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: 1440p
In our Ryzen 7000 series review, we saw users commenting about testing games for CPU reviews at 1440p, so we have duly obliged here. Those interested in 1440p performance with minimal image quality – particularly the esports crowd – will be glad to know that we will be testing at this resolution going forward into 2023 and beyond.
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
Borderlands 3
Grand Theft Auto V
Red Dead Redemption 2
F1 2022
Hitman 3
Total War: Warhammer 3
At 2560 x 1440p resolutions, things start to become a bit more graphics limited than compute. This means the performance of the Core i9-13900KS and Core i9-13900K processors aren't much different.
What our testing essentially shows is that when paired with an AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics card, the 6 GHz turbo clock speed on the Core i9-13900KS makes virtually no difference at 1440p when compared to the Core i9-13900K.
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erinadreno - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
No.nandnandnand - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
Practically useless, even at 720p. Looking forward to 7000X3D.Kangal - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
Sure, the i9-13900KS can be seen as "the best"......but it's hard to justify it for the real-world when there's the Intel Core i5-13600k right there! You're paying half the amount and using less power, to achieve a very impressive score right up there with the best.
I guess even more impressive is the AMD r7-7700 which trades blows with that chipset in performance, competitively price, uses significantly less power, and most importantly has a long support (AM5) period.
I wish we continue to see this trend, with the luxury products making it clear to show how good the mid-high range products have become. In some parts this is a correction in the market due to new competition. Consumers rejoice!
Andresen - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
A very expensive and fast cpu is testet with some very slow memory. I don’t see the point in doing that. The slowest memory rated as DDR5-5600 in my local webshop is CL40 and the most commen is CL36 and I could choose CL28. CL46 is not an option. I’m not in the market for this cpu, but if I were I would combine it with DDR5-7200 at CL32. If memory overclocking is not an option, then I would use DDR5-5600 CL36.Makaveli - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
Have to agree with you on this. No one buying this CPU is going to be pairing with the DDR5-5600 memory.Andresen - Monday, January 30, 2023 - link
I forgot to add, that apart from my minor critics regarding choice of memory, that it is nice that AnandTech makes these thorough reviews. I don’t think I can find such quality reviews anywhere else for pc-class hardware.Great_Scott - Wednesday, February 1, 2023 - link
The reviews are great, although I can't imagine there's a single hand-built Ryzen PC in existence that's using memory at JEDEC timings.It was interesting to see how the Ryzen 7950X was able to keep up in a large number of tests.
GeorgeV - Saturday, February 11, 2023 - link
Honestly, I wish these high end CPUs were tested at the speeds they can run 128GB of RAM at. From what I've seen around the web, these tested RAM speeds are higher than either can manage reliably when all 4 dimms are filled.jospoortvliet - Monday, February 13, 2023 - link
Well Andresen thinks it should be faster you think slower. I guess they did it right?DanNeely - Friday, January 27, 2023 - link
"*We changed the motherboard to the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master as the MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WIFI we used for our previous 13th Gen Core series reviews refused to play ball. We don't like to make these changes lightly, but we weren't able to source another Carbon in time for this review"Did it fail outright, or still work for other chips but choke on this extra-power hungry one?