Introduction
Intel’s next generation 13th Gen Intel Core processors are launching, and we have a full review of the Intel Core i5-13600K CPU. What has been dubbed as “Raptor Lake” Intel’s 13th Gen Core processors are the next evolution of Intel’s unique hybrid architecture consisting of performance cores and efficiency cores. The 13th Gen processors from Intel build upon the 12th Gen Core Processors (Alder Lake) and extend the architecture to include more efficient cores, more cache, and higher clock speeds with some other tweaks. Also, don’t miss our Intel Core i9-13900K CPU Review.
Intel has announced the lineup of 13th Gen CPUs, with complete specs, and frequencies as well as pricing. This is the official launch of product availability, and where we can show you benchmarks and performance in games. In this review, we will look at several synthetic benchmarks, including multi-core and single-core performance, and no less than 8 games worth of performance at 4K, 1440p and 1080p. Our CPU comparisons today are very comprehensive, culminating in 10 total CPUs, 4 from the Ryzen 7000 series, 1 from the Ryzen 5000 series, and 3 from the Intel 12th Generation series.
To fully learn what the 13th Gen Intel Core Processors bring to the table in terms of new features, please read page 1 of our Intel Core i9-13900K CPU Review. We are not going to go over the new features here, but we will briefly lay out the major plot points. Intel’s 13th Gen Core Desktop Processors bring double the Efficient-cores (E-cores) to each SKU, improving multi-threading performance quite a bit at each level. This is especially true for the i5-13600K which brings a lot more cores to the $300 CPU price point.
In addition, Intel has increased L2 and L3 cache sizes on every CPU, which is a good thing for gaming performance and office applications. Finally, Intel has increased core clock speeds on each CPU, bringing faster boost clocks which just helps everything. You will also continue to find support for both DDR5 and DDR4, as well as PCI-Express 5.0 and support for LGA 1700 sockets maintaining computability with Z690 motherboards for the previous Alder Lake generation.
Intel Core i5-13600K
The Intel Core i5-13600K has an RCP USD of $319. It is a 14 combined core CPU made up of 6 performance-cores and 8 efficient-cores for a total of 20 threads 14(6+8). It has 24MB of Intel Smart Cache (L3) and 20MB of Total L2 Cache. It has a P-core Max Turbo Frequency of up to 5.1GHz, and an E-core Max Turbo Frequency of up to 3.9GHz. It has 20 total CPU PCIe lanes and supports DDR5 5600 and DDR4 3200. The Processor Base Power is 125W and the Max Turbo Power is 181W.
| Intel Core i5-13600K | Intel Core i5-12600K | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Cores | 14 | 10 |
| Performance Cores | 6 | 6 |
| Efficient Cores | 8 | 4 |
| Total Threads | 20 | 16 |
| Max P-core Turbo | 5.1GHz | 4.9GHz |
| Max E-core Turbo | 3.9GHz | 3.6GHz |
| L2 Cache | 20MB | 9.5MB |
| L3 Cache | 24MB | 20MB |
| Turbo Power | 181W | 150W |
The direct competition for the Intel Core i5-13600K is going to be AMD’s Ryzen 5 7600X which has an MSRP of $299. However, the Ryzen 5 7600X only has 6-cores and a maximum of 12 threads. With thread support of 20 on the i5-13600K, it has a natural multi-threading advantage over the 7600X. It will be interesting to see how it lines up with the benchmarks today.
Our CPUs were in a nice box presentation. The CPU itself looks identical to that of the 12th Gen Core processor, Alder Lake. On the back, the pin pattern differs from the 12th Gen CPUs slightly, and there are some slight capacitor differences, but otherwise, they look very much the same. Installation into our MSI MEG Z690 ACE motherboard was easy and flawless. We did need to flash the BIOS on this motherboard to the latest version to support the CPU, thankfully we were able to use the flash BIOS button feature to do so to get CPU support.
HWiNFO64 detects our CPU as Intel Core i5-13600K Raptor Lake-S 6+8 Stepping B0 SSPEC SRMBD with a TDP of 125W, which is the base TDP. It shows the correct turbo boost of 5.1GHz.
