Pre-production samples of the upcoming Intel Core i9-13900K have begun doing the rounds. Over in China, one reviewer with a sample ran multiple tests, comparing the early edition chip to the Core i9-12900KF. Overall, Raptor Lake seems to bring a big bump in multi-core performance compared to Alder Lake.

The video review of the i9-13900K pre-production sample was posted on Bilibili by Extreme Player (via VideoCardz). Additionally, it shows the chip running at the same clock speeds as the latest engineering samples we've seen, with the 24C/32T processor hitting 5.5-5.7GHz operating frequencies. As per the video, the tests were conducted on a system using an Asus ROG Z690 Extreme motherboard with DDR5-6400 memory, an RTX 3060 Ti GPU, and a 1500W PSU. The CPU was cooled using a Thermalright AIO Frozen Magic 360 AIO cooler.

The test suite included many benchmarks, like Cinebench R23, CPU-Z, Geekbench, 3DMark, Blender and AIDA64. Unfortunately, there are no gaming benchmarks at this time.

On average, the Intel Core i9-13900K was 10% faster than the Core i9-12900KF in single-core workloads, beating the Alder Lake chip in all but the AIDA64 Memory write test. However, considering the difference, it's within the margin of error. On the multi-core tests, the Raptor Lake chip was 35% faster.

The video also shows each CPU being tested at the same clock speeds. During these tests, scores were near identical, suggesting Raptor Lake's performance bump comes from a combination of higher clock speeds and extra E-cores to aid in multi-thread workloads.

Thermals on this pre-production sample during the tests were a bit worrying, with the chip hitting 100ºC despite the 360mm AIO CPU cooler used. At this temperature, the CPU began to throttle. As per the data gathered, the package power went as high as 420W.

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KitGuru says: It seems users will have to pay a hefty price for the extra performance brought by Raptor Lake. The high clock speeds of the upcoming chips seem to be the reason behind the increased single-core performance. However, to benefit from it, you'll need a capable CPU cooler.

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