Raptor Lake review roundup: Core i9-13900K vs Ryzen 9 7950X productivity battle results in a tie while the Core i5-13600K emerges as a budget gaming beast

In our review of the Core i9-13900K and the Core i5-13600K, we found out that Intel’s 13^th gen “Raptor Lake” CPUs are worthy refinements over their predecessors as they offer significant performance increases over the 12^th gen “Alder Lake” chips. 3DCenter's latest report, which is in line with our findings, presents an accumulation of data from 28 Raptor Lake launch reviews. The results, as expected, prove Team Blue’s chips are the best bang-for-the-buck next-gen CPUs on the market for both content creation and gaming use cases.

Application performance

First, in application performance, the Core i9-13900K and the Ryzen 9 7950X are neck and neck as the cumulative performance delta between the two chips is less than 1%. That said, the Core i9-13900K is, on average, 31% faster than the Core i9-12900K. So, the gen-on-gen improvement is quite a lot.

Moving on to the Core i7-13700K, the data indicates the chip to be 26.5% ahead of its predecessor, the Core i7-12700K. On the other hand, the CPU effectively ties the Ryzen 9 7900X in application workloads.

Finally, the Core i5-13600K proves to be an excellent choice for budget-conscious content creators. Based on 3DCenter’s data, the processor offers a 29.4% increase in non-gaming scenarios vs the Core i5-12600K. The chip also trumps the Ryzen 5 7600X and the Ryzen 7 7700X by 29.8% and 8% respectively.

Gaming performance

Intel has traditionally held the gaming performance crown. With the release of the Ryzen 7000 processors, AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X rose to the top of the gaming charts. Per 3DCenter’s report, the pendulum has shifted, and Intel is back on the throne.

On average, the Core i9-13900K is 10.2% better in gaming than the Ryzen 9 7950X. The lead increases slightly to 13% and 11% when we compare the Raptor Lake champion to the last-gen Core i9-12900K and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D respectively.

Looking at the Core i7-13700K vs Ryzen 9 7900X battle, we see that Team Blue’s product is 6.9% faster. The Raptor Lake part even manages to beat the Ryzen 9 7950X by 6.5% which is quite incredible when you factor in the more than US$200 price difference between the two chips.

Lastly, the Core i5-13600K could be the most sensible purchase for most people when it comes to gaming. Not only does the CPU beat the Ryzen 5 7600X and the Ryzen 7 7700X by 5.8% and 1.9% respectively, but it also overtakes the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X by 1.4%. Granted the performance delta isn’t worth mentioning, but the value proposition of the Core i5-13600K becomes quite clear when you consider the price of the CPU.

Power consumption

Power consumption is one area where Raptor Lake CPUs fall well behind the AMD Zen 4 parts. For instance, according to 45 application tests ran by TechPowerUp (via 3DCenter), the Core i9-13900K consumes an average of 170 W. As a comparison, the Ryzen 9 7950X only uses about 125 W in this particular scenario.

Similarly, the Core i5-13600K consumes 104 W here, while AMD’s competing Ryzen 7 7700X uses 80 W.

Last but not the least, when the PL2 limit of the Core i9-13900K (253 W) is removed, the CPU ends up drawing 339 W in Cinebench R23. The Ryzen 9 7950X uses 226 W under similar conditions.

All in all, Raptor Lake CPUs offer incredible performance in both productivity and gaming scenarios at prices that are less than the competition. But Intel’s chips use considerably more power than AMD’s processors. This is especially true for high-end processors. So, if you decide to invest in flagship Raptor Lake parts, you’ll have to employ a beefy cooling system.

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