Raptor Lake Brings Extra Chunk

As we speak marks the discharge of Intel’s thirteenth technology Core processor sequence, codenamed Raptor Lake. The primary fashions to be unleashed into retail channels are all overclockable components, with six SKUs throughout the Core i9, i7, and i5 product segments. We’ve seen Intel’s heterogeneous or hybrid design with the launch of Intel’s Alder Lake (twelfth Gen Core) merchandise, and the newest Raptor Lake core brings a really comparable design to the desk, however with delicate enhancements designed to assist in giving Intel the forefront within the desktop market.

The launch of Intel’s new lineup is actually the second half of this fall’s desktop CPU releases. AMD bought the primary phrase in a number of weeks again with the launch of their Ryzen 7000 desktop processors, which launched the Zen 4 structure as effectively a big platform replace for AMD with Socket AM5. The brand new high-end Ryzen chips had been well-received (if a bit costly), setting a brand new bar for efficiency and placing AMD firmly into the lead, at the very least for slightly bit. Now it is time for Intel’s personal CPU launch – their rebuttal – the place they get to indicate off what they have been engaged on over the previous few years and whether or not they can retain their edge over AMD for this newest technology of processors.

At a excessive degree, Raptor Lake will be regarded as a mid-cycle improve of kinds for Intel’s present LGA-1700 platform. As the corporate launched Alder Lake and LGA-1700 only a 12 months in the past, they aren’t seeking to overhaul the core CPU structure fairly so quickly, nor the platform for that matter. Intel is conserving to their two-year platform cycle right here, so the 13^th technology of Core processors are designed to convey extra efficiency to the identical platform as Alder Lake. This makes the Raptor Lake launch considerably extra simple than AMD’s current launch, the place AMD overhauled their whole platform whereas additionally making some extra vital CPU structure upgrades within the course of.

As a result of Intel isn’t considerably tweaking their CPU architectures for Raptor Lake, the chip is actually a refined model of Alder Lake. Which means we’re nonetheless a mix of P(erformance) and E(fficiency) CPU cores, based mostly on completely different CPU architectures and designed to permit Intel to hit excessive efficiency ranges in each single/light-threaded workloads that favor the P cores, and closely multi-threaded workloads that may additionally saturate the E cores. The P cores are based mostly on what’s technically a brand new structure, Raptor Cove, whereas the E cores are nonetheless based mostly on the identical Gracemont structure as what we noticed on Alder Lake.

We’ll dive into the interior bits of Raptor Lake a bit afterward, however at a excessive degree, Intel is enhancing efficiency versus Alder Lake in 3 ways.

1. Increased clockspeeds, particularly for the P cores, due to some architectural optimization work mixed with additional refinements of the Intel 7 fab course of
2. Further E cores in all desktop SKUs, to spice up efficiency in multi-threaded workloads
3. Further L2 cache for each the P and E cores. The L3 cache can be a bit bigger, primarily to accommodate the bigger variety of E cores.

The upper clockspeeds and extra cache imply that Raptor Lake must be quicker in nearly all eventualities in comparison with Alder Lake. For single-threaded and lightly-threaded workloads, the quicker P cores can chew by way of work. In the meantime the complete mixture of extra E cores and better clockspeeds implies that multi-threaded efficiency usually reveals even better good points.

Raptor Lake will, in time, be a top-to-bottom launch for Intel and its companions. Which means not solely launching desktop processors, as we’re seeing the primary of at present, but additionally an entire stack of cell components, with U, P, H, and HX sequence processors all deliberate. And whereas cell components are a bit trickier with reference to including clocks and cores whereas staying inside an influence price range, Intel’s design optimizations can be used to enhance vitality effectivity as an alternative, which might be of better significance for the cell market.

Beginning On the High: Core i9-13900K, i7-13700K, and i5-13600K

However to begin issues off, let’s speak about at present’s launch. Intel has opted for a top-to-bottom, desktop-to-mobile launch technique, pulling the set off on its overclockable desktop components first. That is typical of Intel’s current desktop launches, and permits them to get their comparatively decrease quantity desktop chips out first whereas persevering with to ramp for larger quantity desktop and cell components. Altogether Intel is launching 3 tiers of chips unfold over 6 SKUs, all overclockable (Ok) and coming both with and with out (F) built-in graphics.

In comparison with the related 12^th Gen Core SKUs, Intel has changed the P cores with new Raptor Cove cores on a 1:1 foundation. In the meantime for the E cores, Intel has successfully doubled the variety of E cores for every corresponding SKU. e.g., the Core i5-13600K now has eight E-cores whereas the Core i5-12600K had 4. In any other case, TDPs stay unchanged from the earlier chips, with Intel formally focusing on 125W – although PL2 limits have crept up from 241W to 253W.

Intel Core i9-13900K CPU-Z

Focusing first on the flagship chip, the Core i9-13900K has an unbelievable max P-core turbo of 5.8 GHz. This is a rise of 600 MHz over the Core i9-12900K. Though it has the identical efficiency core depend as its predecessor (although with Raptor Cove cores), it now options double the effectivity cores; a complete of 24 hybrid cores comprised of 8P and 16E cores. This makes for eight extra threads, for a complete of 32, up from 24 on the Core i9-12900K. 

One factor to notice in regards to the effectivity cores is that Intel has lowered the bottom frequency of those cores to 2.2 GHz base, which is down from 2.4GHz on Alder Lake. However on the similar time, nonetheless, they’ve additionally elevated the E-core max turbo clockspeed to 4.3 GHz, 400Mhz larger than the three.9 GHz cores on Alder Lake.

Intel has made comparable trade-offs throughout all of its 13^th Gen Core SKUs – so this isn’t simply the case for the i9 components, but additionally the i7 and i5 components as effectively. In the end whereas Intel would ideally prefer to run the E cores at their highest clockspeeds always, the expanded variety of cores makes it tougher to remain inside Intel’s official 125W TDP, necessitating a discount on the bottom clockspeeds.

Intel Core i5-13600K CPU-Z

Shifting down the stack, the Core i7-13700K and KF processors each have a complete of sixteen CPU cores (8P+8E), which is up from 8P+4E on the Core i7-12700K. For these components the utmost P-core turbo clockspeed is 5.4 GHz, whereas the P-core base clockspeed stands at 3.4 GHz.

Lastly, filling out the i5 spot in Intel’s lineup is the Core i5-13600K, which we may even be testing at present. The 13600K components include a complete of fourteen cores in 6P+8E configuration, 4 extra cores than on the Alder Lake i5-12600K. Each the Core i5-13600K and i5-13600KF characteristic a P-core max turbo of as much as 5.1 GHz (up from 4.9 GHz), and an E-core turbo of as much as 3.9 GHz (up from 3.6 GHz).

Z790 Chipset & DDR5-5600 Help

The launch of the 13^th Gen Core chips additionally comes with a brand new technology of motherboards from Intel: Z790. As famous earlier, the 13^th Gen Core chips are backwards-compatible with 600 sequence boards (with the mandatory BIOS replace), to allow them to be used as a drop-in improve or as a part of a recent constructed. However for builders on the lookout for the most effective – and even simply assured CPU compatibility out of the field – Intel is hoping to entice you with Z790.

Like the remainder of the Raptor Lake platform, Z790 will not be a big overhaul of Intel’s current wares. However Z790 does provide perks. Most notable for aspiring builders might be that Z790 boards would be the first boards validated for the upper DDR5 reminiscence speeds that Raptor Lake is able to. Whereas Alder Lake formally topped out at DDR5-4800, Raptor Lake can run at DDR5-5600, serving to to feed the beast a bit extra with larger reminiscence clockspeeds. Fanatics will doubtless run overclocked with XMP kits, however for anybody constructing methods to spec – be it OEMs or particular person builders – this can be a good bump in bandwidth. In the meantime it must be famous that there’s nothing stopping current Z690 boards from being validated for larger speeds as effectively, however that might be as much as motherboard producers working a recent spherical of validation with the brand new Raptor Lake chips.

As for the Z790 chipset itself, it brings a bit extra I/O flexibility in comparison with Z690. Z790 now sports activities 20 PCIe 4 lanes, versus 12 on Z690. That’s augmented with 8 PCIe 3 lanes, 8 fewer than on Z690. Z790 additionally brings assist for yet one more USB 20Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) port than its predecessor, making for a complete of 5.

Sizing Up the Competitors: 13^th Gen Core vs. Ryzen 7000

With Intel’s shift to a heterogeneous CPU structure, like-for-like comparisons between Intel and AMD have turn into slightly tougher. None the much less, as AMD and Intel have advanced to have similarly-named product stacks – and for that matter comparable pricing – it’s not too laborious to line up what chips are primarily in competitors with one another.

On the high-end, Intel goes up in opposition to AMD’s flagship with fewer P cores (or their AMD equal), however is augmenting that with a a lot bigger variety of E cores. In consequence Intel has extra CPU cores to supply total, however the efficiency implications are very workload dependent. The 13900K shines on duties that may fill all 24 cores/32 threads, and ideally can account for the distinction in efficiency between the core sorts. In any other case, AMD gives fewer whole cores, however extra efficiency on a per-core foundation when 9 to 16 cores are wanted.

In Intel’s favor is a decrease CPU price ($589 vs. $699), in addition to official assist for quicker DDR5 reminiscence (and DDR4, if you happen to want it). Whereas AMD gives extra I/O flexibility with as much as 28 PCIe 5 lanes coming from the CPU, in addition to a bigger total L3 cache.

In the meantime on the different finish of the spectrum, the underside of the stack for the 2 firms is introduced up by the i5-13600K and Ryzen 5 7600X. The Intel chip gives 6 Raptor Cove P cores to AMD’s 6 Zen 4 cores, after which Intel added 8 E cores on high of that. However on this case Intel not has the value benefit, because the 13600K is $20 dearer than its AMD competitors. This provides Intel a doubtlessly giant benefit in multi-threaded workloads, although for fewer threads, AMD does have a little bit of a clockspeed lead.

1. Intel Core i9-13900K and i5-13600K Review: Raptor Cove, What’s New?
2. Raptor Lake In Detail: Raptor Cove P-Cores, More Efficiency Cores
3. Z790 Chipset: More I/O Than Z690, But Same Performance
4. Test Bed and Setup: Updating Our Test Suite for 2023
5. Core to Core Latency
6. SPEC2017 Single-Threaded Results
7. SPEC2017 Multi-Threaded Results
8. CPU Benchmark Performance: Power and Office
9. CPU Benchmark Performance: Science
10. CPU Benchmark Performance: Simulation
11. CPU Benchmark Performance: Rendering And Encoding
12. CPU Benchmark Performance: Legacy Tests
13. Gaming Performance: iGPU
14. Gaming Performance: 720p and Lower
15. Gaming Performance: 1080p
16. Gaming Performance: 1440p
17. Gaming Performance: 4K
18. Closing Thoughts