Is Intel’s BLAZING FAST i9 13900KS REALLY Worth It for Gaming?

Wendell checks out the Intel 13900KS, and makes the case that maybe there's more to achieving high frame rates than raw clock speed...

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[askloglog]

Black Friday I went for a 13700k + 7000M/T CL34 instead of a 139000k and slower memory. I still stand by my decision for doing mostly gaming with a little media editing for fun on the side.

[abavariannormiepleb]

This makes me look forward to the 7000X3D SKUs even more. I’m wondering how the scheduling will decide which threads profit from the increased cache and which do not. Intel’s P- and E-cores are extremely different so it’s comparably easy to differentiate, AMD’s are “almost” the same…

[GlennBerrySQL]

I think the Core i7-13700K is sort of the sweet spot on the Intel side right now.

[captainlooney]

13900KS has a higher chance to run at lower temperatures thanks to the binned silicon, giving you consistent all-core speeds with no throttling. Or, you can just overclock it higher with a custom loop. Mostly to do with the V/F Curves though.

[ifanmorgan]

There’s an interesting video on here that shows a 13900ks running at 60W less and signficantly cooler than the 13900k when underclocked to 5.6Ghz and undervolted. Same game performance, lower power usage, cooler.

[Gersberms]

@2:58, read the specs: 54.5 inch IPS LCD Panel on that motherboard. WOW!

[Druac]

My 13900K is hitting 6.1 with an AI overclock on the Z790 Hero with Corsair 6200 DDR5. I'm running an Asus Strix 3080ti. I upgraded from a 6th gen i7 on a Sabertooth Z170 with Corsair 3200 DDR4 running a Gi8gabyte 1080. The upgrade is INSANE. My old system is using a Dell 60hertz IPS panel. My new system was upgraded to a ROG Swift PG279QM...running 240hertz buttery smooth. I doubt I would even notice the tiny bump from the 13900KS...other than in benchmarks.

[a]

To help mitigate potential stability/degradation widely reported on flagship Raptor lake SKUs, I have changed a lot of my BIOS settings based on what I have watched and read. For my 13900k and 14900k I have done the following: MCE off, PL1 and PL2 limit to 225, limit P-core boost to 5.5 GHz and E-core boost to 4.3GHz, and use balanced power profile in Windows (although I do disable core parking to keep system highly responsive). Oh and just XMP on the RAM. I didn’t change LLC value. I have set voltage offset at a modest -0.015v and set the Core limit to 300 Amps. I have disabled the C6&C7 C states and EIST. Lastly I have locked AVX at 0 offset. I have tested on P95, CB R23 and CB R15. All great and in a mid 20 degree room, no workload exceeds 80c on package or cores. Very happy and benchmarks are very close to where they were before taming these beasts.

[CrackaSlapYa]

the memory helps 1080p gaming which means if you run a 4k game with DLSS the ram is helping bc it's really rendering 1080p. I run 13700k all p-cores @ 5.7 with 7200c32 ddr5 (6400c32 m-die kit) on a 4090. It's fabulous.

[fofal]

Just installed the liquid freezer 420 on my 13900KF. managed to overclock it to 4.7 Ghz all P-cores, 4.5 All E-Cores. Beast!

[nobody]

i had a 13900k and it ran pretty cool on a 360 mm IO cooler, it ran at around 45-50C when gaming, I’m having micro centre swap the cpu to a 13900ks at no charge due to some other issues the build had. I get Pc back tomorrow but i’m super worried the KS will run hotter or worse in gaming than my 13900k I had.

[TheAJKid]

Upgraded from a 12700kf to a 13900ks. Fixed a lot of stuttering problems and now my Strix 4080 OC can be shovel fed. It’s been a nice upgrade honestly.

[PutinIsKing]

Best decision i made is to give my 3080ti the 13600k, daily 5.1Ghz on Noctua aircooler, frametiming is now milky smooth, it wasnt this smooth with 10700k and just liberates the computer. Worth the upgrade if you playing at 3840x1600p just lifts all min fps by at least 20fps now the games are rarely under 80fps max settings

[bbb]

Good lord, Wendell's straight to the point takes with some minor rambliness on either side is why I love this channel.

_engagement_

[NaterFernat]

I upgraded to i9-13900KS from a FX-8150... I couldn't wait more...wish me luck

[Unobserved]

Absolutely worth it

Edit:

For the 1% who want the most out of their systems, so far both my buddy and I have been able to stabilize 8000mt ddr5 on a 4 dimm z790 Maximus hero using the 13900ks. 7200, any 13th gen processor can manage this and he's right in that regard. What I can tell you is this: on the standard 13900k, the average silicon could NOT run what these KS chips are running. Most users are running 5.8-5.9ghz all core on the p cores/4.6-4.7ghz on the e cores/ and 5.0-5.2 on the ring all while running 7800+ mt ddr5 (with some voltage tuning of course). Those are clocks with reasonable voltages and on a 420 aio, my own temps are in the 70c range when gaming even in the most intensive CPU bound games. If you can cool this which you can with a 360mm aio and up, these RAM speeds with those core overclocks will net you 15-20% in your lows in CPU bound scenarios and when you're running a 4090, you'll run into that more than you think, even at 4k with a 13th gen processor.

[ryPish]

Okay this is cute and all, but is this the best CPU to run Dwarf Fortress at 60 FPS after 10 years in game?

[rodhester]

What are the negatives of using a overkill power supply besides the price?

[WiFeYBurGLeR]

im running a 13900ks, 7800mhz DDR-5 and a 4090 on a custom loop. My rig is a power hungry monster but I love it hahah All jokes aside, tuned right, its pretty efficient at normal tasks.

[Fox_McCloud]

Getting a 4090 and ultra high end CPU may be worth it under a particular circumstance:

- You largely play1080p on desktop, but you also do heavily engage in VR