KitGuru’s GPU Benchmark System: 2023 update!

It's that time again where we are updating our GPU test system for 2023. This time around, we have teamed up with PCSpecialist, who specced and built our brand new rig. With plenty more graphics card reviews to come this year, it's crucial our testing is as accurate and up-to-date as possible, so here we go over the details of the new GPU benchmarking system!

Specification

• Corsair 5000D Airflow Tempered Glass Gaming Case
• Intel Core i9-13900KS
• Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX
• 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5 6000MHz
• 500GB Seagate Firecuda 530 Gen 4 PCIe NVMe
• 4TB Seagate Firecuda 530 Gen 4 PCIe NVMe
• Corsair 1600W Pro Series Titanium AX1600i Digital Modular PSU
• Corsair iCUE H150i Elite RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
• Windows 11 Home

While our previous test rig is still no slouch with an Intel i9-12900K, we felt it was time to upgrade to a new generation, with PCSpecialist putting together this new system for 2023. At its heart is Intel's flagship CPU, the i9-13900KS, which we've locked at 5.6GHz on all P-cores. We could of course have opted for the recent 7950X3D, but in truth we had specced this system a month before the launch of the new Ryzen chips, and the difference is a couple of percent, so we are very happy with the i9-13900KS in our new rig and it absolutely crunches through our benchmark suite.

Of course, an Intel 13th Gen CPU means we have opted for an Z790 motherboard, specifically the Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX. It's proven rock solid in my testing so far, as mentioned the CPU is locked at 5.6GHz on all cores without a hitch. As someone who frequently swaps graphics cards, the PCIe ‘EZ-Latch' feature is actually a real highlight for me, and of course there's plenty of storage support for our M.2 drives.

Naturally, we've gone for DDR5 memory here too, in the form of 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL36. This is simply a very solid memory kit at a good speed, it keeps the system chugging along nicely – and we have the bonus that the RGB lighting synchronises with the other Corsair components that we'll get to shortly.

One of those includes the Corsair iCUE H150i Elite RGB High Performance CPU cooler. This is a 360mm AIO and simply provides more than enough cooling power to handle the 13900KS while gaming – even under a sustained load in Cyberpunk 2077, I did not see the CPU package temperature exceed 65C, so this combination will do the job very nicely indeed.

As for our storage, we have two M.2 drives populating the motherboard. The first is a 500GB Seagate Firecuda 530, simply to act as a boot drive for Windows. We then have a 4TB Seagate Firecuda 530 which will house our game library. 4TB may seem excessive but I've lost count of the number of games that now take up over 100GB of space – I'm talking Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Red Dead Redemption 2, Forza Horizon 5 and many more – and I typically test between 16-20 games per GPU review at any one time, so this ensures we have plenty of speedy storage on hand.

All of that goodness is housed in the Corsair 5000D Airflow chassis. This is both a spacious and air-flow focused case, two things that are ideal for testing GPUs as obviously RTX 4090s are absolutely huge these days, and we want to make sure any GPU is supplied with plenty of fresh air. To help with that, we've added three Corsair LL120 RGB fans in the front of the case, all three bringing in fresh air. The three AIO fans in the roof are set to exhaust, as is one other 120mm in the rear.

That just leaves the PSU then – a very important part for a modern day system considering how much power CPUs and GPUs can suck down these days. We opted for the Corsair AX1600i, with its Titanium efficiency and of course, 1600W capacity. Now even with a 13900KS and 4090, we won't be drawing that much juice, but I'd much rather have too much headroom than not enough. It's also handy to have a PSU that can support having both a 12VHPWR connector and 3x 8-pins all plugged in at once, so I can easily swap between different GPUs without fiddling around with the power cables or using adapters.

So that is the low-down on KitGuru's updated GPU benchmark system for 2023! We have to say a big thanks to PCSpecialist for putting this together for us, we have plenty more GPU reviews lined up and they will using this new rig going forward, so stay tuned…

Configure your own PC at PCSpecialist HERE.

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KitGuru says: The new test system is fantastic and has already been put to work as we prepare for the next round of GPU launches…

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