Intel Core i9-13900H appears to perform poorly in valid Geekbench 5 entry

We reported a while ago that Intel may be planning to launch up to four new Raptor Lake mobile SKUs including the Core i9-13900HK, the Core i7-13700H, Core i7-13620H, and the Core i5-13420H. We’ve also had Geekbench 5 results for the Core i7-13700H and the Core i9-13900HK appear some time ago. Now, courtesy of Benchleaks, we have an initial look at the Geekbench 5 performance figures of the Core i9-13900H.

The Core i9-13900H on display has a base and boost frequency of 2.6 and 5.2 GHz respectively. The chip is paired with 32 GB of memory inside a Samsung 960XFH computer, a machine that has appeared before on the benchmarking site but with a Core i7-13700H and Core i9-13900HK in tow.

When it comes to the performance of the chip, the Geekbench 5 single-core and multi-core scores of the Core i9-13900H clock in at 1,332 and 10,628 respectively.

Curiously, the single-core score of the Core i9-13900H is considerably lower than the Core i7-13700H which scored 1,768 in a previous showing. The multi-core scores of both chips are close. Because theoretically the Core i9-13900H is a higher-end SKU vs the Core i7-13700H, the low scores make the chip seem either an Engineering Sample (ES) or one with a limited power draw.

Core i9-13900H vs Core i9-12900H

Based on our average Geekbench 5.4 scores of the 45 W Core i9-12900H, the Core i9-13900H is almost 38% slower in single-core and nearly 18% behind in multi-core. If the Core i9-13900H under discussion is actually an ES, the low score isn’t really surprising.

Core i9-13900H vs Core i9-12900HX

Comparing the 14-core, 20-thread Core i9-13900H to the 55 W Core i9-12900HX, the Raptor Lake chip lags by a massive 43% in single-threaded and by 53% in multi-threaded workloads. This is to be expected since the Alder Lake Core i9-12900HX is a 55 W CPU with a 157 W PL2 limit.

In other words, it is not a shock that a retail Alder Lake-HX variant with a considerably higher power draw has managed to outperform a pre-release Core i9-13900H.

Core i9-13900H vs Ryzen 9 6900HX

Finally, the Core i9-13900H vs Ryzen 9 6900HX Geekbench 5 battle sees Team Red’s 45 W chip take a single-core lead of 19% while trailing in multi-core benchmarks by 6%. We can expect the single-core lead to disappear with the retail version of the Core i9-13900H and the multi-core delta to increase even further.

Suffice to say, this early Geekbench 5 showing of the Core i9-13900H is unimpressive. All we have to do now is wait and see how much better the retail version of the chip performs.

Buy the Intel Core i9-13900K on Amazon