Intel
the 13th Gen Intel Core “Raptor Lake” processors we have tested so far have worked fine thanks to throw lots and lots of cores at most workloads, and the cheaper processors in the range will take the same approach. The number of large high-performance P-cores remains the same, but processors from i5 to i9 all scavenge additional electronic cores to facilitate rendering, encoding, and other high-end professional applications that can utilize every CPU core you can give them.
Leaks and other early reports seem to have gotten everything from core counts to clock speeds to cache size most of the time, so if you’ve been paying attention, none of today’s announcements will come as a surprise. But for people who aren’t familiar, the short version is that these are riffs on the hybrid architecture of 12th Gen Alder Lake processors, and their designs haven’t changed much. They will also continue to fit the same LGA1700 motherboards as 12th Gen processors, so 600 series motherboards should recognize them just fine after a BIOS update.
-
65W versions of Intel’s new 13th Gen Core processors. The Core i9 and i7 variants include more cache per core than the i5 and i3 chips.
Intel
-
T-series processors have lower power limits than standard chips, making them better suited for smaller PCs that can dissipate less heat.
Intel
Core i9 and Core i7 processors all have eight P cores, but i9 chips come with 16 E cores, while i7 chips have eight. Core i5 processors all come with six P cores, but the number of E cores varies: the i5-13600 and i5-13500 offer eight, while the lowest i5-13400 offers four. The Core i5-12500 and 12400 don’t come with E-cores at all, so people looking for a good mainstream processor for a budget-conscious PC or gaming workstation will benefit from the jump even more. between the 12th and 13th generation chips. The Core i3 remains the only processor in the lineup without E cores, though their four P cores should still be fine for office work and low-end gaming desktops.
As usual, Intel processors come with several suffixes that give you additional information about them. The no-suffix processors have a base power of 65W plus an integrated UHD 770 or 730 GPU (these haven’t changed since 12th Gen in any appreciable way). CPUs with an F do not include an integrated GPU, and CPUs with a T have a base power of 35W and reduced default turbo power settings, which lowers their performance but allows them to be installed in PCs smaller with less efficient coolers.
Architecturally, the 13th generation is not much different from the 12th generation. Core i9 and Core i7 chips, like the overclockable K-series CPUs we reviewed a few months ago, get extra L2 and L3 cache per core along with faster memory support official DDR5-5600. The Core i5 and i3 processors announced today, on the other hand, appear unmodified, with the same amount of cache per core and DDR5-4800 support as last-gen Alder Lake processors. But that’s not a big deal for these mid-range chips – the extra E-cores still provide a solid boost over equivalent 12th-gen processors, and overclocking XMP memory makes them anyway. “official” memory support speeds not applicable to enthusiasts.
The final thing to note is that while Intel gives default base power and turbo power figures for each processor, system builders can effectively ignore them if they wish. Set a Core i9-13900 to the same base and turbo numbers as a Core i9-13900K in your BIOS, and that cheaper Core i9-13900 will perform a plot like an expensive i3900K. You still won’t be able to officially overclock it, but playing around with those power settings can have big performance benefits, even if you don’t want to choose a K-series processor or a Z690 or Z790 motherboard.
Especially for price-conscious buyers, these new 13th-gen chips extend a price advantage for performance that Intel’s latest chips have had over AMD’s Ryzen 7000 Series. Even at the current street price of around $240, AMD’s six-core Ryzen 5 7600X won’t offer nearly the same performance as the i5-13500 or i5-13400, which underprice it slightly in terms of of price.
And that’s before you factor in the cost of the rest of the platform – the older Intel B660s and H610s still include the kind of features most people need in a mid-range PC, and they do. do for less than AMD’s cheapest B650 motherboards to date. That said, AMD will have its own products to announce at CES this year, and they might help make the AM5 platform a bit more competitive with Intel’s latest offerings.
0 Comments