Titanic Intel Core i9-13900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 7950X clash incoming as Raptor Lake takes command of PassMark's single-thread performance chart

The Raptor Lake Intel Core i9-13900K processor has been spotted by APISAK on the PassMark CPU single-thread performance benchmark chart. The 24-core, 32-thread processor showed some teeth in its testing (4 samples so far with a high margin for error) and produced a high single-thread rating of 4,833. This places the i9-13900K well above the previous chart leader, the Intel Core i9-12900KS, which currently has a rating of 4,412. The Raptor Lake SKU leaps +9.54% ahead of the Alder Lake chip and +14.83% over the more-direct predecessor i9-12900K.

Unfortunately, there is no official entry for the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X on PassMark yet, and even then a clash between the Intel Core i9-13900K and the Zen 4 processor is not as straightforward as it sounds on the surface. Different core counts (i9: 24; R9: 16), different clock rates (i9: 3-5.8 GHz; R9: 4.5-5.7 GHz) and different TDPs (i9: 125-253 W (base-PL2); R9: 170 W (default)) have to mix with entirely different architectures before scores can be even compared. However, the i9-13900K’s single-thread result compared to that of the much-older Ryzen 9 5950X does signpost that a fantastic tussle is on the horizon.

According to PassMark’s records (see screenshot below), the Raptor Lake chip leaves the Ryzen 9 5950X -28.3% behind in the single-thread pure processing speed comparison. Interestingly, AMD has already claimed that the Ryzen 9 7950X should be able to offer up to +29% better single-core performance than its Zen 3 predecessor. Again, it’s not as simple as just saying “29% is higher than 28.3% therefore the Ryzen 9 7950X will actually just outperform the i9-13900K”, but it does suggest that the two top-end desktop processors are going to slug it out for numerous synthetic benchmark performance crowns, and it’s going to be a great time for consumers in terms of choice.

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