Intel is on the verge of making history by releasing the first desktop CPU with an out-of-the-box clock speed of 6GHz. The special edition Raptor Lake Core i9-13900KS chip is scheduled to be released early in 2019, and we anticipate an announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. While we wait, some pre-release benchmarks have emerged, and they are promising for the forthcoming flagship CPU.
While Intel has not yet officially introduced the Core i9-13900KS, it will be essentially a faster-clocked version of the Core i9-13900K, with the same 24-core/32-thread configuration, 8 Performance cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficient cores (E-cores), and 36MB of L3 cache.
The primary distinction is that the KS model’s maximum turbo frequency will be 6GHz, 200MHz higher than the Core i9-13900K. Other clocks are anticipated to be slightly faster as well, with varying levels of turbo boost and, of course, E-core clocks. Intel took the same approach with its 12th-generation Core i9-12900KS processor.
What impact do the clock bumps have on actual performance? Twitter user @g0ld3nm4ng0, also known as chi11eddog, has posted a second spreadsheet detailing Cinebench R23 scores. We’ll have to wait to see what the full picture looks like. Take a look…
Taking a look at the single-core results, the Core i9-13900KS scored 2,366 according to this spreadsheet, which represents a 5.5 percent improvement over the Core i9-13900K (2,243) and a 21.5 percent improvement over the unreleased Core i9-13900 (1,948), one of Intel’s upcoming non-K Raptor Lake additions. In addition, the Core i9-13900KS scored 15 percent higher than AMD’s flagship Ryzen 9 7950X (2,057).
The scores for the Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X are close to what we recorded in our reviews of each processor, with 2,277 and 1,967 points, respectively. Comparing the leaked Core i9-13900KS single-core Cinebench R23 score to our own, it is 3.9% faster than the Core i9-13900K and 20.5% better than the Ryzen 9 7590X.
According to the spreadsheet, the Core i9-13900KS allegedly achieved a score of 40,998 in Cinebench R23 for multi-core performance. This places it ahead of the Core i9-13900K (39,689) by 3.3%, the Core i9-13900 by 6.5%, and the Ryzen 9 7950X by 8.2%.
Comparatively, we have our multi-core scores for the Core i9-13900K (38,070) and Ryzen 9 7950X (36,193), and the leaked Core i9-13900KS score is 7.7 percent and 13.3 percent higher, respectively than these.
Several caveats are necessary. First of all, we cannot vouch for the leaked benchmark scores, though the scores for the already-released chips are relatively close to what we found in our tests. Additionally, Cinebench R23 is not the ultimate benchmark. It scales well with more cores and threads and higher clock speeds, but even if these scores hold up to more extensive testing, we’ll need to see how the Core i9-13900KS performs across the board before reaching a meaningful conclusion.
Nevertheless, these preliminary benchmark results are encouraging. As for pricing and the cost-benefit ratio, that will be discussed early in the new year.
