Intel Core i7-13700K review: Solid performance and more balanced power consumption

About three months after the official launch, let’s go back to the 13th gen Intel Core processors for the Bench test Core i7-13700K. It is a CPU that, together with the Core i5-13600K (Review) and the top of the range Core i9-13900K – in addition to the recent 13900KS – closes the triptych of the Core K “Raptor Lake-S” line, models completely unlocked for TDP and clock multiplier, aimed at the enthusiast range or in any case at those who love to hack and try their hand at overclocking to squeeze the most out of their system. We have discussed Raptor Lake processors on several occasions and compared performance/consumption with AMD’s Ryzen 7000 which, for its part, can boast considerable energy efficiency thanks to the 5nm TSMC node. From this point of view, Intel is slightly late: the first solutions on the Intel 4 node (formerly 7nm) are in any case around the corner and in the meantime it finds itself battling with a less efficient technology which, however, has been optimized to the extreme , so much so that it can still guarantee very solid performance in any area of ​​use.

At the time of writing the article we have no way of being able to compare the most recent Ryzen 7000X 3D, solutions that will arrive at the end of February and which will further raise the level of the clash between AMD and Intel, especially in gaming. Said this, the Core i7-13700K specs are very enticing and, data in hand, they substantially equal the flagship Alder Lake Core i9-12900K (our tests HERE). In the meantime, it should be remembered that the Santa Clara company has already brought Raptor Lake to the notebook platform with equally interesting results; for further information, we invite you to read our test on the Razer Blade 16 with Intel Core i9-13980HX and the newcomer NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop.

First let’s see how the Core i7-13700K in terms of consumption and performance, do a recap of the most important innovations introduced by Intel with the Raptor Lake platform which, we recall, is backward compatible with previous generation Alder Lake-S thanks to the use of same LGA 1700 socket. In addition to the adoption of the new high-performance cores – or P-Core – Raptor Covethe notable features of the Core 13th gen processors are at least three: doubling the number of efficient cores (E-Core), sharp increase in L2 cachevery high clock frequencies that can easily exceed 6 GHz in overclocking.

At the base of the 13th gen Core products is the third generation Intel 7 production node (formerly 10nm), combined with a hybrid architecture that provides for the coexistence of P-Core and E-Core, managed and optimized in performance by theIntel Thread Directorfurther revised from the Core 12th gen.

DDR5 support improves, now native for modules at 5,600 MT/s, with the possibility of using even the cheapest DDR4, while on the GPU side we find the UHD 770 chip, with options for models without integrated graphics chip (see F series models or KF). The Raptor Lake-S platform obviously offers standards compatibility PCI-E 5.0/4.0, USB 3.2 gen 2×2 20Gbps and WiFi 6E; together with the 13th gen Core CPUs, the new LGA motherboards with 700 series chipsets are also available, not very distant in terms of performance compared to the Intel 600 line, Z690 in primis (we reiterate backwards compatible).

Coming to the protagonist of the review, Core i7-13700K is a 16 core/24 thread chip which, like the Core i9-12900K, guarantees 8 P-Core (with Hyper-Threading) and 8 E-Core; there are 24MB of L2 cache on board and 30MB Intel Smart Cacheall for a Boost frequency that can go up to 5.4GHz. As for the declared TDP, we are at the levels of a Core i9-13900K, i.e. Processor Base Power (PBP) at 125 watts and Maximum Turbo Power (MTP) at 253 watts.

As usual, to obtain results that are reliable compared to our previous tests, the hardware platform set up for the Core i7-13700K is the same used for the reviews of the Core i5-13600K and Core i9-13900K. The test includes a session dedicated to consumption and temperatures, areas where we had some surprises compared to many colleagues who have tested the same CPU; here is the setup in detail:

Processors:

• Intel Core i9-13900K, Core i7-13700K, Core i5-13600K
• Intel Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, Core i5-12600K
• Intel Core i9 11900K, Core i7-11700K, Core i5-11600K
• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, Ryzen 5 7600X
• AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X and 5800X3D, Ryzen 5 5600X

Heatsinks:

• ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 for AMD AM5 LGA 1718, Intel LGA 1700 and Ryzen 7 5800X3D
• NZXT Kraken X63 for Intel LGA 1200 and AMD AM4

Motherboards:

• ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi for Core i9-13900K
• ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero for Ryzen 7000
• ASUS ProArt X570 Creator WiFi for Ryzen 7 5800X3D
• ASUS ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming WiFi for Intel Core 12th gen
• ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII HERO for Intel 11th gen
• ASUS Prime X570 PRO for AMD Ryzen 5000 series

Memories:

• DDR5:

  • Corsair Vengeance 32GB 6200 MT/s CL36 (Intel Core 13th and 12th Gen)
  • G.Skill Trident Z5 32GB 6000@6200 MT/s C30 (Ryzen 7000)

• DDR4:

  • Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 32GB 3600 MT/s CL16 (Ryzen 5000 and Intel 11th gen)
  • Kingston Fury Renegade 32GB 4000 MT/s CL16 (Intel Core i5-13600K)

Graphic card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 FE

SSD Storage: Corsair MP600 PRO LPX 2TB

power supply: Corsair RM1000x 1000W

Operating system: Windows 11 PRO updated to the latest version

Software suites:

• Cinebench R15
• Cinebench R23
• Corona Benchmark
• Indigo Benchmark
• Blender – BMW scene
• Built-in CPU-Z Benchmark
• 7-Zip Benchmark 32MB
• WinRAR Multi-threaded test
• PCMark 10
• 3DMark Time SPy CPU Test
• AIDA64 Extreme AES and SH3 encryption
• Mozilla Kraken (web browsing)
• Far cry 6
• Watch Dogs Legion
• Gears 5
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Shadow of the Tomb Rider

So let’s start with temperatures and fuel consumption, often the Achilles’ heel Intel K-series processors which, at the same time, over the last few years we have learned to manage and set so as not to distort the results. It has been repeatedly stated that the behavior of this type of CPU is decisively influenced by the motherboard on which it is installed, as well as by the parameters chosen by the user who can decide whether to “unblock” the TDP values ​​beyond those indicated by the manufacturer. We believe this aspect is essential to express a genuine judgment on consumption and operating temperatures, as Intel’s guidelines for PBP and MTP, if respected, return completely different values ​​and in line with the product data sheet.

The tests on the Core i7-13700K were conducted, as in the past, with ASUS MCE (Multi Core Enhancement) enabled, but despite this the results in terms of consumption and temperatures can be considered very good. As expected, the Intel CPU will be inferior to the two top of the range Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X in multi-threading, however with 216 watts under load we can define it quite efficient if we look at the score in Cinebench R23 for example (here we obviously expect a debate). As the graph suggests, in this case the performance is superior to a Ryzen 9 7900X which however consumes 23 watts less under Cinebench loop.

The temperatures under stress are also good, especially if we compare the Ryzen 7000 and the Core i9-13900K, while like the top of the range Raptopr Lake, the overclocking margin is consistent and within the reach of a good AiO liquid cooler. In this session the Core i7-13700K shows a lot of its potential: we got without any particular problems i 6.1GHz Boost with all P-Core set to 6 GHz an All-core frequency under AVX load of 5.7 GHz (higher than the 5.5 GHz of the 13900K) and 5.8GHz All Core on less demanding applications like CPU-Z.

As for pure performance, we had no particular surprises and we can confirm that it’s new Core i7 Intel is positioned practically at the levels of a Ryzen 9 7900X; in multi-threading a lot depends on the applications, while in single-core Intel still has a small margin in absolute terms.

AMD as usual is ahead in particular scenarios such as WinRar and Aida, with some real draws which at this point perhaps reward AMD by virtue of lower global consumption.

In gaming at 1080p we detect more or less the same behavior which, at least in our suite, often sees the Core i7-13700K draw with its older brother Core i9, thus resulting in a disadvantage in those titles that reward the AMD architecture. Broadly speaking though, the 16-core Intel almost always tops the charts, often being approached by the Core i5-13600K.

Following this round of in-depth testing, it clearly emerges that theIntel Core i7-13700K represents one of the most suitable choices for that enthusiast user who, in addition to gaming, looks particularly at productivity and multi-threading. The latter is certainly a distinctive feature of the Raptor Lake processors, helped in this by the substantial doubling of the efficient cores which certainly do not have the performance of the Raptor Cove, but they help a lot when the software is well optimized in multi-threading.

This CPU performed very well in the consumption test and, although more demanding in terms of energy than the Ryzen 7000 (in multi-core), it seems very far from the Core i9-13900K which, in reality, showed a similar trend when we use the TDP parameters compiled by Intel.

As revealed by the benchmark graphs, the absolute performance is comparable to a Ryzen 9 7900X, with the two models playing it out based on the application used. If instead we look at the Core i9-12900K, which basically has an identical core/thread configuration, the Core i7-13700K is certainly to be preferred, both for consumption and for single-multi core performance, aided in this by higher clock frequencies thrusts.

Compared to the Ryzen 7 7700X the performance is much better, the AMD chip only really competes in games – based on the title – but is at the same time cheaper with a difference of around 40 euros. Currently Core i7-13700K has a price starting from 420 euroswhile in our opinion the 13700KF and 13700/13700F variants (with and without iGPU), available under the 400 euro threshold, should also be considered.