Intel today unveiled its 13th generation Intel Core processors. Targeting fixed PCs initially, these new chips once again give pride of place to performance… and consumption.
It is now a trend in the PC market, brands of processors and graphics cards are part of a race for power and consumption. After AMD and its Ryzen 7000, it’s Intel’s turn to present its 13th generation of Intel Core chips. Raptor Lake “. We take a look at what’s new.
The “World’s Fastest” Desktop Processor
According to Intel, the brand takes back the crown in terms of performance thanks to this new generation. It is the Intel Core i9-13900K which will take the role of champion in this new range. With no less than 24 cores, 32 threads and a frequency that can go up to 5.8 GHz.
Be careful, when Intel highlights the capabilities of its processor against the competition, it compares itself to AMD’s Ryzen 5000 generation. It’s quite legitimate from Intel, the Ryzen 7000 range has just been launched and the manufacturer did not have the time to update its own comparisons. It will be up to the press to decide between the two brands and determine who will be the most efficient this year between AMD and Intel.
More concretely, for this processor, Intel announces a performance increase of 15% in mono threadand up to 41% in multithreaded . This would translate to a performance boost of 24% in video games and 34% for creative work.
Raptor Lake Architecture
The new generation of Intel Core processor is based on Raptor Lake, which very logically takes over from Alder Lake. The architecture introduces several important changes, but we are still on a simple refresh of the range. The 12th generation hybrid philosophy is still there, with performance-oriented cores (P-cores) and energy-saving cores (E-cores).
This new generation relies on an increase in the number of E-Cores on several references, an increase in the L2 cache for each core by 2 MB, and on a rise in frequency. The latter is done thanks to a better control of the operating voltage of the processor. At equal voltage, Intel announces that it can draw 200 MHz more from its Raptor Lake processors.
On the memory side, the 13th generation is still compatible with DDR4 and DDR5, but now offers support for the faster DDR5-5200.
Last detail for the new architecture: a new version of the faster Compute Fabric component of 900 MHz. As a reminder, this is the component responsible for communication between the cores, consistency and the scheduling of the tasks to be carried out. The Thread Director has also been updated in software and Intel promises to take advantage of what’s new in Windows 11 2022 to maximize performance.
The manufacturing process used is still Intel 7, but with new enhancements marking a 3rd generation for Intel SuperFin transistors. The manufacturer therefore does not go through TSMC for the manufacture of its processors, one of the elements of differentiation with other chip designers like Apple or AMD.
Consumption breaks the ceiling
Like AMD and Nvidia, Intel highlights the best performance of its new chips at equal consumption. But as with competitors, the new architecture can go higher in consumption, and thus break new records in the field.
More concretely, Intel promises to reach the level of performance of an Intel Core i9 12900K chip at 241 W with an Intel Core i9 13900K chip at only 65 W. Note that the firm uses here the performance multithreaded with therefore a clear advantage for the 13th generation and the multiplication of low-power E-cores.
By increasing the consumption and the heat generated by the chip to 253 W, Intel promises to achieve the famous +41% performance promised by its new architecture.
A new but not required Intel Z790 platform
Unlike previous generations, and this is important to note, Intel is not going to force its customers to renew their motherboard to benefit from the new processors. The 13th generation runs on the same LGA1700 socket and motherboards with chipsets Intel Series 600 will be compatible.
It’s a nice turnaround between AMD and Intel. Until then, it was rather AMD which was known for a good follow-up of its platform, the AM4 socket having known several generations of Ryzen chips. However, the firm opted for a new AM5 socket for the Ryzen 7000s with a forced adoption of DDR5 memory. From now on, it is Intel which is in the softer evolution, on this end of the year.
For those who wish to mount a new machine, Intel has nevertheless provided a new Intel Z790 platform which adds more PCI Express 4.0 lines (in addition to the 16 PCIe 5.0 lines managed by the CPU). thechipsetsalso offers more speed on the USB bus.
Intel Core i5, i7, i9: the detailed range
13th generation Intel processors will be available from October 20. The brand is starting its generation with a range of processors for desktop PCs, but we should soon see the H, HX, P and U ranges land for our laptops.
More concretely, the 13th generation range as with six references, two Intel Core i9, two Intel Core i7 and two Intel Core i5. Each time, Intel offers a K reference with Intel UHD Graphics 770 graphics chip, and a KF reference without the graphics chip.
Unfortunately, Intel is only communicating dollar pricing at this time. Prices in the United States do not change for the Core i9 compared to the 12th generation, but are on the rise for the other references. Where the Intel Core i5 12600 launched at $264 or $289 (KF and K respectively), the 13600 model drops to $294 and $319.
All this is without counting the new parity between the dollar and the euro. Suffice to say that the prices in France are likely to be very salty.
Are you looking for a new processor for your computer and you are lost in this vast market? Here is our selection of the best processors to take full advantage of your games and applications.
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