Intel Core i7-13850HX vs Intel Core i9-13980HX

Intel Core i7-13850HX

The Intel Core i7-13850HX is a fast high-end mobile processor of the Raptor Lake series. Is was announced in early 2023 and offers combined 20 cores and 28 threads. Eight fast Raptor Cove performance cores (P-cores) with Hyper-Threading and eight Gracemont efficiency cores without HyperThreading. The 13850HX supports the full enterprise set of vPro management features.

The eight P-Cores are clocked from 2.1 GHz (base) up to 5.3 GHz (single core boost, all cores up to 4.7 GHz). The twelfe E-Cores clock between 1.5 (base) and 3.8 GHz (boost).

Compared to Alder Lake, Raptor Lake offers improved P-Cores (Raptor Cove micro-architecture) with bigger Caches and more E-Cores (same Gracemont micro-architecture). Furthermore, the chip supports faster DDR5 memory (up to 5600 MHz for the 13850HX).

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 13850HX as of August 2023, we fully expect the chip to be at least a couple pecentage points faster than the i9-12900HX, a CPU featuring eight P-cores and eight E-cores that run at nearly the same clock speeds as what the 13850HX has. Just how wide the performance delta will be will depend a lot on how competent the laptop's cooling solution is, and how high the CPU power limits are.

Power consumption

The chip's "minimum assured" power consumption sits at 45 W. Its Intel-recommended "Maximum Turbo" power consumption is 157 W while the Base power consumption is supposed to be around 55 W. Most laptop makers will probably go for a value much higher than 55 W to extract as much performance out of the chip as possible.

This Core i7 series processor is built with Intel's 4th generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i9-13980HX

The Intel Core i9-13980HX is a fast high-end mobile processor of the Raptor Lake-HX series. Is was announced in early 2023 and is based on the desktop Core i9-13000K with combined 24 cores and 32 threads. Eight fast Raptor Cove performance cores (P-cores) with HyperThreading that clock between 2.2 GHz (base) to 5.6 GHz (single core Turbo). The sixteen Gracemont cores are smaller and slower and optimized for efficiency. They clock between 1.6 GHz (base) and 4 GHz (Turbo).

Compared to Alder Lake, Raptor Lake offers improved P-Cores (Raptor Cove micro-architecture) with bigger Caches and more E-Cores (same Gracemont micro-architecture). Furthermore, the chip supports faster DDR5 memory (up to 5600 MHz for the 13980HX).

Performance

The average 13980HX in our database is in the same league as the Core i9-13950HX and the Ryzen 9 7845HX, as far as multi-thread benchmark scores are concerned.

Thanks to its decent cooling solution and a long-term CPU power limit of 143 W, the Alienware m18 R1 is among the fastest systems built around the 13980HX that we know of. It can be at least 10% faster in CPU-bound workloads than the slowest system featuring the same chip in our database, as of August 2023.

The CPU is still produced on a further improved 10nm FinFET process (Intel 7) that allows the higher clock speeds. The power consumption is specified at 55W base power up to 157 Watt max. Turbo power.