After the release of a new generation of AMD processors, it's Intel's turn: sales of the new, 13th generation of Raptor Lake processors have recently started. And unlike most other experts, we will start our acquaintance with it not with the top-end Core i9-13900K or even Core i5-13600K, but with the pre-top or flagship of a healthy person: Core i7-13700K.
We also have the 13900K and will definitely test it in the future, but we have to admit that such processors are designed for beautiful graphics, FPS, and top of the list of the fastest that the PC industry can offer.
Many people have heard about the hot temper and appetite of the latest generation i9s, but few people know that the new and previous i7s are also impressive, but without hot radiators and power supplies. So, traditionally, we're going to give you a brief and no-holds-barred description of what we think is the best processor of 2022.
Contents:
- Features
- Heating and energy consumption
- Test results
- Tests in games
- Conclusions
- Where can I buy the i7-13700K processor?
Features
Looking at the 13700K's specs, it might seem like we've seen it somewhere before: 8 high-performance and 8 energy-efficient cores, 24 threads, 30 megabytes of L3 cache, integrated UHD 770 graphics, and a 10-nanometer process technology. Doesn't it remind you of the previous flagship Core i9-12900K?
Yes, but this time the performance cores are based on the updated Raptor Cove microarchitecture, the L2 cache is 10 megabytes larger, the frequencies have been raised by 200 and 300 MHz for the P and E cores, respectively, and what is perhaps most important is the price tag, which has dropped from $589 for the previous flagship to $409 for the new pre-top.
Yes, you heard right: a pre-top that is better than last year's flagship in terms of performance, energy efficiency, and heat dissipation, and is also $180 cheaper. Intel has finally become the best choice for your money: motherboards are three times cheaper than the AM5 platform, DDR4 is more than twice as cheap as DDR5, and we're not talking about the secondary market.
Core i7-13700K is somehow inconvenient to compare with Ryzen 7 7700X, 8+8 vs. 8 cores is not quite the same weight category, but that's not us, it's AMD that put 7700X in the same price category as the fresh Intel foretop. The test configurations were also awkward.
ASUS's ROG HERO with the latest BIOS seems to be here and there, but the top-of-the-line DDR5-6400 low-timing CL32 RAM from Kingston failed to run at 6400 on the AM5 platform, and had to be lowered to 6000.
Heating and energy consumption
While AMD has hit the DDR5 ceiling waiting for magical BIOSes to fix everything or not, and AMD EXPO certified kits have so far stopped at 6000, last year's predecessor Core i7-12700KF worked with the DDR5-6400 XMP profile without any problems, just like the hero of our article. By the way, the recommended price for both i7s is the same, but at the moment last year's i7 is slightly cheaper.
And as we can see from Cinebench R23, it's not only cheaper, but also cooler and with less appetite. 12700KF on the left, 13700K in the middle, and AMD's octa-core 7700X on the right.
The 12700KF with frequencies of 4.7 GHz for performance cores and 3.6 for economical ones takes 160 watts from the socket and heats up to 72 degrees, the newest one holds impressive frequencies of 5.3 and 4.2 GHz with 210 watts of consumption and temperatures up to 83 degrees, and the new octa-core from AMD greets us with familiar red boiling water, 5 gigahertz and 145 watts of appetite.
The top-of-the-line SRO from ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 was responsible for cooling and, judging by the results, 12700KF is generally cool, 13700K can do with simpler cooling, unlike Intel's fresh fiery top. And only a Der8auer will help fresh Ryzen. The rest of the test bench components are on your screen.
Test results
Почнемо із Cinebench R23. 13700K розгромив все на своєму шляху і незрозуміло чому ці процесори взагалі знаходяться в одній ціновій категорії. Новий i7 швидше за попередника на третину і більш ніж у півтора рази швидше за 7700X, який коштує ті ж 20 тисяч гривень.
In the Blender and Corona benchmarks, the new product also leaves its rivals no chance. The larger number of cores makes its mark: the gap with competitors is huge and the phrase "one-third and more than one and a half times faster" can be applied to most rendering tasks. By the way, you shouldn't write off the 12700KF, especially considering its current price..
It turned out that this phrase can also be applied to mixed tasks used in the Geekbench 5 benchmark. It is gratifying that the Core i7-13700K is consistently in the lead in the single-threaded workload, which means that it should also perform well in games.
The new Ryzen has just managed to outperform the Alder Lake of a year ago in PCMark 10, and now it has to catch up with Raptor Lake, and if you look at the results in 3DMark Time Spy, the 7700X has almost caught up with the 13700K and is doing well with the RTX 4090 in the graphics test. However, Ryzen's 60 percent lag behind the 13700K in the CPU test is depressing.
At first glance, it may seem that the processors show approximately the same results in Puget's benchmark for Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, but within the framework of this test and the specifics of these programs, the i7-13700K's gap with the other participants can be called significant.
And if you weren't impressed with the new i7's video performance, the encoding results will definitely impress those who need to encode video quickly. If the 13700K manages to save half a minute or even a minute of time spent encoding one minute of video compared to the competition, imagine how much time it will save with long videos.
The Core i7-13700K is also ahead of the Ryzen 7 7700X in the 7-Zip archiver, where AMD's position is traditionally strong. A significant increase over the previous generation is striking, which is good news.
With the arrival of the new generation, the speed of working with AES encryption has increased significantly. In the built-in benchmark of the Veracrypt program, the Core i7-13700K was 30% faster than its predecessor, and 46% faster than its price competitor from AMD.
Tests in games
Cyberpunk 2077, Full HD, ultra settings, raytracing on ultra, DLSS in Quality mode. I think that many people, including us, were waiting for Ryzen's revenge in gaming. But with the arrival of the RTX 4090, the stakes have risen, the FPS has increased, and the results of the new octa-core from AMD are nothing short of depressing. It's not that it can't catch up with the newcomer, it significantly loses to the 12700KF of a year ago with a price tag of more than $100 lower. I don't even want to mention the results of rare events.
The built-in test in Guardians of the Galaxy is not perfect, and in the case of the Core i7-12700KF system, all test runs experienced freezes that threw off its results for very rare events. There were no such problems on the 13700K and 7700X systems. The 13700K again demonstrated an impressive advantage over its competitors, especially in terms of minimum frame rate.
In the Hitman 3 benchmark, the Ryzen 7 7700X recovered a bit and almost caught up with the new Core i7-13700K and even outperformed it in very rare events. Most likely, the game does not use energy-efficient cores, which could theoretically give a frame rate increase on the new Intel foretop. Anyway, good results on all systems.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Ultra High graphics preset, and 13700K are again in the lead. But the Ryzen 7 7700X is not far behind the newcomer, and sometimes even ahead of it in terms of minimum FPS. In any case, I can't call the 7700X a slow processor, but it's not too expensive. I'm sure AMD will adjust the prices and then the 7700X will be worth considering.
Far Cry 6 still hasn't been optimized, but at least there are no terrible friezes that were in the Ryzen 9 7950X test. Probably, the drivers are not standing still. But there are still problems with the performance of AMD processors in the game. The utilization of the RTX 4090 GPU does not even reach half, and this is with DXR shadows enabled.
Red Dead Redemption 2, the graphics settings slider is as far to the right as possible without DLSS. The game did not like the previous generation of Intel processors and continues to dislike it. It is not surprising why the RTX 4090 with Core i9-12900K did not show its full potential in our previous test. The octa-core Ryzen 7 7700X is the clear winner in this game in all respects.
Well, how can we not test the latest installment of Lara Croft's adventures from 2018? RT shadows on ultra in addition to the highest graphics preset. The RTX 4090 GPU requires more powerful processors to hit the ground running, so the test participants have to work hard. The i7-13700K is expectedly in the lead, outperforming its rivals by 30 or even more frames per second.
Conclusions
For us, the results are not a revelation, as a year ago we tested the i7-12700K and came to about the same conclusion: the i7 is the flagship of a healthy person, and the i9 is the flagship of a reviewer, where the first places in the charts outweigh common sense. I hope that AMD will remember common sense, as it once gained popularity thanks to attractive prices against the competition, and not vice versa.
Where to buy the i7-13700K processor
The Artline online store specializes in the sale of computers and components. This resource offers CPU 13700K at the market price. Users will be able to buy a high-quality processor with a guarantee. Additionally, on the Artline website, you can pick up a motherboard, memory, and other components to build a modern gaming computer.