A new round of CPU wars is officially staged! After AMD launched the Ryzen 7000 series, Intel immediately counterattacked with the 13th-generation Core series, with a 15% increase in single-core performance and a 41% increase in multi-core performance, claiming to bring the world’s best gaming experience. What are the improvements in the 13th generation Core series architecture?How much improvement is the actual performance compared to the 12th generation?? This article will discuss them one by one.
Raptor Lake Architecture Explained
The development code of Intel’s 13th-generation Core series is Raptor Lake. As the successor to Alder Lake, Raptor Lake belongs to the second-generation product of the Hybrid hybrid architecture and is produced using Intel 7 process technology, the third-generation 10nm SuperFin process.
The previous generation of Alder Lake took the lead in applying a hybrid architecture. The CPU core consists of P-Core (Performance Core) and E-Core (Efficient Core), and then the Intel Thread Director will work together the two cores to effectively utilize computing resources. Raptor Lake follows a hybrid architecture, in which the P-Core uses a new generation of Raptor Cove cores. The biggest improvement is that the L2 Cache capacity is greatly increased, each P-Core is increased from 1.25MB to 2MB, and the new Dynamic prefetcher algorithm is used.
Double the number of E-Cores
The E-Core of Raptor Lake is still the Gracemont core of Alder Lake, and the architecture has not improved, but Intel directly doubled the number of E-Cores of each model, from 8 to 16 for the Core i9 series, and from 8 to 16 for the Core i5 and Core i7 series. 4 to 8, so the total number of cores and threads of each 13th-generation Core series has been comprehensively improved compared with the previous generation, and the top-level Core i9-13900K also provides 24 cores and 32 threads.
In addition, the L2 Cache capacity shared by the four E-Core cores has been increased from 2MB in the previous generation to 4MB. The capacity of L3 Cache is increased according to the number of cores, and it supports the new dynamic INI (Inclusive / Non-Inclusive) operation mode, which can effectively optimize different application environments.
Whether Raptor Lake P-Core or E-Core, the turbo clock is greatly improved compared to the previous generation. The P-Core of the top Core i3-13900K can reach 5.8GHz, and the E-Core can also reach 4.3GHz. The official standard core performance is higher than the previous generation. 12900K increases by 15%, and multi-core can increase by 41%.
DDR5 support up to 5600
Alder Lake added DDR5 memory support for the first time, and built-in DDR4 and DDR5 memory controllers. Coming to the current generation of Raptor Lake, Intel still retains the dual-memory controller, DDR4 speed stops at DDR4-3200, and DDR5 increases from DDR5-4800 to 5600.
However, to achieve DDR5-5600 speed is still subject to certain conditions, it is necessary to use a 1DPC (1 DIMM per 64-bit channel) motherboard, that is, a motherboard with only two DIMM slots, and only 1R (Single Rank) can be used. memory module. As for 2DPC (that is, the motherboard with four DIMM slots), the official only supports up to DDR5-4400 speed.
The new Z790 chip debuts
The 13th generation Core series continues to use the LGA1700 socket and is compatible with the existing Intel 600 series chips. Users of the existing 12th generation platform should be able to upgrade to the 13th generation CPU after updating the motherboard BIOS. Of course, with the 13th generation CPU, there is also the motherboard of the Intel Z790 chip. Compared with the Z690, the improvement of the Z790 chip is not obvious, mainly because the number of PCI-E 4.0 Lanes has increased from 12 to 20, and the PCI-E 3.0 Lanes has been reduced from 16 to 8. The number of USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interfaces (theoretical transfer speed is 20Gbps) has also been increased from 4 to 5.
| wafer | Intel Z690 | Intel Z790 |
|---|---|---|
| PCI-E 4.0 Lanes | 12 | 20 |
| PCI-E 3.0 Lanes | 16 | 8 |
| USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface | 4 | 5 |
Gen 13 vs Gen 12 spec comparison
The 13th generation Core series is led by 6 K/KF models, which will be officially launched on October 20. This part compares the specification gap between the 13th generation and the 12th generation.
Top Core i9-13900K
The first is the top model Core i9-13900K, with 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores built in, providing a total of 24 cores and 32 threads, which is a big increase compared to the previous generation 12900K (8P+8E, 16 cores, 24 threads). The Max Turbo clock of P-Core is increased from 5.2GHz to 5.8GHz, and the E-Core is also increased from 3.9GHz to 4.3GHz. In terms of power consumption, the Base Power of the 13900K remains at 125W, but the Max Turbo Power is as high as 253W, which is higher than the 241W of the 12900K. The Core i9-13900K is priced at US$589 (about HK$4,623), which is about 10% cheaper than the Core i9-12900K price listed on the official website. Of course, the market price is another matter.
Midstream Core Core i7-13700K
The Core i7-13700K has a built-in 8P + 8E with a total of 16 cores and 24 threads, which is 4 cores and 4 more threads than the previous generation 12700K (8P + 4E, a total of 12 cores and 20 threads). In fact, the number of cores and threads of the Core i7-13700K has caught up with the previous generation 12900K, and the L2 Cache capacity is 10MB more. It can be seen that the current generation Core i7 is enough to beat the previous generation Core i9. The 13700K P-Core Max Turbo clock is as high as 5.4GHz, E -Core can reach 4.2GHz, which is also 0.4GHz higher than 12700K. The Base Power of the 13700K is also 125W, and the Max Turbo Power is as high as 253W, which is more than 30% higher than the 190W of the 12700K. The Core i7-13700K is priced at US$409 (about HK$3,210), which is lower than the current reference price of 12700K indicated on the official website.
13th generation upper car core i5-13600K
Core i5-13600K is the first model to be launched. It has built-in 6P + 8E with a total of 14 cores and 20 threads. Compared with the previous generation 12600K (6P + 4E, a total of 10 cores and 16 threads), it has 4 more cores and 4 threads, and the L2 Cache capacity is large. More than doubled, the L3 Cache is 4MB more. In terms of Max Turbo clock, the P-Core of the 13600K is as high as 5.1GHz, which is 0.2GHz higher than that of the 12600K, and the E-Core can reach 3.9GHz, which is 0.3GHz higher than the previous generation. The Base Power of the 13600K remains at 125W, and the Max Turbo Power is increased from 150W of the 12600K to 181W. The Core i5-13600K is priced at US$319 (about HK$2,504), which is the same as the 12600K reference price indicated on the official website. The above K models all have built-in UHD Graphics 770 graphics core, which is no different from the 12th generation; each KF model does not have a built-in graphics core, and the price is US$25 cheaper than the corresponding K models.
13th Gen vs. 12th Gen Core Series Spec Comparison
For a 13th Gen Core CPU vs. 12th Gen comparison, see this article.
13th Gen vs 12th Gen Intel 13th Gen Core CPU Performance Comparison