A Brief Note on Intel Core i7 13700K
It took a long time for Intel to come out of their quad core processors. With AMD producing higher core count CPUs and Apple ending their partnership (for an in-house ARM based ‘M’ Series Chips), Intel had to do something to gain its popularity and market share. The result is a hybrid architecture with a combination of Performance Cores and Efficiency cores, similar to the ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture. It started this design with their 12th Gen CPUs code named Alder Lake.
Architecture
Continuing the Hybrid Architecture from the 12th Gen Alder Lake processors, the Intel Core i7 13700K consists of 8 Performance (P) Cores and 8 Efficiency (E) Cores. The performance cores support hyper threading but the efficiency cores don’t. So, the 8P + 8E Core 13700K supports 24 threads. This configuration is similar to the previous gen’s flagship, the Intel Core i9 12900K processor. But the similarity ends there as the microarchitecture of the 13th Gen CPUs are the updated Raptor Cove P Cores and Gracemont E Cores. Under the hood, the “Raptor Cove” cores have a 15% single-threaded performance gain when compared with the previous gen’s “Golden Cove” cores. The E cores are same for both 12th Gen and 13th Gen CPUs. The base clock speed of the P and E Cores of 13700K are 3.4 GHz and 2.5 GHz respectively. This is lower than the 3.6 GHz and 2.7 GHz of the 12700K. But the turbo clock has seen a significant bump. For the 12700K, the turbo clocks of P and E Cores are 4.9 GHz and 3.8 GHz respectively. But for 13700K, there is roughly a 10% boost in the turbo clocks at 5.3 GHz and 4.2 GHz for P and E Cores. Intel made the 13th gen Raptor Lake processors using the same LGA 1700 Socket as the 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. So, if you have a decent motherboard, then the upgrade cost will be less.
Memory and Cache
The Intel Core i7 13700K CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM types in dual channel mode. While the DDR4 frequency is same as 12th gen’s DDR4-3200, DDR5 saw a huge improvement with support for DDR5-5600 (12th Gen maxed out at DDR5-4800). Support for DDR4 means, you don’t need to make a significant investment, if you already own a decent DDR4 RAM kit. But the industry is moving towards DDR5 and the cost of DDR5 RAM kits is slowly coming down. The main change between the 12th Gen Alder Lake processors and the 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors is in the implementation of the Cache. Each P core of the 13700K Processor gets 2MB L2 Cache (this was only 1.25 MB for 12th Gen Processors). One module of E cores gets 4MB L2 Cache (again a huge bump from only 2MB per module for 12th Gen). If you aren’t familiar with the E Core modules, Intel grouped four E Cores into a cluster that share the L2 cache. So, in 13700K, you get 4MB for four E Cores. This makes the total L2 Cache of 13700K at 24MB. It also has 30MB L3 Cache, which is common for all the cores.
PCIe and Power
The Intel Core i7 13700K processor has 20 PCIe lanes from the CPU. Of these, 16 are PCIe Gen 5 while the remaining 4 are Gen 4. The final configuration of the PCIe lanes will depend on the motherboard you select and the corresponding chipset. Similar to the Alder Lake processors, even the 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors are fabricated using the “Intel 7”. Even though Intel calls it “Intel 7”, it is technically a 10 nm node. The base processor power of Intel Core i7 13700K CPU is 125W while the maximum turbo power is 253W.
Specifications of Intel Core i7 13700K
Intel Core i7 13700K Review
Now that we have seen some basic information about the 13700K, let us proceed with the review of the Intel Core i7 13700K processor. We will see the benchmark results for synthetic applications, mainstream applications, and games. We will also see some numbers regarding the thermals and power consumption. (8 * 2MB = 16MB) 4MB per E Core Module (2 * 4MB = 8MB) 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes
Test System
We will be testing the Intel Core i7 13700K CPU against similar tier processors from both Intel and AMD. Before we begin, here is a quick look at our Intel and AMD test systems.
Application Benchmarks
Cinebench R23 Multi-Core (Higher is Better)
Let us start with the most popular benchmark tool, the Cinebench R23. After the 10-minute multicore loop test, we got a score of just under 30000 points. If we compare this with the AMD Ryzen 7900X, then the performance is very similar albeit slightly better. But if you compare the performance of Intel Core i7 13700K and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, then the former boasts a 49% performance improvement.
Cinebench R23 Single-Core (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single core performance in the Cinebench R23, the story doesn’t change much. The single-core performance of the Intel Core i7 13700K is very similar to that of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X. There is a 5% improvement over the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. The interesting thing here is the single core performance of the Intel Core i5 13600K is similar to the previous generation’s flagship from Intel, the Core i9 12900K.
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Multi-Threaded/Overall (Higher is Better)
Next, we have another popular benchmark tool from PassMark, the CPU Mark. The following results show the overall or multi-threaded CPU Mark Score of all the processors in this test. While the Intel Core i7 13700K shows a lot of improvement over the Intel Core i9 12900K, it falls short in front of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X where is shows a 7% performance gain over 13700K.
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Single-Threaded (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single threaded performance in CPU Mark, the Intel Core i7 13700K marginally beats the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X. Unsurprisingly, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X also offers a very similar performance.
Blender Open Data Render Time (Lower is Better)
Another popular open-source tool is Blender. For the next couple of tests, we will see the render times and number of samples per minute in Blender version 3.4. The Intel Core i7 13700K took 10 seconds over 8 minutes while the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X took just 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
Blender Samples Per Minute (Higher is Better)
The results for number of samples in a minute for Blender Render is also very similar to the render time results. Here you can see the samples per minute score across the three test scenes: monster, junkshop, and classroom.
Adobe Photoshop 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
The Adobe suite has a couple of important tools that many creators and artists use. We will start with the Adobe Photoshop 2022. It has a built-in Puget System Standard Benchmark. If you look at the overall scores, the Intel Core i7 13700K and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X go neck on neck. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is also very close.
Adobe Premier Pro 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
Next application in the Adobe suite is the Premier Pro 2022. The results even in this test are very similar to the Adobe Photoshop 2022.
7-Zip File Manager Compression (Higher is Better)
One of the popular and widely used open-source applications is the 7-Zip File Manager. It helps in archiving files. For this test, we are performing the built-in benchmark feature. Here is the result in million instructions per second (MIPS) for compressing using a standards 32 MB dictionary size and 10 passes.
7-Zip File Manager Decompression (Higher is Better)
In decompression, the AMD Ryzen CPUs dominate the charts with AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and Ryzen 9 5900X comfortably beating the Intel Core i7 13700K.
Chromium Code Compilation Time (Lower is Better)
Developers working on large projects need a stable multi-threaded system with a powerful CPU. So, we tested the code compilation performance by taking the open-source Chromium project code. The performance of Intel Core i7 13700K is very close to that of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X.
Corona 1.3 Render Time (Lower is Better)
The last “application” benchmark is the Corona 1.3, which is a high-quality shading engine for production rendering. Let us now see the rendering time of different Intel and AMD CPUs.
Gaming Benchmarks
Let us move to some gaming performance. We tested some popular titles at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 (1080p) as anything beyond, the GPU will dominate the performance. We are running all the games in DirectX 12 with Ray Tracing and DLSS off.
Far Cry 6
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: Ultra DirectX Raytracing: Off
The first game is Far Cry 6. Here, the Intel Core i7 13700K shows its dominance over AMD counterparts. Here are the rounded off average frames and also 1% low fps.
Cyberpunk 2077
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: Ultra Texture: High Ray Tracing: Off DLSS: Off
Next, we have another popular title, Cyberpunk 2077. The story is the same, where current gen Intel CPUs can pump over 140 fps on average while the Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs struggle to push past 130 fps.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: High DLSS: Off
Last but not least, we tested the Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X put up some fight but ultimately fall short of the Intel Core i7 13700K. What surprised in this game is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D beating all the current gen Intel and AMD flagships. Based on this result, we are very excited to get our hands on the upcoming Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs with 3D V-Cache.
Clock Speed
We ran the AIDA64 Stress Test for 10 minutes and here are the maximum frequency and average frequency of all cores.
CPU Temperature
During the same AIDA64 Stress Test, we monitored the CPU Temperatures with Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler. Here are the CPU temps for your reference.
Power Consumption
During the Blender render, we measured the CPU Package Power Draw using the HWiNFO tool. The following table consists of the peak CPU Package Power Draw as reported by HWiNFO.
Final Verdict
With a retail price of $450 and the performance it offers, the Intel Core i7 13700K is one of the best CPUs from Intel. It is definitely a better option both in terms of price and performance if you compare with the expensive AMD Ryzen 9 7900X. The power consumption is a concern. The Intel Core i7 13700K draws more power and also runs hotter than the AMD Ryzen 7900X, which costs $150 more. But the advantage of the Raptor Lake CPUs from Intel is it still supports DDR4 Memory. Overall, we are impressed with the price, performance (both gaming and productivity) of the Intel Core i7 13700K. Comment * Name * Email * Website
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