Intel Core i9-13900K and i5-13600K Review: Raptor Lake Brings More Bite
by Gavin Bonshor on October 20, 2022 9:00 AM ESTZ790 Chipset: More I/O Than Z690, But Same Performance
One of the main talking points surrounding all processor launches at present is platform affordability. When Intel launched its 12th Gen Alder Lake core series processors towards the tail end of 2021, it enabled users to utilize the higher bandwidth DDR5 memory in a desktop platform. As DDR5 memory supply was low and consumer demand was high during Alder Lake’s initial launch, this sky rocketed prices and it made it near impossible for users to buy a DDR5 kit to use with 12th Gen. Intel did offer support for both DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200, but motherboards (600-series) could only support one or the other.
Although this hasn’t changed with Intel’s latest Z790 chipset, Intel does offer support for both DDR5 and DDR4 with its 13th Gen Raptor Lake Core processors; something AMD doesn’t do with Ryzen 7000 series, much to consumer’s angst. Even though Intel has opted for a higher DDR5 memory speed (5600 MT/s versus 4800 MT/s) compared to Alder Lake, DDR4 memory support remains at DDR4-3200.
| Intel Z690, Z590, and Z490 Chipset Comparison | ||||
| Feature | Z790 | Z690 | Z590 | Z490 |
| Socket | LGA1700 | LGA1700 | LGA1200 | LGA1200 |
| PCIe Lanes (CPU) | 16 x 5.0 4 x 4.0 |
16 x 5.0 4 x 4.0 |
20 x 4.0 | 16 x 3.0 |
| PCIe Lanes (Chipset) | 20 x 4.0 8 x 3.0 |
12 x 4.0 16 x 3.0 |
24 x 3.0 | 24 x 3.0 |
| PCIe Specification (CPU) | 5.0/4.0 | 5.0/4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Memory Support | DDR5-5600B DDR4-3200 |
DDR5-4800B DDR4-3200 |
DDR4-3200 | DDR4-2933 |
| PCIe Config | x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x4 |
x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x4 |
x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x4 |
x16 x8/x8 x8/x8+x4 |
| DMI Lanes | x8 4.0 | x8 4.0 | x8 3.0 | x4 3.0 |
| Max USB 3.2 (Gen2/Gen1) | 10/10 | 10/10 | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) | Y (5) | Y (4) | Y (4) | ASMedia |
| Total USB | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Max SATA Ports | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| Memory Channels (Dual) | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
| Intel Optane Memory Support | N | Y | Y | Y |
| Intel Rapid Storage Tech (RST) | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Integrated Wi-Fi MAC | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 6 | Wi-Fi 6 |
| Intel Smart Sound | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Overclocking Support | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Intel vPro | N | N | N | N |
| ME Firmware | 16 | 16 | 15 | 14 |
| TDP (W) | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Looking at the Intel chipset comparison table above, one could really question what’s actually different about Z790 when compared directly to Z690, especially given that Z690 does allow full support for 13th Gen processors; yes, there is no hidden secret sauce or performance unlocking features, Z690 and Z790 will perform the same in compute and gaming.
The key differences are that Z790 offers an additional 8 x PCIe 4.0 lanes from the chipset, but at the cost of 8 x PCIe 3.0 lanes. This means Z790 still offers a total of 28 x PCI lanes when compared to Z690, but it gives vendors further flexibility to utilize the extra PCIe 4.0 lanes for high bandwidth M.2 slots and additional Thunderbolt 4 controllers, while still offering a few PCIe 3.0 lanes for devices such as additional NICs, streaming cards, and other non-bandwidth critical devices.
Intel says Goodbye to Optane Memory (Cache), No Support on Z790
One thing to note with Z790 is that along with Intel’s decision to kill its Optane business; this chipset will NOT support Intel's Optane Memory, Intel's Optane-based drive caching solution. Using Z690 combined with 12th Gen should still yield the same level of support as before, but using Z790 will not allow Optane Memory to be used, which is understandable as Intel winds down its Optane and 3DXpoint storage division.
The main benefit for opting for Z790 over Z690 is essentially down to PCIe 4.0 I/O capabilities, with support for one more additional USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C port compared to Z690. Having spoken to Intel directly about processor performance with either chipset, they made it clear that they do not expect compute or gaming performance to be any different regardless of whether you’re using the new Z790 or the existing Z690 chipset.
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m53 - Thursday, October 20, 2022 - link
PCs are idle (or used for light browsing, reading bews, watching youtube or a movie, etc.) most of the time. Intel idles at around 12W due to E cores while AMD idles at around 45W which will make the energy consumption 4x. Replyt.s - Thursday, October 20, 2022 - link
idle around 45w? sources? My 5600G idle at 11W. others, around 7 s/d 17W. Replytitaniumrock - Thursday, October 20, 2022 - link
here is the source link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNmpVvTUkJE&li... Replyt.s - Friday, October 21, 2022 - link
And where it states the AMD vs Intel watt vs watt? ReplyWrs - Friday, October 21, 2022 - link
A 5600g is a monolithic chip, just like the Intels. A 7600x or 7950x is a multi-chip module, though, with 2 or 3 modules, and the IOD idle is very substantial now with all the PCIe5 lanes. Bottom line Zen 4 is more efficient when doing major work, courtesy of being one process generation ahead, but Raptor Lake and Alder Lake idle lower. If you want low idle with Zen4, wait for the SoC variants like your 5600g. Replytygrus - Saturday, October 22, 2022 - link
They don't run constantly with at maximum power consumption in all workloads. They use less while gaming or more integer & less FP/AVX. Highest usage probably when they have a performance lead over the other. AMD can run at lower power limits & loose a few % in many cases. Replyneblogai - Thursday, October 20, 2022 - link
I was hoping for Ryzen 7000X iGPU benchmarks too. There are no proper comparisons of them vs Intel's 32EU iGPUs on the internet. Replynandnandnand - Thursday, October 20, 2022 - link
ETA Prime 7700X iGPU tests (no comparisons):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4cwNn4kI6M (gaming)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnSVPM78ZaQ (emulation)
7600X vs. 12900 vs. 5700G
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/ryzen-7600...
All Zen 4 vs. 12900K vs. others
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-7-770...
It's similar to the UHD 770 in Alder Lake, sometimes a little better or worse. About half the performance of a 5700G which is impressive for 2 CUs.
UHD 770 in Raptor Lake gets +100 MHz across the board, so that could make a slight difference. Reply
neblogai - Thursday, October 20, 2022 - link
Thanks. I liked the ones on Techpowerup, as they include tests at 720p low, and tested more than a few titles. Part of my interest is the need to compare to Tomshardware 7950 iGPU results, which looked suspiciously low for the specs, and probably faulty: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ryzen-7000-integ... ReplyCiccioB - Thursday, October 20, 2022 - link
About power consumption.I think it is completely useless to measure it when running a useless benchmark that you then don't even use to compare the relative performances to other CPUs.
It would be much worth having a measurement for some more useful (common?) benches, just to understand when a real work is applied how much the CPU is consuming and, related to the performances, understand how efficient it is.
Just think what the results would be if the CPU would be artificially limited (by BIOS/driver) in Prime95 bench: you would measure a much lower consumption that extrapolated for other tests, and you could just think the CPU is consuming a fraction of what is does. It's the same for the torture benches of GPUs. The max consumption in that test is useless to understand how much they really consume while gaming, and in fact, most of them are artificially limited or just hit the max TDP (which is again not a measure of power consumption).
If you don't want to provide the power consumption for most benches, at least use a bench that gives a comparable performance, so that (at least for that test) one can make a comparison of the efficiency. Reply