The Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X rivalry is a heated battle within the coronary heart of gamer nation — the mid-range value factors — with Intel’s Thirteenth-Gen Raptor Lake x86 hybrid structure squaring off towards AMD’s chiplet-based Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 household. These two essentially completely different approaches have shaken up our record of the finest CPUs for gaming because the Intel vs AMD battle enters a brand new part.
The Core i5-13600K’s pricing lands between the Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X, so it’s challenged from each side of the pricing spectrum. For Raptor Lake, Intel elevated the variety of small E-cores throughout its product stack, thus giving the Core i5 Ok mannequin a complete of 14 cores (a primary for Core i5), and improved the chips’ clock charges and cache to spice up efficiency.
AMD’s Ryzen 7000 chips come to market with a wholly new structure and course of node. The corporate makes use of solely full-fledged Zen 4 cores that ship 13% greater IPC, the TSMC 5nm course of, quicker clock speeds, and a brand new AM5 platform that drastically improves energy supply. All informed, the Ryzen 7 and 5 processors characterize an enormous step ahead over the Zen 3 predecessors.
Each Ryzen 7000 and Raptor Lake’s trendy connectivity applied sciences carry massive will increase in throughput by way of DDR5 reminiscence and PCIe 5.0 interfaces, however Intel additionally selected to proceed to assist DDR4 reminiscence to supply a less-expensive path for builders. In the meantime, AMD’s determination to assist solely DDR5 has confirmed to be a pricing ache level.
Intel has additionally aggressively priced its latest silicon. Because of this, the $319 Core i9-13900K’s pricing contends with the $349 Ryzen 7 7700X and the $249 Ryzen 5 7600X, however the Intel chip is extremely aggressive in all method of labor towards the costlier 7700X, to not point out having decrease total platform prices.
Under we have taken the Core i5-13600K vs Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X rivalry by means of a six-round faceoff to see which chips take the crown in our gaming and utility benchmarks, together with different key standards like energy consumption and pricing. Let’s have a look at how they stack up.
Options and Specs: Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X
Row 0 – Cell 0 | Value | Cores / Threads (P+E) | P-Core Base / Increase Clock (GHz) | E-Core Base / Increase Clock (GHz) | Cache (L2/L3) | TDP / PBP / MTP | Reminiscence |
Ryzen 7 7700X | $349 ($399) | 8 / 16 | 4.5 / 5.4 | – | 40MB (8+32) | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
Core i5-13600K / KF | $319 (Ok) – $294 (KF) | 14 / 20 (6+8) | 3.5 / 5.1 | 2.6 / 3.9 | 44MB (20+24) | 125W / 181W | DDR4-3200 / DDR5-5600 |
Ryzen 5 7600X | $249 ($299) | 6 / 12 | 4.7 / 5.3 | – | 38MB (6+32) | 105W / 142W | DDR5-5200 |
Intel’s Core i5-13600K has a $319 really useful record value for the full-fledged mannequin, and the graphics-less KF mannequin goes for $294. You may usually discover the Intel chips roughly round that pricing at retail, however we will’t say the identical for the AMD processors — the Ryzen 7 7700X has a prompt $399 price ticket, whereas the Ryzen 5 7600X is formally $299. Nevertheless, you’ll find these chips for about $50 much less, or round $349 and $249, respectively. AMD tells us it’s at the moment operating a vacation promotion, that means these aren’t official value cuts, however these chips have maintained this pricing for a couple of month. Moreover, AMD’s prompt pricing usually has little to do with actuality, so we predict we’ll proceed to see these chips on this value vary. You need to hold this in thoughts and ensure to verify present pricing.
Intel nonetheless makes use of the ‘Intel 7’ course of node for Raptor Lake however leveraged a more recent revision of the silicon (the fifth) to push clock speeds greater whereas bettering energy effectivity. Intel’s $319 fourteen-core Core i5-13600K comes with six hyper-threaded P-cores and eight single-threaded E-cores (20 threads). That is a rise of 4 extra E-cores over the previous-gen Core i5-12600K, equating to extra threaded horsepower. The 13600K’s P-cores include a 3.5 GHz base (a 200 MHz decline) and a 5.1 GHz increase (+200 MHz). In the meantime, the E-cores now have a 2.6 GHz base (+200 MHz) and stretch as much as 3.9 GHz (+300 MHz). Meaning there are extra E-cores, and also you additionally get extra out of every core.
The 13600K can be outfitted with 24MB of L3 cache (+4MB) and 20MB of L2 (+10.5MB) and drops into current 600-series motherboards or the brand new 700-series fashions. The chip comes with the built-in UHD Graphics 770 engine with 32 EUs that increase as much as 1.45 GHz. You may as well avoid wasting money with the Core i5-13600KF, which is an identical however lacks the Intel UHD Graphics 770 engine, for $294.
Intel’s chips now have a Processor Base Energy (PBP) worth instead of TDP and a secondary Most Turbo Energy (MTP) worth that denotes the very best energy stage throughout increase exercise. The 13600K comes with 125W PBP (base) and 181W MTP (peak) energy rankings, which is a 31W greater MTP than the previous-gen mannequin. You must also remember that Intel’s default increase length for all Ok-series chips is limitless. This implies the chip can all the time function on the 181W MTP when it’s below load, although the precise energy use will differ with utility depth.
AMD etches the Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X on the TSMC 5nm course of, yielding drastic gen-on-gen clock fee enhancements. The eight-core 7700X comes with a 4.5 GHz base (+1.1 GHz) and a 5.4 GHz increase (+800 MHz). The six-core Ryzen 5 7600X has a 4.7 GHz base (+1 GHz) and a 5.3 GHz increase clock (+700 MHz). AMD’s new AM5 platform has considerably improved energy supply, permitting the corporate to extract extra efficiency throughout strenuous multi-threaded workloads. Notably, the Ryzen fashions assist {hardware} acceleration of AVX-512 directions, whereas the 13600K doesn’t.
The elevated energy draw has an impact, although — the 7700X and 7600X have a 105W TDP ranking and a max energy draw of 142W, the very best energy consumption of the Ryzen 7 and 5 chips but. It is also a lot greater than the previous-gen’s 65W TDP ranking. The Ryzen chips are designed to make use of the complete thermal headroom out there to ship extra efficiency, to allow them to safely function at 95C below heavy load. We don’t see that a lot with the Ryzen 7 and 5 fashions, although.
The AM5 platform additionally marks AMD’s first mainstream LGA socket in latest historical past and helps the DDR5-5200 and PCIe 5.0 interfaces, largely matching Intel on the connectivity entrance. Nevertheless, AMD’s AM5 platform solely helps DDR5 reminiscence, whereas Intel’s 600- and 700-series chipsets assist DDR5-5600 and DDR4-3200. AMD’s determination to go all-in on DDR5 is among the key causes its platform prices are greater than Intel’s — DDR5 nonetheless carries premium pricing however does not ship massive efficiency features over DDR4 in most forms of work, together with gaming. The AM5 platform is new, so the Ryzen 7000 chips aren’t backward appropriate with older AM4 motherboards. AMD will assist AM5 till 2025+, that means it ought to have an prolonged improve pathway.
The 7000 collection marks the arrival of an built-in GPU for all the mainstream Ryzen processors, a primary. AMD designed the RDNA 2 iGPU to supply primary show output capabilities, so that you shouldn’t anticipate it to assist any significant gaming. The RDNA 2 iGPU has two compute items, 4 ACE and 1 HWS. This is a crucial step ahead for AMD’s chips, because it helps within the OEM market and means that you can energy a show or troubleshoot when you’ve got a difficulty along with your discrete GPU.
Winner: Tie
The Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X battle yields a tie on this class. Each chips assist DDR5 and the PCIe 5.0 interface, that means neither has an inherent connectivity benefit. Nevertheless, Intel has the benefit of backward compatibility for DDR4, enabling lower-cost motherboards and reminiscence for worth seekers.
Whereas AMD’s new AM5 platform solely helps expensive DDR5 and carries a premium over the Intel motherboard ecosystem, it does afford ahead compatibility — AMD plans on supporting the AM5 platform till 2025+. In the meantime, Raptor Lake drops into previous-gen 600-series motherboards, offering a worth possibility if the board has the proper BIOS. Nonetheless, the newer 700-series motherboards formally characterize the tip of the road for the LGA 1700 socket. Nevertheless, indicators level to a refreshed household of Raptor Lake chips on the horizon, that means there’s an opportunity for yet one more era of upgrades within the LGA 1700 platform.
Given its new hybrid structure with two forms of cores, Intel’s core counts aren’t instantly similar to AMDs attributable to their completely different capabilities. Our efficiency outcomes will dictate the worth of the general designs.
Gaming Benchmarks and Efficiency: Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X
Keep in mind, this text is an outline of our rather more in-depth testing in our Intel Core i9-13900K and Core i5-13600K Evaluation. Under you’ll be able to see the geometric imply of our gaming assessments with the Core i5-13600K vs the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 7700X at 1080p and 1440p, with every decision break up into its personal chart. As ordinary, we’re testing with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 to cut back GPU-imposed bottlenecks as a lot as doable, however variations will shrink with lesser playing cards or greater resolutions.
The $319 Core i5-13600K is 1.6% quicker than the $349 Ryzen 7 7700X in our 1080p gaming suite, a distinction that is made extra significant by the $30 value differential (earlier than we consider platform prices). Additionally, the Ryzen 9 and seven collection of chips provide roughly the identical gaming efficiency, with a mere two fps separating the three strongest fashions, so the 13600K beats the Ryzen 9 lineup, too, if solely by a small quantity. In the meantime, the 13600K is 6.4% quicker than the $249 Ryzen 5 7600X. Notably, if you happen to go for DDR4 with the 13600K, you will lose a number of share factors of efficiency, on common (see our testing right here).
The Core i5-13600K additionally has spectacular overclocking headroom that pushes the chip to five.6 GHz, whereas the Ryzen chips are finest overclocked utilizing the auto-tuning Precision Increase Overdrive (PBO) function. After overclocking, the 13600K is 3% quicker than the overclocked Ryzen 7 7700X, and seven.6% quicker than the tuned Ryzen 5 7600X.
Shifting over to 1440p pushes the bottleneck extra in direction of the GPU, so the distinction between the chips shrinks. For instance, at 1440p, the 13600K is mainly the identical because the Ryzen 7 7700X at inventory and three.7% quicker after tuning each chips. In the meantime, the 13600K is 3.4% and 6.5% quicker than the inventory and overclocked Ryzen 5 7600X configs, respectively.
AMD’s quickest gaming chip comes within the type of the previous-gen $365 Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which is 8% quicker than the 13600K at inventory settings, however mainly tied after we overclock the 13600K. Not like the 5800X3D, the 13600K presents a extra balanced profile that does not end in extreme tradeoffs in productiveness apps, both. Additionally, remember that the Ryzen 7 5800X3D does not speed up all recreation titles equally, so you should definitely do your analysis. AMD does have its Ryzen 7000 X3D fashions coming to market, which might change the pecking order quickly.
Remember that giant deltas in particular person recreation titles, as we see with the 5800X3D, affect cumulative measurements. The Nvidia RTX 4090 delivers the most important gen-on-gen enhance in GPU compute energy in latest historical past, so we might see a wave of recreation optimizations to totally exploit the elevated sources. Meaning these outcomes might change, and as all the time, the AMD vs Intel competitors can differ based mostly on the title and the GPU you utilize, so it is best to make an knowledgeable determination based mostly on the forms of titles you play incessantly. Make sure you take a look at the person assessments within the above album.
Winner: 13600K Tie with 7700X, 13600K Win over 7600X
Right here we’ve a story of two competitions. The Core i5-13600K is roughly the identical because the Ryzen 7 7700X in gaming at each 1080p and 1440p resolutions however is $30 much less and provides the choice for value-centric DDR4 reminiscence to cut back platform prices. When it comes to efficiency, you’ll be able to’t go improper with both chip. Nevertheless, the Core i5-13600K has the sting within the price-to-performance division. We’ll nonetheless rating this as a tie between the Core i5-13600K and Ryzen 7 7700X.
The distinction between the Ryzen 5 7600X vs Core i5-13600K leads to a way more clear-cut win, with the 13600K taking a extra significant efficiency lead. Nevertheless, the Ryzen 5 7600X prices 22% much less and is simply 6% slower than the 13600K, making an argument for a worth different. Nevertheless, as we’ll cowl beneath, the upper value related to DDR5 scuttles the worth prop — you could possibly go for a graphics-less 13600KF and go together with DDR4 reminiscence as an alternative.
Productiveness Efficiency: Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X
We will boil down productiveness utility efficiency into two broad classes: single- and multi-threaded. The primary slide above exhibits the geometric imply of efficiency in a number of of our most necessary assessments in every class, however you should definitely have a look at the expanded leads to the above album.
The Core i5-13600K vs Ryzen 7 7700X roughly tie within the total measure of single-threaded efficiency, however the 13600K is 11.4% quicker after overclocking. The 13600K is 3% quicker than the Ryzen 5 7600X at inventory settings, a small lead, however that expands to 13.6% after overclocking.
Naturally, these efficiency deltas will not carry over to each sort of workload. Nevertheless, flipping by means of the album of take a look at outcomes reveals that the Core i5-13600K vs Ryzen 7 7700X competitors will be shut in any such work, and the Ryzen chips lead within the AVX-512 y-cruncher benchmark.
In multi-threaded work, the $319 Core i5-13600K is 8.5% quicker than the $349 Ryzen 7 7700X at inventory settings and a whopping 18.7% quicker after overclocking. The Ryzen 5 7600X vs Core i5-13600K battle yields an much more convincing win for Raptor Lake, with the 13600K taking a 39% lead at inventory and a 53% lead after overclocking.
Winner: Intel
The Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X vs Core i5-13600K competitors is shut in single-threaded work, however the Core i5-13600K proves its mettle in multi-threaded work.
AMD’s Ryzen 7000 makes use of {hardware} acceleration to hurry AVX-512 workloads, a bonus over Raptor Lake in an growing variety of heavily-threaded duties, however these proceed to be pretty uncommon for almost all of customers. Given its total superior mix of efficiency in productiveness purposes, the Core i5-13600K takes the win.
Overclocking: Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X
We’ve got lengthy since reached the land of diminishing returns for overclocking the highest-end chips from AMD and Intel, just like the Ryzen 9 and Core i9 households. As a result of AMD has pulled Intel right into a dogfight for efficiency superiority on the excessive finish, a lot of the overclocking frequency headroom is rolled into commonplace inventory efficiency.
Fortunately, you will discover bigger overclocking features with the downstream fashions, just like the Core i5-13600K, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X we’ve in our faceoff at the moment.
Intel and AMD expose a wealth of tunable parameters and complicated software program overclocking utilities like XTU and Ryzen Grasp. Additionally they assist per-core frequency and hyper-threading management (allow/disable) to assist eke out extra overclocking headroom.
Overclocking %age achieve over inventory | Core i5-13600K @ 5.6 GHz, DDR5-6800 | Ryzen 7 7700X PBO, DDR5-6000 | Ryzen 5 7600X PBO, DDR5-6000 | Row 0 – Cell 4 |
Gaming (1080p) | 8.7% | 7.2% | 7.6% | Row 1 – Cell 4 |
Single-Threaded | 10.3% | flat | flat | Row 2 – Cell 4 |
Multi-Threaded | 11.7% | 2.1% | 1.3% | Row 3 – Cell 4 |
As ordinary, overclocking efficiency features can boil all the way down to your luck within the silicon lottery. As you’ll be able to see above, overclocking each the reminiscence and the cores does ship tangible features for the Core i5-13600K throughout gaming, single- and multi-threaded work. In the meantime, the AMD processors each revenue handsomely in gaming from tuning, however features in multi-threaded work are muted, and we see no actual uptick in single-threaded purposes.
Intel has lengthy restricted overclocking to its expensive Ok-series fashions, whereas AMD freely permits overclocking with all SKUs on nearly any platform. Nevertheless, we see some enchancment right here from Intel, because it has now enabled reminiscence overclocking on its B- and H-series chipsets.
The 7950X and 13900K include progressive increase know-how that largely consumes many of the out there frequency headroom, although Intel does have room for greater all-core overclocks. Sadly, all-core overclocking with AMD’s chips is lackluster; you are usually higher off utilizing its auto-overclocking Precision Increase Overdrive 2 (PBO2) function that enhances multi-threaded efficiency. AMD additionally has loads of Curve Optimization options that leverage undervolting to extend increase exercise.
Intel’s Raptor Lake chips are constrained by warmth output — we obtained a 5.6 GHz overclock on the P-cores and a 4.0 GHz overclock on the E-cores, however we have seen that 5.7 GHz is frequent with 360mm AIOs or customized watercooling setups. We’re certain a greater cooler would permit us to push even additional, however we caught with our commonplace cooling setup (280mm AIO) to characterize what an everyday consumer might simply obtain.
Winner: Intel
Intel’s Raptor Lake Core i5-13600K presents stable efficiency features from overclocking in all three aspects of labor — gaming, single- and multi-threaded workloads all profit from the 5.6 GHz peak clock fee we had been in a position to obtain. Devoted tuners will have the ability to push even greater, too. AMD’s Ryzen processors ship nice features in gaming from overclocking however do not provide significant upside in productiveness purposes, giving Intel the win.
Each platforms have a wealth of tunable parameters for fanatics, their respective overclocking benefits, and a collection of auto-overclocking and software program utilities. In fact, devoted tuners might discover bigger efficiency boosts by overclocking the core, material, and reminiscence extra aggressively than we’ve, however keep in mind that in the case of overclocking, you are all the time on the whims of the silicon lottery.
Each firms have their benefits: Intel has the very best peak overclocking frequencies we have ever seen however restricts full overclockability to Ok-series chips and Z-series motherboards. AMD permits overclocking on all however its X3D mannequin and A-series motherboards however has decrease peak frequencies. Meaning this contest will usually boil down to private choice.
Energy Consumption, Effectivity, and Cooling: Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X
AMD has cranked up its energy consumption to maintain Ryzen 7000 aggressive, however Raptor Lake nonetheless sucks extra energy. General, the Zen 4 structure paired with the TSMC 5nm course of is extra environment friendly than Intel’s fifth revision of the ‘Intel 7’ course of and the x86 hybrid structure.
Raptor Lake consumes extra energy than Alder Lake, however additionally it is a lot quicker than its predecessor, incomes it some leeway. However, as we see in our renders-per-day measurements, AMD nonetheless holds the benefit in effectivity and all key energy standards. Intel’s system consumes extra energy, leading to greater thermal output.
Winner: AMD
Intel has made loads of progress, however AMD nonetheless holds the crown of probably the most power-efficient chips. Not solely do they suck much less peak energy, however in addition they accomplish extra work per unit of energy consumed. That leads to a win in energy consumption, effectivity, and thermal output, so you will find yourself with a cooler and quieter system.
Not one of the chips in our AMD Ryzen 5 7600X vs Intel Core i5-13600K vs Ryzen 7 7700X faceoff include a bundled cooler, however Raptor Lake’s greater energy consumption means you will want a beefier cooler than you’ll for Ryzen.
Pricing: Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X
The Core i5-13600K has spectacular efficiency for its $319 price ticket, and you may even go graphics-less to avoid wasting money with the $294 Core i5-13600KF mannequin. That is aggressive pricing towards each AMD’s $349 Ryzen 7 7700X and $249 Ryzen 5 7600X, which the 13600K rivals or beats in all however energy consumption metrics.
There are a number of caveats: The Ryzen 7 7700X has a prompt $399 price ticket, whereas the Ryzen 5 7600X is formally $299. Nevertheless, you’ll be able to at the moment discover these chips for about $50 much less. AMD tells us it’s at the moment operating a vacation promotion, however these chips have maintained this pricing for a couple of month. AMD’s prompt pricing usually has little to do with actuality, so we predict we’ll proceed to see these chips on this value vary. You need to hold this in thoughts and verify present pricing, however we’ll use the decrease pricing for our calculations.
Regardless of the decreased pricing, the Ryzen chips face different challenges that come within the type of excessive reminiscence and motherboard pricing. We dove in deep on these points right here.
The value vary of the Core i5 and Ryzen 7 and 5 chips means they’re finest suited to the B-series motherboards, however you will want a Z-series board to overclock the Intel processor. You will discover DDR5 Z790s for related pricing to AMD’s B-series, however your choice will likely be a bit extra restricted. You may as well discover a plethora of DDR4 Z790s for related or decrease pricing to AMD’s B650, as effectively.
Raptor Lake can be appropriate with previous-gen motherboards if they’ve the appropriate BIOS, and efficiency would be the similar between 600- and 700-series if the facility supply is an identical. Meaning you could possibly select a DDR5 Z690 motherboard that provides practically all the identical facilities because the Z790 and have loads of choices which are truly cheaper than AMD’s B-series motherboards (Z690 dips as little as $159 for each DDR4 and DDR5).
Intel’s B660 can be an possibility, however it’s a previous-gen product and does not permit overclocking (there are a number of exceptions, however they are usually expensive). Intel’s new B760 lineup is not anticipated for an additional few weeks, and it’s rumored to return with a ten% enhance in pricing over the prevailing B660 fashions. In both case, Intel customers serious about utilizing a B-series motherboard would in all probability be finest with buying a locked mannequin early subsequent yr.
Lastly, the pricing benefit of DDR4 is just too a lot to disregard, particularly with lower-tier programs on this value vary. Whereas the premium for DDR5 has receded, you’ll nonetheless pay as much as twice as a lot for a DDR5 equipment as for DDR4, and AMD does not assist the latter. For Raptor Lake, the slim efficiency benefit of DDR5 actually doesn’t justify the additional value for DDR4, not less than not for many customers. Moreover, maybe the most effective reminiscence equipment is the one you don’t have to purchase — many upgraders doubtless have already got a DDR4 equipment, which is a plus.
Winner: Intel 13600K over 7700X — Tie with 7600X
AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X is extra aggressive towards Intel’s Core i5-13600K after the latest value cuts, however it’s nonetheless $30 extra although it ties in gaming and trails in productiveness purposes. General, the Core i5-13600K clings to the pricing benefit over the Ryzen 7 7700X, even after AMD’s latest value minimize.
The excessive price of AMD’s B-series motherboards means you’ll find similarly-priced DDR5 Z790s for the 13600K, although choices will not be as sturdy, or go for a Z690 variant to avoid wasting money (you should definitely guarantee BIOS compatibility). You may as well go for a DDR4 motherboard to avoid wasting much more money, however you’ll sacrifice a number of share factors of efficiency in gaming (utility efficiency stays related).
The excessive value premium for DDR5 additionally continues to be a sticking level even for a higher-tier Ryzen 7 construct, and that does not make it simple for the Ryzen 5 7600X to function a worth different to the 13600KF. Nevertheless, the latest value minimize is welcome, so we rating the Ryzen 5 7600X vs Core i5-13600K value battle as a tie.
Backside Line: Intel Core i5-13600K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X
Row 0 – Cell 0 | Intel Core i5-13600K | AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | Ryzen 5 7600X |
Options and Specs | X | X | X |
Gaming | X | X | Row 2 – Cell 3 |
Productiveness Purposes | X | Row 3 – Cell 2 | Row 3 – Cell 3 |
Overclocking | X | Row 4 – Cell 2 | Row 4 – Cell 3 |
Energy Consumption, Effectivity, and Cooling | Row 5 – Cell 1 | X | X |
Pricing | X | Row 6 – Cell 2 | X |
Complete | 5 | 3 | 3 |
The Core i5-13600K vs Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X battle ends in a five-to-three win in Intel’s favor, although every of the Ryzen chips has its personal distinct benefits and drawbacks in our completely different classes.
When you’re serious about gaming solely and also you’re chasing the very best efficiency on this basic pricing bracket, you’ll be able to’t go improper with both the $319 Core i5-13600K or the $349 Ryzen 7 7700X — they provide practically the identical gaming efficiency. Nevertheless, the 7700X does include a pricing premium.
The Ryzen 5 7600X trails the 13600K by 7% in gaming, however it retails for 22% much less, making an argument as a worth different. As a substitute, nevertheless, you could possibly go for a graphics-less $294 Core i5-13600KF and DDR4 reminiscence and are available out forward on efficiency. Moreover, Intel’s locked processors arrive in January. At the moment, we anticipate the Core i5-13400 to vie for the worth crown. Likewise, AMD is rumored to have its non-X fashions coming to market quickly, so you should definitely verify the present state of the market if you happen to’re on the hunt for a funds construct.
The Ryzen processors provide practically the identical efficiency because the 13600K in single-threaded purposes, however the 13600K takes an 8.5% lead over the Ryzen 7 7700X and an 18.7% lead over the Ryzen 5 7600X in threaded purposes, granting it the win in productiveness apps.
Overclocking is turning into more and more much less attention-grabbing on the excessive finish for many fanatics, however you will nonetheless discover spectacular efficiency features within the mid-range and low-end of the market. The Intel and AMD processors each present stable uplift in gaming after overclocking, however the AMD chips do not ship any features in single-threaded work and solely ~2% in multi-threaded purposes. In the meantime, the Core i5-13600K delivers ~10% extra efficiency in each forms of work, thus getting the nod within the overclocking class.
AMD’s Ryzen 7000 nonetheless holds the benefit in all energy consumption metrics, together with peak energy and effectivity, leading to extra forgiving cooling necessities and a cooler and quieter system. Nevertheless, AMD has elevated its energy consumption considerably with this era, so the benefit is not as pronounced as we have seen previously.
Pricing continues to be a difficulty for AMD’s Ryzen 7000. Intel’s very aggressive pricing provides it the general lead towards AMD’s competing Ryzen 7000 chips, even after AMD’s latest unofficial value changes. That applies much more so if you happen to’re constructing a DDR4 system. AMD solely helps DDR5 reminiscence, so you will not have the choice for lower-priced reminiscence such as you do with the Raptor Lake processors. DDR4-equipped motherboards additionally are usually cheaper, too.
AMD has suffered from excessive pricing for motherboards, and most of that distinction happens within the lower-end B-series motherboards which are the most effective match for a chip of this class. You will want a Z-series motherboard to unleash the 13600K’s overclocking prowess, however you’ll find DDR5 Z790s for related pricing to AMD’s B-series, although your choice will likely be a bit extra restricted in that value vary. You may as well discover a plethora of DDR4 Z790s for related or decrease pricing to AMD’s B650, and also you even have the choice to step again to prior-gen 600-series boards and avoid wasting money (simply ensure you have the appropriate BIOS).
General, the Core i9-13600K comes out forward on the energy of its balanced efficiency in each gaming and productiveness purposes paired with spectacular overclocking and decrease total platform prices.
Intel Socket 1700 DDR5 (Z790) | Core i9-13900K, i7-13700K, i5-13600K |
Row 1 – Cell 0 | MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi |
Row 2 – Cell 0 | G.Talent Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6800 – Inventory: DDR5-5600 | OC: XMP DDR5-6800 |
AMD Socket AM5 (X670E) | Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 5 7600X |
Row 4 – Cell 0 | ASRock X670E Taichi |
Row 5 – Cell 0 | G.Talent Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 – Inventory: DDR5-5200 | OC/PBO: DDR5-6000 |
Intel Socket 1700 DDR5 (Z690) | Core i5-12400 |
Row 7 – Cell 0 | MSI MEG Z690 Ace |
Row 8 – Cell 0 | G.Talent Trident Z5 DDR5-6400 – Inventory: DDR5-4400 | OC DDR5-6000 |
AMD Socket AM4 (X570) | Ryzen 9 5950X, 5900X, 5700X, 5600X, 5800X3D |
MSI MEG X570 Godlike | |
Row 11 – Cell 0 | 2x 8GB Trident Z Royal DDR4-3600 – Inventory: DDR4-3200 | OC/PBO: DDR4-3800 |
All Methods | Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC |
Row 13 – Cell 0 | Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 Eagle – ProViz purposes |
Row 14 – Cell 0 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE – Software assessments |
2TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus, Silverstone ST1100-TI, Open Benchtable, Arctic MX-4 TIM, Home windows 11 Professional | |
Cooling | Corsair H115i, Customized loop |
Overclocking word | All configurations with overclocked reminiscence even have tuned core frequencies and/or lifted energy limits. |