Friday, March 29, 2024

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X vs. Intel Core i9-13900K: spec comparison

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Intel is launching its 13th-generation Raptor Lake processors with the 24-core Core i9-13900K — and on the same day that AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X hits store shelves. The Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X are the flagship offerings of the next generation, and with both arriving so closely, PC builders have a tough choice between AMD or Intel.

Contents

  • Pricing and availability
  • Specs
  • Expected performance
  • Motherboard and socket
  • Should you wait on Raptor Lake?

Although the Core i9-13900K isn’t here yet, we can get an idea about how it holds up to the results we gathered in our Ryzen 9 7950X review. It’s best to wait for further testing before deciding on which CPU is best for you, but one thing’s for sure: The journey to have the best processor of this generation is highly competitive.

Pricing and availability

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

AMD released the Ryzen 9 7950X on the same day Intel announced the Core i9-13900K: September 27, 2022. It retails for $700, though shifts in demand could push that price up or down a hair for a few weeks after release. That’s what we saw with the hugely popular Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which skyrocketed shortly after release before settling down at its list price.

The Core i9-13900K is arriving on October 20. Intel is keeping with the same pricing as the Core i9-12900K this generation, with the new part clocking in at $589. That’s a bit of an optimistic price, as the Core i9-12900K regularly sold for around the $620 mark.

Even at that price, though, the Core i9-13900K is much cheaper than the Ryzen 9 7950X. Overall, you’re looking at around $100 less for Intel’s part, maybe $120 at the most. We’ll have to see how pricing holds up in the context of performance, but in a strange shift, it’s possible Intel could offer the best value going into this next generation.

Specs

On paper, the Core i9-13900K seems to beat the Ryzen 9 7950X into the ground, but there’s a little more to the story. Like the previous generation, the Core i9-13900K combines performance (P) cores and efficient (E) cores. The E-cores aren’t nearly as powerful, so although they raise the core count, they don’t scale performance in the same way.

Ryzen 9 7950X
Core i9-13900K
Cores/threads
16/32
24 (8+16)/32
Boost clock speed
5.7GHz
5.8GHz
Base clock speed
4.5GHz
3GHz(P-core), 2.2GHz(E-core)
Cache (L2 + L3)
80MB
68MB
Maximum boost power
230W
253W
Price
$700
$590

They certainly help with multitasking, though, which we saw in our Core i9-12900KS review. You get 24 total cores on the Core i9-13900K, split between eight P-cores and 16 E-cores. The Ryzen 9 7950X, meanwhile, comes with 16 cores. Although the Intel chip wins out on overall core count, the E-cores don’t support hyperthreading. That means you’re getting 32 threads on both parts.

The other spec of note is cache. Intel is boosting its cache, likely in response to the gaming prowess of AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech, and you get a total of 68MB split across L2 and L3 cache. AMD still has a slight lead here, though, with the Ryzen 9 7950X coming with 80MB of total cache. AMD focuses that cache more in L3, as the Core i9-13900K has twice the L2 cache as AMD’s part.

Although we can do the spec comparison endlessly, the reality is that the design and architecture are what ultimately determine performance. The only apples-to-apples spec we can compare is power, which is much closer than it used to be. AMD pushed power up to 230W for the platform, edging closer to the 253W limit of the Core i9-13900K.

Expected performance

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The Core i9-13900K isn’t here yet, but we can still get a general sense of how the CPU will perform based on the benchmarks Intel has shared. In content creation tests like PugetBench for Photoshop and Pugetbench for Premiere Pro, Intel says the Core i9-13900K offers a 33% and 16% increase over the Ryzen 9 5950X, respectively.

The Ryzen 9 7950X provides an 18% increase in Premiere Pro and a 48% increase in Photoshop over the Ryzen 9 5950X based on our testing. That seems to suggest that the Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X will be close in content creation tasks, with the Ryzen 9 7950X edging out a small lead. It’s important to wait for third-party benchmarks, though, not only to validate Intel’s performance claims but also to ensure a one-to-one comparison.

In gaming, Intel says the Core i9-13900K provides around a 25% increase in performance over the Ryzen 9 5950X. Our testing of the Ryzen 9 7950X only produced a 13% increase over the last-gen part, which could point to higher gaming performance on Intel’s chip. Again, though, we need to wait for more testing to see how the processors compare across a range of games.

Prior to launch, it’s hard to say where exactly the two processors will land or if the extra $110 AMD is asking will earn its keep. The Ryzen 9 7950X is the fastest CPU we’ve tested to date, but the Core i9-13900K isn’t here yet. If Intel’s benchmarks hold up, it’s hard to imagine there will be a bad choice between them.

Motherboard and socket

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The Ryzen 9 7950X marks a big departure for AMD. It only works with the new AM5 socket, putting to rest the AM4 socket AMD has used since 2016. Along with a new motherboard, you’ll also need new DDR5 memory. Unlike the Core i9-13900K, AMD only supports DDR5 on Ryzen 7000 processors.

DDR5 prices are high, but AMD believes they’ll drop soon. Intel is sticking with its approach in the previous generation, offering DDR4 and DDR5 versions of most motherboards. Although the Core i-13900K supports DDR4 and DDR5, you’ll need to buy a motherboard that can fit the memory standard you want to use.

Intel is using the same LGA1700 socket, so if you built a machine with a 12th-gen processor, you should be able to upgrade without buying a new motherboard. Be sure to check the support resources for your particular motherboard, though. Some motherboards, particularly B-series and H-series boards, may not offer support.

Although you’ll need more to upgrade to the Ryzen 9 7950X, most people will need to buy a new motherboard regardless of which CPU you choose. Going with DDR4 or reusing some you have could save you some money with the Core i9-13900K, but it depends on what your upgrade plans look like in the future.

Should you wait on Raptor Lake?

Wccftech

At this point, it’s hard to recommend buying the Ryzen 9 7950X. It’s a fantastic processor, the fastest we’ve tested by far, but Intel is promising similar performance gains for around $100 less. With the CPU arriving in a few weeks, it’s probably best to wait until all the testing is out so we can see how the Ryzen 9 7950X holds up and if it’s worth the extra $110.

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