Test Bench
The CPU was tested on the MSI Z690 GODLIKE motherboard alongside Alder Lake’s flagship (12900K). Paired with Colorful Gamer DDR5-4800 RAM and an RTX 3090 expect no loose end in performance. The cooling solution featured the Phanteks Glacier One 360 MP with a Asetek AIO cooler.
The Results
In AIDA64, both CPUs were tested at locked frequencies to show the temperatures and power consumption. At 4.9GHz, the 12900K consumes around 281W of power, whereas the 13900K is 100W lower at 177W. That’s impressive! As for the temperatures, the 12900K is at 86C and the 13900K showcasing its efficiency and enhanced heat dissipation runs much more cooler (at 61C). The CPUs were then overclocked to 5.2GHz which is a bit weird because the 13900K normally boosts >5.2GHz. The 13900K even now is cooler (76C) than the 12900K (80C). The power consumption difference is marginal at just 20W.
CinebenchR23
The 13900K was then tested in CinebenchR23 showing massive increments as compared to last-Gen. However, due to lower clocks on the 13900K, it fails to beat the 7950X. The CPU in its current stage scores somewhere around 37,000-39,000 at stock speeds. To put this into perspective, we compiled a few relative performance charts.
CPU-Z
Moving over to CPU-Z, the 13900K’s lead becomes neglegible in single core testing. However, multi-core workloads is where Raptor Lake shines the most. To put that into perspective; The 13900K falls behind many of the CPUs in its league due to slower clocks, however, it does manage to beat out the Ryzen 9 7950X. The multi-core benchmarks are just a bit short of the competition. They’re not outright bad, although at higher frequencies, we can expect better results.
Gaming Performance
Moving on to raw gaming performance, we see the biggest differences. Against the 13900K at lower clocks (4.9GHz), the 12900K pulls ahead in various games, which is not good because Raptor Lake being a generation leap should almost always (~95%) perform much better. Another graph shows us the 13900K at both frequencies (5.2GHz + 4.9GHz). The results are still……confusing. In some games, we see a huge difference between the 13900K at 5.2GHz and 4.9GHz whereas in others, the 12900K crushes the 13900K.
Release Date
Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs are en route and planned for announcement during Intel’s Innovation Event on the 27th of September. We will see these CPUs on shelves by the 20th of October.
