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Intel Core i9-13900K review: the best consumer desktop CPU ever made

TechRadar Verdict

This is big.LITTLE architecture’s next evolution. Intel’s new flagship Core i9-13900K is a beast in just about every area, roundly whipping AMD’s competing high-end chips in everything from gaming to synthetic benchmarks. It’s also much better value for money, and requires less power on average to run.

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Pros

+
Dominates in both single-core and multi-core workloads
+
Same pricing as the i9-12900K
+
Top-tier gaming performance
+
Average power consumption is surprisingly low

Cons

—
Runs hot and hungry at maximum load
—
Lacks AMD’s 3D V-cache for gaming
—
Basically overkill for most users

Why you can trust TechRadar
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Intel Core i9-13900K: Two-minute review

It must really hurt to be AMD, sometimes. Team Red has been the underdog since its inception in the late 1960s, formed by employees leaving the then-titanic Fairchild Semiconductor firm — just one year after Intel was established in the exact same way.

Intel had the drop on AMD, and for decades the company in the red corner was beholden to Intel’s will — as a second-source manufacturer, it spent less time making its own components and more time producing patented products for Team Blue. It wasn’t really until the turn of the century that AMD was able to properly kick out, finally managing to secure a chunk of the dedicated CPU market and expanding from there with the product lines we know and love today: Athlon, Bulldozer, and later Ryzen.

The recent launch of AMD’s new ‘Zen 4’ CPUs looked like it could be a turning point for the dark horse of the microprocessor market. We gave five-star reviews to both the Ryzen 9 7950X and the incredible mainstream Ryzen 7 7700X — generational performance was through the roof, blowing Intel’s current 12th-generation chips out of the water.

Unfortunately, Intel is here to ruin the party. Only for AMD, though, to be clear; for us consumers, this party is going to rage all night long. The Intel Core i9-13900K is here, and it’s going to blow your socks off.

Yes, Intel’s 13th-gen ‘Raptor Lake’ CPUs have arrived, and now that we’ve tested them we can firmly say that the flagship chip is an absolute demon in almost every department. It’s not as big of a generational leap in performance when compared to the i9-12900K — unsurprising, given that it’s built on the same architecture while Ryzen 7000 used an entirely new 5nm process — but it’s enough to smack AMD’s best chips into next week.

Expect to see the i9-13900K shoot straight to the top of our most powerful processors list, is basically what we’re saying. This CPU dominates in everything from gaming to number-crunching, delivering best-in-class performance in single- and multi-core workloads.

We run an awful lot of tests when reviewing a new CPU: games, synthetic benchmarks, rendering tests, power, and thermal monitoring. We’re not going to show you our horrible, enormous spreadsheets filled with test results, but we will say this. Out of twenty-four averaged test results, the i9-13900K beat the Ryzen 9 7950X in all but six of them.

Oh, and like one final nail in AMD’s coffin, it’s more than a hundred bucks cheaper. We won’t mince words: this is the best consumer desktop CPU ever made, putting the championship belt squarely back on Intel’s muscular waist. Good job, Team Blue; better luck next time, Team Red.

Intel Core i9-13900K (Intel Core i9) at Amazon for $569.99

Intel Core i9-13900K: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future)

How much does it cost? MSRP $589 (about £500 / AU$850)
When is it available? October 20, 2022
Where can you get it? Available worldwide now

Coming in at $589, the Intel Core i9-13900K’s launch price is exactly the same as that of the Core i9-12900K when it landed back in 2021. No generational price increase is always a good thing; Intel seems to understand this better than some manufacturers, if the ludicrous price of the Nvidia RTX 4090 is anything to go by.

Across all our tests, the 13900K averaged about 25% better performance overall than its predecessor, which is frankly an incredible leap for Intel to make in just one year considering the asking price is unchanged. More importantly, it’s significantly cheaper than AMD’s competing flagship Ryzen 9 7950X, which costs $699.

Another point in Intel’s favor here is that unlike that new Ryzen chip, the 13900K (and all other 13th-gen desktop CPUs from Intel) doesn’t require any other new components — provided you’re upgrading from a 12th-gen chip, at least. The 12th generation saw Intel introduce a new CPU socket, LGA-1700, which means that you’ll need a new motherboard if you’re upgrading a PC with an older processor.

(Image credit: Future)

On the bright side, you won’t necessarily need to buy new memory. You can buy LGA-1700 motherboards with either DDR4 or DDR5 RAM slots; the i9-13900K supports both types of memory, which is convenient since the new DDR5 kits are still quite pricey. You may require a new cooler, though — there’s no stock cooler included with the 13900K, and you’ll need one that is compatible with the LGA-1700 socket.

Don’t get us wrong here; paying almost six hundred dollars for a single component is undeniably not something the average user will want to do. It’s undeniably expensive, but we’re not judging cost here — we’re judging value for money, and the 13900K has that in spades. That high fee is matched by high, high performance, so we think Intel’s given price is more than fair.

Value: 5 / 5

Intel Core i9-13900K: Chipset & features

(Image credit: Future)

Twice as many efficiency cores as the previous generation
Support for PCIe 5.0, DDR5, and DDR4
Integrated UHD 770 graphics

Intel Core i9-13900K specs

Process: 10nm
Socket: LGA-1700
Cores: 8p/16e
Threads: 32
Base frequency: 3. 0GHz
Boost frequency: 5.8GHz
L3 cache: 36MB
TDP: 125W
PCIe: 5.0 x 20
Max RAM: 128GB Dual-Channel DDR5
Unlocked: Yes
Integrated Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 770

Intel’s 12th-gen ‘Alder Lake’ processors were built using the same 10nm process as the i9-13900K, and brought with them a new set of features, most prominently the new ‘big.LITTLE’ microarchitecture. This saw cores on the CPU die divided into performance and efficiency cores, a design choice seen previously in ARM chips.

In case you’re not familiar with big.LITTLE, what this essentially means is that the performance-oriented cores handle the bulk of work given to the processor, while the less powerful efficiency cores take care of background tasks to reduce overall power consumption.

In Intel’s architecture, only the performance cores are able to utilize hyperthreading technology, which doubles up the number of available CPU threads per core — meaning that with 8 performance (P) cores and 16 efficiency (E) cores, the i9-13900K has a total of 32 threads. For comparison, the previous-gen 12900K had 8 P-cores and 8 E-cores, giving it only 24 threads. Meanwhile, the competing Ryzen 9 7950X simply has 16 regular cores, matching the 13900K with 32 threads.

(Image credit: Future)

In practical terms, adding more E-cores means two things: firstly, the 13900K clocks lower and needs less power on average than its predecessor for everyday use, although clock frequency and power draw are higher at maximum CPU load than the 12900K. Secondly, and more importantly, multi-core performance is absolutely through the roof. We’ll get to that a little further down.

In terms of other features, the 13900K matches its 12th-gen older brother almost exactly. It’s unlocked for overclocking (as denoted by the ‘K’ in its name), and supports PCIe 5.0 along with both DDR4 and DDR5 memory as mentioned above. It can take advantage of all the nifty features Intel built into the previous generation of Core processors, from Intel Turbo Boost to the AVX2 instruction set.

It even has the same integrated graphics, Intel UHD Graphics 770, although don’t expect too much from this. It’s capable of running standard computing tasks at output resolutions up to 8K, but you won’t be using it for gaming or any demanding graphical software. Besides, if you can afford this chip, you can afford a discrete graphics card.

The only significant difference between the 13900K and last year’s 12900K — other ‘more cores, faster cores’ — is that the 13900K has slightly more cache memory and support for faster DDR5 RAM kits thanks to superior memory bandwidth. The former should provide a small boost to gaming performance, but Intel doesn’t yet have a counter to AMD’s incredible 3D v-cache technology; once the Ryzen 70003D CPUs arrive, Intel could have serious competition in the gaming space once again.

Features: 5 / 5

Intel Core i9-13900K: Performance

Top-notch performance in every area
More efficiency cores means a huge generational leap in multi-core tests
Runs hot and draws a lot of power during heavy workloads

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Yikes! Those are some seriously impressive multi-core results, beating the Ryzen 9 7950X by about 10% on average across multiple synthetic tests. Single-core performance is also strong, but not quite so much of a jump; when compared to the i9-12900K, it was also about 10% better, while multi-core figures demonstrated a generational increase of more than a third.

Creative workloads saw mostly strong performance, with only our Blender tests giving a very slight edge to AMD’s flagship. Handbrake, PCMark 10, and the Adobe suite all performed incredibly with the i9-13900K behind them, as did synthetic CPU tests such as GeekBench 5 and CPU-Z.

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When it comes to gaming, it’s a little more mixed. This has broadly always been the case. Some games simply perform slightly better on Intel hardware than AMD; some are the other way around. There’s not a massive amount of variation between the 13900K and the 7950X here, but the overall win goes to Intel once again.

The most pronounced difference was, unsurprisingly, found in Total War: Warhammer III. As a real-time strategy title, it requires the handling of sometimes hundreds of character units on-screen at any given time, a process that makes the game very CPU-heavy. The i9-13900K scored a whopping 419 frames per second on average — 60 more fps than the 7950X, and 45 higher than the framerate produced by the 12900K.

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Where things get a little more interesting is the power draw and thermal performance. The 16 E-cores on the 13900K’s die mean that average power use is very low compared to just about any other high-end CPU, which is great for when you’re just running everyday tasks on your PC and means that you get better performance per watt than any other chip on the market right now.

However, when pushing this chip to the absolute limits of its performance, it turns into a seriously power-hungry beast. We registered a max power draw of 337W during our tests, massively more than any other mainstream CPU on the market right now. This isn’t a deal-breaker by any means, but it does mean that you may need to spring for a hefty power supply if you want to routinely use this chip for highly resource-intensive tasks.

Thermals tell the same story; lower operating temperatures on average than every single new AMD processor, but peak temperatures that very nearly hit the CPU’s safety limit of 100C. If you want to avoid thermal throttling, make sure you’ve got a good liquid cooler installed. Bottom line: the 13900K is absolutely bloody incredible, to the point where it’s probably overkill for the majority of consumers.

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(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)

Performance: 5/5

Should you buy the Intel Core i9-13900K?

Buy it if…

You want the best of the best
Ending the Ryzen 9 7950X’s short-lived reign, the Intel Core i9-13900K is here to rule the roost. If you need a computer with turbo-charged performance in every area, this is the CPU for you.

You want high performance for a good price
It’s not just the most powerful mainstream processor on the market right now — the i9-13900K is also exceptionally good value at $589, providing better performance-per-dollar than any of AMD’s high-end desktop CPUs.

You want a future-proofed PC
It’ll cost a bit extra, but upgrading to an LGA-1700 motherboard with new DDR5 RAM and support for a PCIe 5.0 SSD (once those become more widely available) will be a savvy move for the future. The i9-13900K could be the centerpiece of a PC that could last for years.

Don’t buy it if…

You only want to game
Sure, the i9-13900K offers ridiculously good gaming performance, but honestly? Your GPU matters more. An Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 processor is more than sufficient for high-end gaming if you pair it with a powerful graphics card and plenty of RAM.

You’re on a budget
It does provide incredible performance for the asking price, but the 13900K is undeniably rather expensive. If you want a powerful PC without breaking the bank, there are cheaper options that will still get you great performance.

You just need to use Blender
Alright, we’ve run out of bad things to say about this chip. It’s amazing. The Ryzen 9 7950X performs about 5% better in Blender tests, so let’s go with that. We don’t imagine there are many people building a whole high-end PC just to use Blender, but hey — there’s no more criticism for us to level at Intel’s new flagship CPU.

Also Consider

Intel Core i9-12900K
Still a powerful CPU for gaming and content creation alike, you should be able to snap up the i9-12900K for a cheaper price once the 13900K has been available for a little while.

Read more: Intel Core i9-12900K review

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
If you’d prefer to maintain your loyalty to Team Red, the Ryzen 9 7950X is the most powerful CPU AMD has to offer right now. It’s an excellent choice of CPU for gaming and 3D animation work.

Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X review

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
While the Ryzen 7 5800X3D might be «last-gen», its 3D-VCache technology makes it the best gaming processor for the AM4 platform, so if you’re looking for a cheaper CPU for gaming on, this is the one to choose.

Read more: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review

Intel Core i9-13900K Final Report Card

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Value	Cheaper than the Ryzen 9 7950X, and with better performance too? Yeah, that’s a winner.	5 / 5
Features	This is Intel’s 10nm process, perfected. More efficiency cores and a boatload of features make the 13900K an incredible, versatile chip.	5 / 5
Performance	Essentially bonks its competitors and its predecessors over the head with insanely good performance in every possible area.	5 / 5
Final score (average)	Five stars. This is the best desktop processor money can buy right now, and it bodes well for the future of CPUs.	5 / 5

First reviewed October 2022

How we test processors

When it comes to processors, we look at four key metrics: synthetic single and multi-core performance, «general» performance, creative performance, and gaming performance.

Synthetic single and multi-core benchmarks test the performance of specific instruction sets and processor operations like floating-point calculations using benchmark tools like GeekBench, Cinebench, and CPU-Z.
General performance is how the processor performs during typical use conditions using PCMark 10.
Creative performance is a measure of how well the processor performs in several popular creative workloads like Handbrake, Blender, and Adobe Photoshop. Where possible, we explicitly disable GPU accelerated operations or test rendering using the CPU by itself.
Gaming performance measures how well the processor calculates gaming operations like in-game physics by running several games’ integrated benchmark tools like CyberPunk 2077, Metro: Exodus, and F1 2022. In all cases, we run the benchmarks on the lowest graphics settings available at 1080p and using the most powerful graphics card we have available and with 32GB RAM to isolate the actual CPU operations we are testing without having to worry about inteference with excessive memory or graphics management.

Once this is done, we average the scores across each category for a final report card broken down by use case, and then we finally divide these scores by the processor’s MSRP to measure its performance-for-price to determine how good of a overall value the processor is for the average consumer.

Intel Core i9-13900K: Price Comparison

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Christian is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing Editor. He came to us from Maximum PC magazine, where he fell in love with computer hardware and building PCs. He was a regular fixture amongst our freelance review team before making the jump to TechRadar, and can usually be found drooling over the latest high-end graphics card or gaming laptop before looking at his bank account balance and crying.

Christian is a keen campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights and the owner of a charming rescue dog named Lucy, having adopted her after he beat cancer in 2021. She keeps him fit and healthy through a combination of face-licking and long walks, and only occasionally barks at him to demand treats when he’s trying to work from home.

With contributions from

John LoefflerComponents Editor

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | TechRadar

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A beastly budget gaming CPU with one big — but temporary — drawback

Great Value

(Image: © Future)

TechRadar Verdict

AMD is coming out swinging with its new generation of Zen 4 Ryzen processors, with the 7600X providing an exceptional level of performance for a more affordable CPU. However, the total cost of upgrading your system to AM5 right now means this isn’t a cut-and-dry recommendation.

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Pros

+
Excellent for gaming
+
Amazing single-core performance
+
No generational price increase
+
Compatible with existing AM4 coolers

Why you can trust TechRadar
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X: Two minute review

Zen 4 has finally arrived, and we’re seriously (read: not at all seriously) considering rebranding to RyzenRadar. AMD isn’t messing around this time; Intel’s nifty Alder Lake core architecture put Team Blue in front in the current generation, and with 13th-gen Raptor Lake chips on the way, AMD clearly knew it had to swing for the fences.

And what a swing it was! The flagship Ryzen 9 7950X is unsurprisingly an absolute beast of a CPU, inarguably muscling its way to the top of the best processor rankings with stunning performance that blows Intel’s Core i9-12900K out of the water. But what about the more affordable Ryzen 7000 chips — you know, the ones people will actually want to buy?

The Ryzen 5 7600X is the cheapest option in the current lineup of Zen 4 processors, weighing in at $299 for a 6-core, 12-thread CPU with a boost frequency of 5.3GHz. It’s not the same on-paper dynamite as the 7950X, but it’s a competitive entry that becomes even more impressive once you see the performance figures.

Intel enjoyed a serious generational performance leap from its 11th to 12th gens, with the shift to big.LITTLE core design that saw a split between ‘performance’ and ‘efficiency’ cores to boost performance in multi-core workloads. Now, AMD is giving us a similar generational upgrade, but without efficiency cores; the result is a chip that dominates in single-core workloads, and still performs reasonably well when firing on all cores.

The new 5nm manufacturing process used by TSMC to produce the Ryzen 7000 chips is clearly excellent — and that’s even bearing in mind that Ryzen 5000 was an extremely solid generation of CPUs. It’s worth noting, though, that Zen 4 comes with a whole new socket, meaning AMD is finally leaving the trusty AM4 socket behind and mandating upgrades to new AM5 motherboards.

The only other fly in the ointment is the lack of AMD’s flashy 3D V-cache technology in these new Ryzen 7000 chips. First introduced in the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, this clever bit of processor design allows AMD to ‘stack’ cache memory on the CPU die, effectively tripling the amount of available cache to boost performance (especially in games). Does the Ryzen 5 7600X suffer from its absence? Let’s take a look.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (Silver) at Best Buy for $249.99

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X: Price & availability

The AMD Ryzen 7 7600X is the cheapest of the new Zen 4 lineup from Team Red. (Image credit: Future)

How much does it cost? MSRP $299 (about £265 / AU$460)
When is it available? September 27, 2022
Where can you get it? Available in the US and UK (Australian release pending)

At $299 (about £265 / AU$460 at the time of writing), the Ryzen 5 7600X doesn’t represent a generational price increase when compared to the ever-dependable Ryzen 5 5600X. It’s perhaps a bit depressing that this has become a selling point, but considering the step up in performance against the 5600X, it’s definitely still a good thing.

A seriously effective gaming CPU for three hundred bucks is great — though it should be noted that you can now snap up that last-gen chip for under $200. Still, it looks like AMD are going to have Intel up against the wall at the lower end of the CPU market with this aggressive pricing.

The problem with the 7600X’s excellent price-to-performance ratio is that it doesn’t take into account the cost of upgrading the rest of your system to be compatible with it. These new processors require a Zen 4-supporting motherboard, with the new AM5 socket, and to make matters worse, AM5 boards only support DDR5 memory, so you’ll be out of pocket for some new RAM too.

This isn’t entirely AMD’s fault; Team Red had to move on from the AM4 platform eventually, and it wasn’t AMD’s decision to make DDR5 slots physically incompatible with DDR4 memory. AM5 is a whole new product category, though, with even the cheapest X670 AM5 motherboard we could find costing $260 for a decidedly basic package.

DDR5 memory is also more expensive than DDR4; 16GB of the latter can cost you less than $50, while the very cheapest 16GB DDR5 kit we could track down was $72. It shouldn’t be a dealbreaker, but it’s an important factor to consider if you’re looking for a new CPU. It’s worth bearing in mind that these costs will come down over time, too.

Value: 4 / 5

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AMD Ryzen 5 7600X: Chipset & features

The AMD Ryzen 7 7600X requires a new AM5 motherboard, which will only take DDR5 RAM. (Image credit: Future)

Powerful new individual cores
PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support
RDNA 2 GPU is a nice inclusion

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X key specs

Process: 5nm
Socket: AM5
Cores: 6
Threads: 12
Base frequency: 4.7GHz
Boost frequency: 5.3GHz
L3 cache: 32MB
TDP: 105W
PCIe: 5.0 x 24
Max RAM: 128GB Dual-Channel DDR5
Unlocked: Yes
Integrated Graphics: 2-core RDNA 2 GPU

With 6 cores, 12 threads, and a boost frequency of 5.3GHz, the Ryzen 5 7600X isn’t messing around, with a step up of 0.6GHz at boost from the Ryzen 5 5600X. The shift to AM5 might be a downside for some potential buyers, but it also comes with the upgrade to PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 (even if the latter is a mandatory change).

Naturally, those new compatibilities mean better performance — and while Intel users have had access to them in 12th-gen Alder Lake chips since late 2021, the market hasn’t really reflected that; PCIe 5.0 SSDs aren’t even properly available to consumers yet, and Intel’s decision to keep Alder Lake backwards-compatible with DDR4 has evidently led many buyers to stick with their existing memory.

Progress is important, though, and the Ryzen 5 7600X’s doubled bandwidth with PCIe 5.0 support will also mean a step up in discrete graphical performance on the new AM5 motherboards. We’re all going to have to upgrade to DDR5 eventually, too.

Unlike the older generations of Ryzen chips, the Ryzen 7000 CPUs no longer have pins on the chip itself. (Image credit: Future)

The 7600X also comes with integrated graphics, running a dual-core RDNA 2 GPU — this isn’t going to scare any dedicated graphics card, but it’s a worthy inclusion considering the applications in GPU-less systems like lightweight laptops and office PCs. There’s AV1 and HEVC decode, and support for DisplayPort 2.0, HDMI 2.1, and USB Type-C video output, which all serve to keep this chip competitive with Intel’s upcoming offerings.

Another inclusion clearly designed to keep pace with Intel is support for Intel’s AVX-512 instruction set. In layman’s terms, this instruction set was originally created by Intel to accelerate performance in high-level computational tasks such as 3D modeling, financial analysis, and deep learning. It basically lets your CPU perform intensive number-crunching tasks faster, which is an obvious plus.

One thing the 7600X doesn’t come with is a dedicated cooling solution, possibly marking the death of AMD’s excellent Wraith line of stock air coolers. We loved the packaged Wraith coolers, since they made Ryzen chips ready-to-go straight out of the box. The upside here is that AM4-compatible coolers will still work on AM5 motherboards, so you won’t need a new cooling solution. We suspect that the lack of a stock cooler is related to Ryzen 7000’s heavier power draw (and therefore heat production) compared to Ryzen 5000, but more on that later.

Features: 5 / 5

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X: Performance

27% performance increase on average against the 5600X
Single-core performance wrecks 12th-gen Intel chips
Power-hungry under load, but strong performance per watt

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Yes, the Ryzen 5 7600X uses noticeably more power compared to its predecessor, the 5600X. It should be noted that this only really applies when the chip is running at full power, though; in our benchmarking process, it maxed out at 111W compared to the 5600X’s 78W, but actually averaged 10W lower across all our tests.

The average power draw is fairly close to the Intel Core i5-12600K, which means that AMD probably has Intel beat in the wattage department since the i5-13600K is almost certain to require more power. The 7600X does, however, run a lot hotter than both the 5600X and the 12600K, hitting temperatures of 86C in our tests. That’s likely why a stock Wraith cooler isn’t included, but it’s not an absurd temperature and the chip is rated to run as hot as 95C anyway.

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That increased power draw and thermal output is unsurprising when you look at the performance figures. With single-core scores of 1954 and 2141 in Cinebench R23 and Geekbench 5 respectively, the 7600X smokes its 12th-gen Intel equivalent and can even go toe-to-toe with the Core i9-12900K, a CPU that costs almost twice as much.

Those mighty cores also leave the 12900K in the dust when it comes to single-threaded gaming performance, performing incredibly well in Metro: Exodus, F1 2022, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Other games don’t fare quite as well, but it’s still an exceptionally strong showing with average gaming performance gains of more than 20% compared to the Ryzen 5600X.

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One area where the 7600X falls down a bit is in tasks like video encoding and rendering. Our Handbrake and Blender benchmarks gave similar results to those of the Core i5-12600K; certainly not a total disaster, but not great since Intel is prepping its 13th-gen chips. Rendering performance is decent, but this won’t be a CPU for professional creatives.

Performance in multi-core synthetic benchmarks also lost out slightly to Intel’s competing chips, but that’s somewhat unsurprising given the strength of Intel’s big.LITTLE architecture in multi-core workloads. Honestly, though? These drawbacks aren’t a problem. AMD is marketing the 7600X as a ‘processor built for intense gaming action’, a mission statement that it absolutely delivers on.

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Performance: 5 / 5

Should you buy the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X?

While that box is still quite big, there’s no stock cooler inside these days. (Image credit: Future)

Buy it if…

You want a top-notch CPU that won’t break the bank
While the cost of upgrading to AM5 isn’t to be sniffed at, the Ryzen 5 7600X still offers the absolute best price-to-performance ratio of any Ryzen CPU on the market right now. If you want a future-proofed processor for a sensible price, this is the one to buy.

You just want to game
Its performance in other areas falters at times, but there’s no arguing that the Ryzen 5 7600X offers some of the best value for straightforward gaming performance available right now.

You want to future-proof your PC
Sure, you’ll need a new motherboard and memory, but we’re on the cutting edge of PC-building here. The previous AM4 socket is now six years old, so we’ll bet that AM5 (and the accompanying DDR5 memory sockets) will stick around for a long time.

Don’t buy it if…

You’re a content creator
If you want a CPU for 3D rendering or 4K video editing, there are simply better options out there. You’ll probably need to spend a bit more cash, though. Intel generally has the edge here.

You’re upgrading on a tight budget
Unfortunately, the current cost of AM5 motherboards and DDR5 memory make a complete system upgrade to Ryzen 7000 a bit more expensive than it should be right now. Hold out until B650 mobos are available at lower prices.

You want turbocharged gaming performance
Don’t get us wrong: the Ryzen 5 7600X is absolutely no slouch in games. But as the budget Zen 4 option, it’s simply not the most powerful out there, and the lack of AMD’s 3D V-cache tech is a shame.

Also Consider

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
If you’re looking for the best gaming processor that doesn’t require you to upgrade your motherboard and RAM to use, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is still the best gaming CPU for the AM4 socket.

Read more: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review

AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
If you want a small step up from the 7600X’s performance, there’s one Ryzen 7 chip in this new slate of Zen 4 CPUs from AMD. It’s a mighty chip with a still-accessible price point.

Read more: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X review

Intel Core i5-12600K
If you prefer Team Blue, this is probably the closest comparable chip to the Ryzen 5 7600X right now. The i5-12600K offers fantastic multi-core performance at lower temperatures than the 7600X — though it is a bit more expensive.

Read more: Intel Core i5-12600K review

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Final Report Card

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Value	The $299 price tag means there’s no generational price increase, though upgrading to AM5 is costly.	4 / 5
Features	A generally fantastic suite of features and capabilities marred only by the lack of DDR4 support.	5 / 5
Performance	Absolutely stellar gaming performance and single-core scores.	5 / 5
Final score (average)	One of the best-value processors on the market right now: we love it.	4.67 / 5

First reviewed October 2022

How we test processors

When it comes to processors, we look at four key metrics: synthetic single and multi-core performance, «general» performance, creative performance, and gaming performance.

Synthetic single and multi-core benchmarks test the performance of specific instruction sets and processor operations like floating-point calculations using benchmark tools like GeekBench, Cinebench, and CPU-Z.
General performance is how the processor performs during typical use conditions using PCMark 10.
Creative performance is a measure of how well the processor performs in several popular creative workloads like Handbrake, Blender, and Adobe Photoshop. Where possible, we explicitly disable GPU accelerated operations or test rendering using the CPU by itself.
Gaming performance measures how well the processor calculates gaming operations like in-game physics by running several games’ integrated benchmark tools like CyberPunk 2077, Metro: Exodus, and F1 2022. In all cases, we run the benchmarks on the lowest graphics settings available at 1080p and using the most powerful graphics card we have available and with 32GB RAM to isolate the actual CPU operations we are testing without having to worry about inteference with excessive memory or graphics management.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X: Price Comparison

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Veterans of Intel and AMD have created a state-of-the-art RISC-V processor. It is faster than Epyc and Xeon and ready for production

Technics

15 December 2022 08:54 15 Dec 2022 08:54

A small startup founded by former AMD and Intel employees with years of experience has developed 192-core server processor based on RISC-V architecture. This is a 5nm solution that bypasses the top Xeon and Epyc in performance and is even able to compete with powerful processors based on the ARM architecture. Its production will start in mid-2023

Bet on open technologies

Ventana Microsystems has announced its latest Veyron V1 server processor based on the open RISC-V architecture that it has been working on for the past few years. According to WCCFTech, this is an advanced solution that can compete with modern server solutions from AMD and Intel. According to the developers, their creation is in many ways superior to both Xeon and Epyc.

Ventana Microsystems is a very young startup from California (USA), founded in 2018 by a group of people from Intel and AMD. Most of the company’s staff consists of specialists who have worked in these companies, as well as in IBM, Samsung, ARM and Xilinx, which has recently been controlled by AMD. All of these companies are directly related to the development of chips, and some — also to their production.

The design of its Ventana processor is still a secret

At the origins of Ventana are, among others, Balaji Baktha (Balaji Baktha) and Greg Favor (Greg Favor). The latter, for example, has accumulated many years of chip development experience at AMD, Montalvo Systems, Applied Micro Circuits Corporation and Ampere.

The

Ventana immediately opted for RISC-V without explaining the reason for this choice. For example, Ampere, founded by the ex-president of Intel, creates its server processors on ARM and does not even look towards open architectures.

Ventana is going to begin mass production of the Veyron V1 relatively soon — closer to the middle of 2023. There is no more exact date yet. The company is confident that the first use cases for this CPU will appear in the second half of 2023, writes the MyDrivers portal.

What’s inside

For the first time, Ventana’s plans to release its chip on RISV-V became known in September 2021. At that time, the company decided not to share details about it, but now all its main parameters are known, as well as the serial production date.

The first thing you need to know about the Veyron V1 processor is its manufacturing process. The chip will be produced according to 5-nanometer standards. Neither Intel nor AMD had such server CPUs as of December 2022 — the former is stuck at 10nm, and the latter is going to move to 5nm in 2023.

Ventana chip architecture (example)

Who will release the Veyron V1 is still unclear. Ventana does not have its own factories, so it will have to hire a contract manufacturer. Most likely, it will be the Taiwanese TSMC, which is closely associated with the US authorities — so much so that they dictate to it who to make chips and who to refuse.

Veyron V1 will be produced in several modifications, differing in the number of computing cores. In the top version, there will be 192 of them in 12 clusters (16 cores per cluster). The processor frequency will be 3.9GHz, plus it will get 48 MB of L3 cache. Support for modern interfaces, including PCI-E5, is also promised.

Applications

The

Ventana positions the Veyron V1 as a versatile processor that can be used in a wide variety of industries. The consumer segment is not mentioned among them.

The developers are confident that Veyron V1 will find its application in conventional servers, as well as in web hosting, storage systems, data centers and streaming services. The plans are very grandiose, and due to this, Ventana will have to compete not only with AMD and Intel.

Is there life after VMware?

import independence

For example, if Ventana wants to break into the cloud services solutions segment, then at least Amazon, which is the leader in it, will try to prevent it (34% in the global market in the third quarter of 2022 — according to Statista.com). It has its own Graviton processors for this — in November 2022, CNews wrote about a new representative of their third generation called Graviton 3E based on the ARM Neoverse V1 architecture, access to which has been closed to China since December 2022.

Ventana couldn’t resist comparing her creation to the competition

The aforementioned Ampere also has large customers among server manufacturers.

The

CPU is an improved version of the December 2021 Graviton3 processor, with a 30% performance increase over its predecessor.

Ventana is aware of the many players in the server processor market. She has already compared her new solution with the Intel Xeon 8380, AMD Epyc 7763 and Amazon Graviton 3. All of them, according to the developers, are completely below the performance of Veyron V1.

How VK created a corporate superapp for 10,000 employees

Digitalization

Whether this is true, and how the Veyron V1 compares to the new Graviton 3E remains unknown.

One architecture for all

RISC-V, which is the basis of the Veyron V1, is showing interest not only from American startups, but also from the authorities of Russia and China. For example, in September 2022, an association of independent software and computer technology developers based on the RISC-V microarchitecture appeared in the country. It was called the RISC-V Alliance. It included, among others, Yadro and Baikal Electronics (the developer of Baikal processors), whose subsidiaries are currently working on RISC-V-based IP processor blocks.

In the same month, the Aquarius company, which develops and manufactures computer equipment, expressed a desire to create a line of its processors based on RISC-V. The first creations of the company may be server CPUs.

In November 2022, China established a consortium to develop advanced IT technologies, including RISC-V processors. Along with this, China plans to create its own open RISC-X architecture based on the same RISC-V.

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Evgeny Cherkesov

Samsung Introduces Exynos 2200 Processor with Xclipse GPU Powered by AMD RDNA 2 Architecture – Samsung

Samsung Electronics, a global leader in semiconductors, today announced the release of its new flagship processor, the Exynos 2200. Built using 4nm extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the Exynos 2200 features the powerful Samsung Xclipse graphics processing unit (GPU) based on AMD RDNA 2 architectures. Featuring advanced Arm®-based processor cores and an upgraded neural processor, the Exynos 2200 brings users the ultimate mobile gaming and app experience.

Hardware accelerated ray tracing — a first for mobile

Xclipse GPU is the only hybrid GPU between console and mobile. Powered by AMD’s high-performance RDNA 2 architecture, Xclipse has enhanced graphics features, including hardware-accelerated ray tracing and variable rate shading, previously only available on PCs, laptops, and consoles.

Ray tracing (RT) accurately mimics the behavior of light in the real world. By calculating the movement and color characteristics of light rays, the technology creates realistic lighting effects. It was the collaboration between AMD and Samsung that made it possible to introduce tracing to mobile devices for the first time.

Variable Rate Shading (VRS) is a GPU optimization solution that allows you to apply low speed shading in areas that have little effect on overall image quality. This frees up GPU resources for more important areas and improves frame rates.

“AMD RDNA 2 graphics architecture brings advanced energy efficiency to mobile phones. Samsung’s Xclipse is the first of several planned generations of AMD RDNA graphics on Exynos processors,” said David Wang, Senior Vice President, Radeon Technologies Group at AMD. “We can’t wait for phone users to experience the gaming experience that comes with this collaboration with Samsung!”

5G support and enhanced security

The Exynos 2200 is one of the first processors on the market to use Arm’s latest Armv9 cores with enhanced security and performance, two critical areas for mobile devices. The octa-core processor consists of three clusters: the powerful flagship Arm Cortex®-X2 core, three large Cortex-A710 cores with a balanced performance and efficiency ratio, and four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores.

“As one of the first processors to feature the new Armv9 cores, the Exynos 2200 takes advantage of the Arm Total Compute strategy and key security features such as the Memory Tagged Extension (MTE) to take mobile devices to new levels of performance, security and efficiency.” said René Haas, president of the IP Product Group (IPG) at Arm.

With an upgraded Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the Exynos 2200 AI enables more parallel computing. In addition, the processor integrates a fast 3GPP Release 16 5G modem that supports extremely high frequencies and frequencies below 6 GHz. E-UTRAN New Radio’s dual connection, which uses 4G LTE and 5G NR signals, can boost data rates up to 10Gbps.

The Exynos 2200 comes with an Integrated Security Element (iSE) for storing private cryptographic keys and performing the RoT (Root of Trust) role. The native encryption hardware for UFS and DRAM is further strengthened to protect user data.

New visual experience and a professional level picture

The architecture of the image signal processor (ISP) Exynos 2200 was processed to support the latest image sensors with a super -high of up to 200 megapixels (MP) and video recording of the video in the video in the video up to 4K HDR (or 8K).