Intel's Core i9-13900F CPUs have 8 Performance cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficiency cores (E-cores) for a total of 24 cores. We found that the MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 motherboard offered superior connectivity as well. Its 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port enables speedy file transfers, surpassing typical home internet speeds. Wi-Fi 6E technology provides fast wireless connections, making online gaming and streaming seamless. Plus, Bluetooth 5.3 support allows convenient music streaming to Bluetooth headphones. I wholeheartedly agree with this recommendation. While there'll always be people who wants balls-out speed and hang the noise/power, using power limits (for both Intel & AMD) is a much more reasonable approach for the vast majority, and cheaper, if you want to use a budget air cooler. Our recommended Value motherboard to pair with the Core i9-13900KF is the MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4. Office and web applications are typically single-threaded, so running a single application won't take advantage of a many-core CPU.

Five stars. This is the best desktop processor money can buy right now, and it bodes well for the future of CPUs. Raptor Lake processors will run just fine inside of existing Alder Lake motherboards, but Intel also launched a new Z790 chipset for Raptor Lake, too. With the highest CPU test scores we've seen, there’s no question that Intel’s Core i9-13900K is the fastest consumer-oriented CPU you can buy, earning it our Editors' Choice award. Does that mean it's right for you? It depends on what else you're considering. Intel's Core i9-13900K CPUs have 8 Performance cores (P-cores) and 16 Efficiency cores (E-cores) for a total of 24 cores. The more cores a CPU has, the more applications you can run simultaneously without noticing a performance impact.Processors that support 64-bit computing on Intel® architecture require an Intel 64 architecture-enabled BIOS. Its 16 Efficiency cores have a 2.20 GHz base frequency and support a 4.30 GHz max turbo boost frequency. Modern AMD & Intel CPUs are designed to run fairly hot without any problems – up to 95 degrees Celsius for AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, and up to 100 degrees C for Intel Raptor Lake CPUs. Similar behavior has been standard in laptops for years due to cooling limitations.

I think the selection of coolers is quite fine, since it's covering what I'd consider the good reasonable range (maybe adding a 240 AIO would be good?) and it demonstrated via CB, that after a certain point, the CPU even if throttling still performs fine-ish. The caveat is the noise, since it's pegged at 100% everything, but still performs close to what you'd like/expect. Overall, we concluded that the MSI MEG Z790 ACE Gaming motherboard strikes a balance between performance and functionality, offering an exceptional gaming experience. With its advanced features and versatile connectivity options, this motherboard is a reliable choice for gamers looking to elevate their gameplay. See our best Z690 motherboards for some ideas, as they will be more affordable than the newer Z790s).Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families. See http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html for details. Depending on the game, the CPU will often handle tasks including scene management, gameplay logic, physics calculations, and asset loading. We took these factors into account when assessing the expected CPU performance for gaming. Based on our evaluation of using Intel's Core i9-13900KF CPU for general apps, you can expect excellent app performance with a high-performance CPU cooler. I would advise against running the 13900K without power limits. Because attempting to cool a CPU that’s using over 300W results in a lot of fan noise and heat output for very little increased performance. Faster PC memory can improve game and professional tool performance by reducing the time it takes to perform calculations and data operations.

Based on our evaluation of using Intel's Core i9-13900K CPU for gaming, you can expect excellent game performance with a high-performance CPU cooler. We found that the ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi 6E motherboard offered superior connectivity as well. Its 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port enables speedy file transfers, surpassing typical home internet speeds. Wi-Fi 6E technology provides fast wireless connections, making online gaming and streaming seamless. Plus, Bluetooth 5.3 support allows convenient music streaming to Bluetooth headphones. If you're only planning to stream shows, use office apps, or browse the internet, you won't need a top-end CPU to get good performance. The most important CPU capability for general app usage is the single-core max turbo boost frequency. The Intel Core i9-13900F's 8 Performance cores have a 2.00 GHz base frequency and support a 5.20 GHz max turbo boost frequency.

Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency

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. To maximize performance with professional tools, you'll want to use a CPU with a high turbo boost frequency and many CPU cores. Good heat dissipation is needed to maintain turbo boost frequencies for extended periods. We took these factors into account while assessing the expected CPU performance for professional tools. Office and web applications rarely max out the CPU for long periods. These applications can use turbo boost speeds when a burst of processing power is needed, returning to the more efficient base frequencies afterward. Based on our evaluation of using Intel's Core i9-13900F CPU for general apps, you can expect excellent app performance with a high-performance CPU cooler. 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 'hybrid' core microarchitecture. This saw cores on the CPU die divided into performance and efficiency cores, a design choice seen previously in ARM chips.