, with f(x)=x2-k, where k is the number we’re sorting until Sgn(f(x)/f'(x)) does not equal that of the previous iteration, starting with an estimation of k/2. It then uses an iterative calling of the estimation method a set amount of times to increase the accuracy of the results. It then confirms that n(k)2=k to ensure the calculation was correct. It repeats this for all numbers from 1 to the requested maximum. Each thread is designed to do 1/n of the work, where n is the number of threads.

We have used the 1024M calculation. The reported time is in seconds. Please, take note that you would need to set the thread count manually. For i5 9600k, it was set to 6. For i7 8700k, it was set to 12. For Ryzen 7 2700X, it was set to 16, and for Ryzen 5 3600, it was set to 12. Without setting the proper thread count, the results would not be comparable.

We encountered an issue with the Intel i5-13600K, probably due to its hybrid architecture. 

Fritz Chess

Fritz Chess benchmark tests the CPU performance in terms of as many chess board positions as possible. It uses the Deep Fritz 12 engine.

CPU Profile

The 3DMark CPU Profile introduces a new approach to CPU benchmarking. Instead of producing a single number, the 3DMark CPU Profile shows how CPU performance scales and changes with the number of cores and threads used. The CPU Profile has six tests, each of which uses a different number of threads. The benchmark starts by using all available threads. It then repeats using 16 threads, 8 threads, 4 threads, 2 threads, and ends with a single-threaded test. These six tests help you benchmark and compare CPU performance for a range of threading levels. They also provide a better way to compare different CPU models by looking at the results from thread levels they have in common.

Vera-Crypt

Rendering Tests

We have run multiple rendering tests for evaluation. The results of these tests are mostly the rendering time and frames per second unless stated otherwise. Lower time and higher FPS are what we are looking for.

Blender

We have used the blender benchmark app for this purpose in addition to rendering the BMW27 scenario in the main Blender software. The Blender Benchmark will compute performance for CUDA, OpenCL, and CPU, along with GPU performance. Blender Benchmark is a new platform to collect and display the results of hardware and software performance tests. Blender is a free and open-source 3D creation suite.

It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, and even video editing and game creation. For the purpose of this testing, the quick run method was used in the Blender Benchmark. BMW27 and Classroom rendering scenes have been used.

The Intel i5-13600K is taking the lead in the Classroom render, whereas the performance is almost at par with the i7 12700k in the BMW 27 render.

Corona

Corona is another simple-to-use rendering benchmark. It starts benching as soon as the software is run. It reports the results in the rendering time and rays per second.

Impressive performance from i5-13600K.

FryBench

Frybench is a multi-core CPU benchmark based on fryrender. fryrender is a physically-based light simulator developed by RandomControl, a Spanish company located in Madrid. fryrender is a photo-realistic render engine where all elements involved in the generation of the final image (materials, lights, and cameras) are based on physically accurate models.

V-Ray

V-Ray Benchmark is a free stand-alone application to help you test how fast your hardware renders. The benchmark includes two test scenes, one for GPUs and another for CPUs, depending on the processor type you’d like to measure.

POV-Ray

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a ray tracing program that generates images from a text-based scene description and is available for a variety of computer platforms. It was originally based on DKBTrace, written by David Kirk Buck and Aaron A. Collins for the Amiga computers. There are also influences from the earlier Polyray[6] raytracer contributed by its author Alexander Enzmann. POV-Ray is free and open-source software with the source code available under AGPLv3.

The result is in the points per second format; the higher, the better.

Indigo

Indigo Renderer is an unbiased, photorealistic GPU and CPU renderer aimed at ultimate image quality by accurately simulating the physics of light. State-of-the-art rendering performance, materials, and camera models – it’s all made simple through an interactive, photographic approach with few abstract settings, letting you concentrate on lighting and composing your imagery.

The result is in M Samples/sec; the higher, the better.

Cinebench R23

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates a computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus, and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X). R23 is the latest version and includes the AVX load as well.

The Intel i5-13600K is rocking the graph with good scores in the multi-core and single-threaded tests.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench 5 measures your system’s power and tells you whether your computer is ready to roar. How strong is your mobile device or desktop computer? How will it perform when push comes to crunch? These are the questions that Geekbench can answer. In Geekbench, the result is in the form of Single Core and Multi-Core performance.

We are seeing a similar trend as in the Cinebench R23.

Transcoding

We have used X264 HD and X265 HD Benchmarks to measure the transcoding performance of the CPU.

X264 HD Benchmark

x264 HD Benchmark is a benchmark that allows you to measure how fast your PC can encode a 1080p video clip into a high-quality x264 video file. It allows for easy comparison because everyone running it will use the same video clip and software. The x264 video encoder has a fairly accurate internal benchmark (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encode, and it also uses multi-core processors very efficiently. All these factors make the x264 HD Benchmark an ideal tool for comparing the video encoding performance of different processors and systems.

The reported result is in FPS. It is calculated by summing up the FPS count on each run of each pass and dividing it by 4, as there are four runs per pass. The average result is what is reported on the graph. A Higher FPS count means better performance.

X265 HD Benchmark

The result is reported in terms of frame per second and encoding time.

Web-based Benchmarks

Just to give an idea of how the CPUs impact general web browsing, we ran a few benchmarks.

Kraken

Kraken is a JavaScript performance benchmark created by Mozilla that measures the speed of several different test cases extracted from real-world applications and libraries.

Processing time is reported in seconds; lower is better. Ryzen 7 7700X packs a solid performance.

Octane

Octane 2.0 is a benchmark that measures a JavaScript engine’s performance by running a suite of tests representative of certain use cases in JavaScript applications. Please note that Octane is retired and no longer maintained. We have used it to give an idea of the performance only.

Ryzen 7 7700X packs a solid performance.

WebXPRT 4

WebXPRT 4 is a browser benchmark that compares the performance of almost any web-enabled device. It contains HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly-based scenarios created to mirror the tasks you do every day: Photo Enhancement, Organize Album Using AI, Stock Option Pricing, Encrypt Notes and OCR Scan using WASM, Sales Graphs, and Online Homework. Use WebXPRT to see exactly how well different devices handle real-world tasks.

Ryzen 7 7700X packs a solid performance.

In the web-based tests, the i5-13600K has managed a fine closure over the i7 12700k, but the 7700X’s performance is untapped.

Gaming Benchmarks

Let’s start with the synthetic benchmarks. For this purpose, We have used 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy benchmarks.

Fire Strike

Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark for modern gaming PCs. Its ambitious real-time graphics are rendered with detail and complexity far beyond other DirectX 11 benchmarks and games. Fire Strike includes two graphics tests, a physics test, and a combined test that stresses the CPU and GPU.

We have included the CPU score only to showcase the result coming from the CPU only and not the graphics card. The Intel i5-13600K is the topper here.

Time Spy

3DMark Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built the right way from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous computing, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.

We have included the CPU score only to showcase the result coming from the CPU only and not the graphics card. We have quite a difference between both CPUs in DX12.

We have tested the games on 1080P and 1440P resolutions. The 2160P was dropped as we know that the higher resolutions are less CPU demanding than the lower resolutions.

1080P Gaming Performance

Except in a few titles, where the i5-13600K has a good performance gain, the other titles have shown the performance compared with the i7 12700k.

1440P Gaming Performance

Almost a similar result here as well.

Frequency

The Intel i5-13600K has a base clock of 3.50GHz and 2.60GHz for the P-Cores and E-Cores, respectively. The turbo frequency is 5.1GHz for the P-Cores and 3.9GHz for the E-Cores. Please, keep in mind that this turbo frequency is for a single core only, depending upon the load type, and there is a multitude of variables that could affect this turbo frequency. For example, the thermal headroom, power limit, cooling solution, thermal paste application, how good a motherboard is, etc.

Our unit was boosting to 5.1GHz (P-Cores) and (3.9GHz E-Cores) out of the box. This is not it. The CPU actually maintained these clocks under multi-core and single-core loads using Blender, and Cinebench R23 runs.

Thermals And Power

We have tested the Intel i5-13600K on the GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard with the latest BIOS update. This is not a high-end motherboard, but it still packs enough juice for the i5 and i7 CPUs. From the cooling perspective, we have set up a custom loop on the test bench when the CPU arrives for testing. The setup consists of:

• AlphaCool Eisblock XPX AURORA PRO Digital RGB – Full Brass
• AlphaCool Eisbecher AURORA with Apex VPP Pump
• AlphaCool NexXxos XT45 Full Copper SuperNova 1260mm Radiator
• AlphaCool Black Tube 16/10mm
• AlphaCool Straight Compression Fittings 16/10
• AlphaCool 45/90° Rotary Adapters
• AlphaCool Quick-Disconnect Fittings
• AlphaCool Clear Coolant
• 9x be quiet! Silent Wings 4 140mm PWM High-Speed Fans

The thermal paste used is AlphaCool SubZero, with a thermal conductivity rating of 16W-mK. In that, we have covered three aspects:

• Adequate Motherboard
• Powerful Cooling
• A high-grade thermal paste

We left the system idle for like 30 minutes and used HWInfo64 to monitor the thermals and power usage.

As can be seen in the above picture, the minimum package temperature was 30°C at an ambient of 21.5°C, and the package power was 3.397W. The minimum frequency was 0.80GHz on any core during idling. The overall stats are good. Please keep in mind that this is a hybrid architecture. If you take the Core Temperature sensor into consideration, then the idling is at 23°C.

Next, we run a Cinebench R23 30-minute run on the CPU and monitor the stats using the HWInfo64.

The temperature under load was 76°C. The power draw on the CPU package was 179.449W. This is within the stated 181W for turbo frequency operation. All P-Cores were operating at 5.1GHz continuously, and all E-Cores were at 3.9GHz continuously. This is an impressive performance.

We also monitored the power usage on the single-core load using Cinebench R23. The CPU was drawing roughly 33.886W, which is very good when compared to the Intel i7 12700k and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. Please note that single-core load does not use E-Cores on the Intel hybrid architecture (in Windows 11).

The above graph shows the power consumption on the single-threaded load from the Cinebench R23.

Contribution from E-Cores

We received an interesting query what is the contribution of E-Cores to the total performance? We decided to disable the E-Cores and run the Cinebench R23 to check the performance hit, if any. Here is the result:

Setting	VCore (V)	Package Power (W)	Package Temperature  (°C)	Cinebench R23 Multi-Core Score	Cinebench R23 Single-Core Score
Stock [With P-Cores and E-Cores]	1.308	179.449	76	24454	2009
E-Cores Disabled	1.236	138.309	69	16126	1993

 

We observed approximately 34% performance hit in the multi-core load and 0.8% performance hit in the single-core load. The single-core difference is highly marginal and can be ignored as such, but the 34% hit with disabled E-Cores is making a good point on how much these cores contribute.

Overclocking

We started with P-Cores at 5.2GHz and E-Cores at 4.0GHz. For each change, we have tested the Cinebench R23 to see if there is any performance hit or gain. This was then tested further using games and other loads for stability. We settled at P-Cores at 5.6GHz and E-Cores at 4.4GHz. This is a good overclock on this CPU. The Vcore was set at approximately 1.330V.

The above picture shows the performance gain from these overclocks in the Cinebench R23. We saw a performance gain of approximately 9.69%.

The CPU was drawing 192W package power approximately, and the temperature was 81°C. Please remember we are using a custom loop setup with a massive-size radiator. The results with the regular AIO or air cooler would be different, and you might actually go into thermal throttling with this overclock on a regular cooler. Any attempt to further increase the clocks was met with failures. Seems like we hit the silicon limit!

Conclusion

Intel is continuing the hybrid architecture with the release of 13th gen Raptor Lake series desktop CPUs. The new generation is using “Raptor Cove” based P-Cores (Performance Cores), which is a key difference over the Alder-Lake series CPUs. This time around, Intel has increased the number of E-Cores or efficiency cores though the E-Cores are still based on the same design, Gracemont, as is in the Alder Lake series. But Intel has upped the clock speeds and, among other differences, upped the size of the L2 cache. Plus, the new E-Cores are now grouped in what Intel calls Cluster, with each cluster sharing upped-sized L2 cache from 2MB to 4MB.

Intel has upped the clock speeds on the P-Cores in quite a good manner, with up to a +600MHz boost for the core i9 SKUs. The core i5 SKUs are getting a bump of over 200MHz boost, whereas the core i7 SKUs are over a +400MHz boost. The new “Raptor Cove” cores have a 2MB per core L2 cache with the advanced prefetching algorithm. Intel has clearly focused on the hardware and software side of the new platform.  Intel has mentioned that a single-threaded performance gain on the new desktop CPUs is 15% [when compared to i9 13900k with i9 12900k]. This would mean the IPC uplift coming from the new platform.

Speaking of memory advancement, the new platform has support for both DDR5 and DDR4, which is good news for the blue campers since the platform cost has now a major consideration coming from the DDR type. Intel has also released a new 700 series chipset, and motherboard manufacturers have released a plethora of boards in this series. This is not all. Intel has given compatibility for the 600 and 700 series motherboards for 12th and 13th gen CPUs. This would mean you can use the 13th gen CPU on the 600 series motherboard via a BIOS update and can also use 12th gen CPU on the new 700 series. This is because both platforms use the same LGA1700 socket, and the main wiring/layout of the socket to PCIe/NVMe and chipset is the same.

This, when combined with the good performance gain and better pricing has actually given Intel an upper hand over the competition.

Intel has also focused on the Memory side. The Raptor Lake CPUs can now support DDR5 speeds of up to 5600MHz. The compute fabric is also made faster by up to 900MHz. The L3 cache size is now 36MB for the Core i9 series CPUs. This is 30MB for the Core i7 CPUs and 24MB for the Core i5 CPUs. The new Dynamic INI (inclusive/non-inclusive) architecture in the Raptor Lake allows the sub-components to reserve portions of the L3 cache. This would improve the reliability of the operations with reduced cache misses. The new CPUs support dual-channel DDR5 and DDR4 memory. There are 2x 64-bit channels for DDR4 and 4x 32-bit channels for DDR5. The DDR5 support is now at 5600MT/s, and the DDR4 support is 3200MT/s.

We have taken a spin on the core i5-13600K. This CPU has 6 P-Cores with 12 threads and 8 E-cores. The count of E-Cores is doubled compared to the core i5 12600k. The P-Cores have a base clock of 3.50GHz with a turbo boost clock of 5.1GHz. The E-Cores have a base clock of 2.60GHz with a turbo boost clock of 3.90GHz. The L2 cache size is 20MB, whereas the L3 cache size is 24 MB. The rated power on base clocks is 125W, whereas it is 181W on turbo clocks. The CPU supports a total of 128GB with support of DDR5 up to 5600MT/s and DDR4 support of up to 3200MT/s. The CPU supports a dual-channel design with 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth. The CPU has 20x PCIe lanes and supports Gen 5 and Gen 4. The DIM link is using 8 lanes and is based on DMI 2.0 revision.

This SKU has an in-built (iGPU) using Intel UHD Graphics 770. The base clock on the iGPU is 300MHz, and it has 32 processing units. The dynamic frequency range is up to 1.5GHz. The following output support is available:

• eDP 1.4b
• DP 14.a
• HDMI 2.1

The maximum supported resolution on HDMI is 4096×2160 @ 60Hz, and it is 7680×3200 @ 60Hz on DP 1.4. The eDP can support up to 5120×3200 resolution at 120Hz. The number of 4 display outputs is supported. CPU has Intel Quick Sync Video support as well as Clear Video HD Technology.

In our testing, we have seen the Intel core i5-13600K maintaining the boost clock of 5.1GHz on the P-Cores and 3.9GHz on the E-Cores under the heavy workload. One thing we should point out is that we have given an unfair advantage in the cooling to this CPU which was not available to us at the time of testing the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. We have used AlphaCool stuff for the DIY or custom loop setup using the gigantic 1260mm radiator with 9x 140mm fans. The Ryzen CPU also maintained the 5.1GHz across all cores under heavy load, and that was with the regular 360mm AIO. However, when later on (after the testing and the content) employed the same cooling on the Ryzen CPU, it maintained 5.44GHz on all cores under heavy load. But keep in mind that the Intel core i5-13600K has more cores and those cores are better optimized and efficient compared to the Alder Lake platform.

The core i5-13600K is supporting the Intel Thread Director. However, it does not support Intel Turbo Boost Max 3.0 but only the Turbo Boost Max 2.0. The Tj Max is set to 100°C. We have tested and compared this CPU against the Intel i7 12700k and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. Both Intel CPUs have 20 thread counts but in different configurations (6P+9E on core i5 and 8P+4E on core i7). Plus, the generation-related differences. The single-core performance of the core i5-13600K is better overall compared to the other two contenders. Not only that but also the CPU is more power efficient when it comes to single-threaded performance. It was only drawing 33W as compared to the 41W on the 7700X and 44W on i7 12700k. However, we need to take into consideration the energy efficiency for which a simple method would be to pick an application and divide the performance score over the power draw. This will give us a relative point for the comparison (Using TechPowerUp’s method). The Core i5 13600k got a score of 59.29 points. The core i7 12700k got a score of 42.61 and Ryzen 7 7700X has a score of 47.86. We can see that the core i5 13600k has a higher score here.

However, things change slightly when the role is reversed from a single-threaded to a multi-threaded scenario. We have seen both Intel CPUs (core i5-13600K and core i7 12700k) having a better overall performance than the AMD CPU. But for that, both CPUs are taking more power core i5-13600K is drawing near 180W under heavy workload, and core i7 12700k is drawing near 177W. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X was taking roughly 135W power. Let’s calculate the energy efficiency points as mentioned above. The core i5 13600k has a score of 136.27. The core i7 12700k has a score of 115.56 and the Ryzen 7 7700X has a score of 143.40. Here, we can see that the Ryzen 7 7700X is more energy efficient despite being beaten by the core i5 13600k in various benches. This is a trade-off nowadays as on the red camp, we have to live with 95°C on the thermal side whereas, in the blue camp, we have to live with more power consumption.

The gaming performance of the core i5-13600K is in a mix as per our testing. We have seen quite a performance gain in some titles however, in the others, the gaming performance is almost at par with the core i7 12700k. This may be good news for the 12700k users. This would also depend on the build configuration and game type. Competitive gaming would get better performance from the new platform.

Speaking of the thermals, this SKU has better thermals out of the box though one would still be better off using an AIO on this CPU. We were able to push this little champ to 5.6GHz all P-Cores and 4.4GHz all E-Cores using 1.330V. The temps were around 81°C on our DIY setup. You can expect to push it less on the AIO though.

One last thing under consideration is the platform’s viability. This is where Intel has the upper hand over the competition. The new 13th gen CPUs can be used on the 12th gen platform, for which a BIOS update is needed. This would save bucks for the users and would give them a boost in performance.

On the other hand, the user can still use the DDR4 RAM on the new 700 series platform, as this platform has support for DDR5 and DDR4. This is where the user can save money. Plus, the pricing of the core i5-13600K is also competitive. It has a better overall performance yet costs less, making it a win-win case.