Intel kicked off its 13th-gen Core (“Raptor Lake”) technology at this time with six new processors that executives declare supply the “world’s best gaming experience” for lovers, with as much as 24 % efficiency enchancment in gaming in comparison with Intel’s personal 12th-gen Core chips.

A big a part of that enhance derives from the truth that Intel is providing many extra cores, extra threads, and better clock speeds than ever earlier than. The Core i9-13900Okay,for instance, gives eight extra cores plus eight extra threads than the corresponding 12th-gen Core mannequin, with an extra 600MHz of “turbo” velocity on high.

The unlocked Core i9-13900Okay tops out at a lift velocity of 5.8GHz, although the opposite processors function at slower speeds. “To be clear, we are delivering the world’s fastest desktop processor out of the box,” mentioned Mandy Mock, the vp and normal supervisor of desktop, workstation, and channel for Intel.

You might have anticipated larger costs for the brand new chips, maybe within the wake of the sticker shock surrounding Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs and up to date scarcity pricing. But except for the Core i5-13600Okay and -KF (which acquired a $30 bump), the costs of Intel’s 13th-gen Raptor Lake Core chips are similar to Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake. And now, AMD’s rival Ryzen CPUs aren’t at all times a less expensive possibility.

AMD has mentioned that its just-launched Ryzen 7000 sequence will handily beat the best of what Intel has to offer. AMD’s new Ryzen 7950X not only claims an enormous performance advantage over earlier Ryzens, however the high-end 7950X dropped $100 off the sticker worth, in addition. Intel additionally promised that Raptor Lake would hit 6GHz — and these preliminary 13th-gen Core chips don’t, but, with CEO Pat Gelsinger saying to count on that chip “in limited volumes” subsequent yr. It’s going to be a tightly contested race for one of the best desktop processor of 2022.

Meet Intel’s 13th-gen Core CPUs

Intel will finally fill out its processor lineup for the rest of the desktop area, in addition to cell: U-, P-, H-, and HX-series chips for laptops and 35W and 65W S-series processors for desktops will accompany these new Okay-series processors in time, Mock mentioned—the 13th-gen household will finally supply a minimum of 50 CPUs. For now, although, the brand new Okay- and -KF sequence chips are taking heart stage.

Here’s a fast abstract of what Intel is asserting:

• Core i5-13600Okay ($319): 14 cores (6 efficiency cores, 8 effectivity cores)/20 threads at as much as 5.1GHz; P-Core: 3.5GHz (base) to 5.1GHz (turbo); E-core: 2.6GHz (base) to 3.9GHz (turbo)
• Core i7-13700Okay ($409): 16 cores (8 efficiency cores, 8 effectivity cores)/24 threads at as much as 5.4GHz; P-Core: 3.4GHz (base) to 5.3GHz (turbo); E-core: 2.5GHz (base) to 4.2GHz (turbo)
• Core i9-13900Okay ($589): 24 cores (8 efficiency cores, 16 effectivity cores)/32 threads at as much as 5.8GHz; P-Core: 3.0GHz (base) to 5.4GHz (turbo); E-Core: 2.2GHz (base) to 4.3GHz (turbo)
• Intel additionally has three “KF” variants that remove the built-in GPU to avoid wasting value: the $564 Core i9-13900KF, the $384 Core i7-13700KF, and the $294 Core i5-13600KF.

Intel

Unfortunately, we’ve moved previous the times the place we are able to assign a processor a easy clock velocity. Now, even the quickest speeds must be certified. While the efficiency core on the Core i9-13900Okay can “only” obtain a lift velocity of 5.4GHz, one core could possibly obtain the chip’s general enhance velocity of 5.8GHz. That’s due to the Intel Turbo Max Technology 3.0 Intel debuted in 2019.

Power, too, isn’t so simple as it as soon as was. What’s referred to as the PL2 worth — the ability wanted to push the 13900Okay or KF sequence into its turbo mode — is 253W, Intel executives mentioned, and 181W for a Core i5-13600Okay.

Intel

All three chips combine Intel’s UHD Graphics 770 graphics, with slight variations in clock velocity: 1,550MHz, 1,600MHz, and 1,650MHz for the Core i5, Core i7, and Core i9 elements.

Intel’s new processors are constructed on the Intel 7 course of, which Mock implied was producing higher yields than the 12th-gen Alder Lake chip, additionally on Intel 7. Intel’s ramp of its Alder Lake-Okay chips was its quickest ever, Mock mentioned, with 1 million models shipped by the tip of 2021.

“We are on track to go even faster with 13th-gen, so there will be ample supply in the market to meet our customers’ demand,” Mock mentioned. Intel anticipates that 140 companions throughout 30 nations will ship 13th-gen “Raptor Lake” chips, with 70 completely different variations of the Z790 motherboards accompanying it, she mentioned.

And in case you had been questioning, sure, Intel held an inside dialogue about formally naming these chips the “13th”-generation Core chips. Qualcomm, for instance, named a current chip the Snapdragon 888 to capitalize on a quantity that’s seen in fortunate in Asia. American buildings often skip the thirteenth flooring. But what it boiled all the way down to was a sure smartphone firm discovering success with version 13 of its own operating system, and Intel deciding to observe swimsuit.

What’s inside 13th-gen Raptor Lake PCs

What’s improved? First, the brand new 13th-gen Core “Raptor Lake” chips embody an up to date “Raptor Cove” processor core with improved velocity paths , mentioned Daniel Rogers, Intel’s senior director of cell advertising. Inside Intel’s upgraded Intel 7 course of is a Third-gen SuperFin transistor. Essentially, Intel is benefiting from an improved design alongside a efficiency enhance from the “maturation” of course of expertise as effectively, in keeping with Guy Therien, an Intel fellow.

The variety of effectivity cores has additionally doubled. In addition to the extra cores, Mock mentioned that the cache connected to the effectivity cores had been elevated. Intel’s hybrid structure makes use of efficiency cores for foreground duties that you just’re actively working upon, in addition to effectivity cores that deal with background duties that may usually steal CPU cycles from the energetic app.

Intel’s thread scheduler, tightly built-in with Windows 11, can even assign precedence duties to the effectivity cores underneath excessive workloads. In the new Windows 11 2022 Update, not solely has the Thread Director been optimized however the best way that background duties are dealt with by Windows has been improved, rising the general effectivity of a Raptor Lake PC operating the newest model of Windows. (Incidentally, Intel has no plans to launch a model of Thread Director software program that can let you manually assign efficiency cores or effectivity cores, executives mentioned.)

Intel

Intel’s debut Raptor Lake volley might be paired with Z790 motherboards, an upgraded chipset that now provides assist for DDR5-5600 and -5200 reminiscence, in addition to DDR4-3200 reminiscence. Board makers will have the ability to make the most of 16 PCI Express 5.0 lanes off of the CPU, plus an extra 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes. The compute cloth bridging the 2 has been made 900MHz sooner, rising I/O efficiency. Finally, Thunderbolt 4 and Intel’s Killer WiFi 6E will proceed to make appearances.

Basically, all of Intel’s 600-series and 700-series boards might be backwards-compatible, offered that they’ve a manufacturer-supplied replace that helps the 13th-gen Raptor Lake.

There’s one thing else that’s fairly fascinating: further assist for USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 I/O. That’s a bunch of gobbledygook to most individuals, however the upshot is that USB ports on Z790 methods might be able to 20Gbps, versus the conventional 10Gbps that the majority USB-A and USB-C ports allow. That will probably add additional efficiency headroom for USB-C dongles, offered Intel brings this functionality to the cell area.

Intel 13th-gen Core ‘Raptor Lake’ efficiency

There are many metrics you need to use to check the efficiency of a processor, however right here’s how Intel breaks it down: the brand new Core i9-13900Okay delivers 15 % extra efficiency in single-threaded purposes and 41 % multi-threaded efficiency over the Core i9-12900Okay. Raptor Lake’s single-threaded efficiency has improved decently over Alder Lake, however due to the numerous enhance within the variety of cores and threads, general efficiency ought to enhance dramatically. Marcus Kennedy, normal supervisor of Intel’s gaming and esports phase, additionally confirmed a collection of gaming checks that indicated that the 13th-gen Core chips had been as much as 24 % sooner in gaming.

Intel

Intel

All this could imply pretty minor enhancements in most graphics-heavy video games, although extra substantial efficiency enhancements in additional CPU-hungry video games like League of Legends and DOTA.

Creatives, although, ought to see some actual advantages. Intel’s claiming that the 13th-gen Raptor Lake cores are 27 % sooner in a workload that includes Adobe Media Encoder and Adobe Photoshop, in addition to 34 % sooner in a media creation workload involving Blender and the Unreal Engine for recreation improvement. In the demonstration, Intel ran Photoshop within the foreground and the encoder within the background, because it did for the Blender render.

Intel

Intel

But Intel, and Mock, might must show that its Raptor Lake is quicker than the Ryzen 7000 in testing. On paper, it’s an fascinating comparability: the Ryzen 7950X has “just” 16 cores and 32 threads, however runs at a 4.5GHz base clock and as much as 5.7GHz whereas in turbo mode. They’re all “big” high-performance cores, nevertheless. Intel’s Core i9-13900Okay packs extra cores (24) and 32 threads, however has a combination of efficiency (8) and effectivity (16) cores that start at 2.2-3.0GHz, however can enhance as much as 5.8GHz. AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X consumes 170W, versus the 165W the Core i9 requires.

Since head-to-head checks aren’t but formally attainable, nevertheless, Intel in contrast its 13th-gen chip to AMD’s Ryzen 5000 sequence as a substitute. Intel’s personal checks confirmed a whopping 58 % enchancment over the Ryzen 5950X in video games like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered. In content material creation, the distinction was much more profound: 69 % in Autodesk Revit’s mannequin creation.

Gamers that select to water-cool their system ought to see larger overclocking frequencies with “headroom similar to 12th-gen,” Intel mentioned, with overclocked DDR5 reminiscence pushing as much as 6,600 megatransfers per second. Though excessive overclocking remains to be a distinct segment software, Intel believes that cooling the cores utilizing liquid nitrogen will push efficiency core frequencies past a whopping 8GHz, with overclocked DDR5 reminiscence pushing past 10,000 MT/s.

Intel

With Intel’s disclosure of Raptor Lake, we now know what AMD’s plans are for no less than nearly all of its Ryzen 7000 processor lineup, in addition to the place the efficiency of these chips falls. Now, we look ahead to the impartial benchmarks that may inform us the identical for Intel’s 13th-gen Core chips.

The fall is usually one of the thrilling instances of the yr for lovers hoping to construct their very own desktop methods. AMD, Nvidia, and now Intel have all outlined their choices for the upcoming yr. Now, we look ahead to official testing to substantiate whether or not their claims will play out in the actual world.