In the process, we will also take a look at their clock speeds, power consumption, and CPU temperatures. If you are looking to purchase a new CPU, then we hope that this guide could help you make a better buying decision.
A Brief Note on Intel Core i7 13700K
In October 2022, Intel launched the 13th Gen processors with code name Raptor Lake. While the Core i9 13900K is an expensive, top-of-the-line processor of this generation (subsequently dethroned by Intel Core i9 13900KS), the Core i7 13700K is a relatively low-cost option with a launch price of $409 (retail price is around $450). Continuing the Hybrid Architecture from the 12th Gen Alder Lake processors, the Intel Core i7 13700K consists of 8 Performance (P) Cores and 8 Efficiency (E) Cores. The performance cores support hyper threading but the efficiency cores don’t. So, the 8P + 8E Core 13700K supports 24 threads. The base clock speed of the P and E Cores of 13700K are 3.4 GHz and 2.5 GHz respectively. The turbo clocks of P and E Cores are 5.3 GHz and 4.2 GHz respectively. Intel made the 13th gen Raptor Lake processors using the same LGA 1700 Socket as the 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. So, if you have a decent motherboard, then the upgrade cost will be less. The Intel Core i7 13700K CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM types in dual channel mode. While the DDR4 frequency is only DDR4-3200, DDR5 saw a huge improvement with support for DDR5-5600. Support for DDR4 means, you don’t need to make a significant investment, if you already own a decent DDR4 RAM kit. But the industry is moving towards DDR5 and the cost of DDR5 RAM kits is slowly coming down. Coming to the cache layout, each P core of the 13700K Processor gets 2MB L2 Cache and one module of E cores gets 4MB L2 Cache. If you aren’t familiar with the E Core modules, Intel grouped four E Cores into a cluster that share the L2 cache. So, in 13700K, you get 4MB for four E Cores. This makes the total L2 Cache of 13700K at 24MB. It also has 30MB L3 Cache, which is common for all the cores. The Intel Core i7 13700K processor has 20 PCIe lanes from the CPU. Of these, 16 are PCIe Gen 5 while the remaining 4 are Gen 4. The final configuration of the PCIe lanes will depend on the motherboard you select and the corresponding chipset. Similar to the Alder Lake processors, even the 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors are fabricated using the “Intel 7”. Even though Intel calls it “Intel 7”, it is technically a 10 nm node. The base processor power of Intel Core i7 13700K CPU is 125W while the maximum turbo power is 253W.
Important Specifications of Intel Core i7 13700K
8 P Cores, 8 E Cores and total 24 Threads LGA 1700 Socket Supports both DDR4 and DDR5 Cache: Total 24MB [2 MB per P Core (8 * 2MB = 16MB) 4MB per E Core Module (2 * 4MB = 8MB)] Total 20 PCIe Lanes (16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes and 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes) Intel UHD 770 Integrated Graphics Base Power is 125 Watts and Turbo Power is 253 Watts Manufacturing Node is Intel 7 (based on 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin)
A Brief Note on AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
New architecture. Brand new socket. Supports only DDR5 memory. And has PCIe 5.0 support. These are the highlights of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs. Along with the big boys Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 9 7900X, AMD also launched the mid-range and budget-friendly Ryzen 7 7700X. With a launch price of $399 and the traditional 8 core 16 thread design, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is the contender for the best bang for the buck gaming CPU. AMD completely revamped the architecture with Zen 4 that has 13% better IPC performance. The next biggest change is the CPU socket. AM4 has been a successful platform for both AMD and the consumers. They supported it well beyond their initial promise. But starting with Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs, AMD moved away from the PGA AM4 socket to the new LGA AM5 socket. That’s right. Now the pins are on the motherboard rather than the CPU. Unlike Intel, which made its 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs support both DDR4 and DDR5 Memory, AMD completely ditched the DDR4 Memory in favor of DDR5. When you combine this with a new AM5 Motherboard, you are looking at a significant investment. Coming back to the Ryzen 7 7700X, it has a base clock of 4.5 GHz and a boost clock of 5.4 GHz. Unlike Intel and Apple, AMD struck with its traditional 8 core 16 thread CPU.
Important Features of Ryzen 7 7700X
8 Core 16 Threads AM5 Socket Supports only DDR5 Memory Cache: L2 is 1 MB per core and L3 is 32 MB Total 28 PCIe 5.0 lanes (4 of them are reserved for chipset) RDNA2 based Integrated Graphics (base clock of 0.4 GHz and boost clock of 2.2 GHz) TDP is 105 Watts Manufacturing Node is TSMC 5 nm
Specifications: Intel Core i7 13700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
In the following table, we made a side by side list of all the essential specifications of the Intel Core i7 13700K and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X.
Comparison of Intel Core i7 13700K and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
Let us now compare the performance of the Intel Core i7 13700K CPU against the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. Before we begin, here is a quick look at our Intel and AMD test systems. (8 * 2 MB = 16 MB) 4 MB per E Core Module (2 * 4 MB = 8 MB) 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes
Application Benchmarks
Cinebench R23 Multi-Core (Higher is Better)
Let us start with the most popular benchmark tool, the Cinebench R23. After the 10-minute multicore loop test, we got a score of just under 30000 points. If we compare this with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, then the former boasts a 49% performance improvement.
Cinebench R23 Single-Core (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single core performance in the Cinebench R23, the story has a good twist as the single-core performance of the Intel Core i7 13700K has only 5% improvement over the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X.
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Multi-Threaded/Overall (Higher is Better)
Next, we have another popular benchmark tool from PassMark, the CPU Mark. The following results show the overall or multi-threaded CPU Mark Score of both the processors. Here, the Intel Core i7 13700K shows a lot of improvement over the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with whooping 31% performance gain.
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Single-Threaded (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single threaded performance in CPU Mark, the Intel Core i7 13700K marginally beats the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X.
Blender Open Data Render Time (Lower is Better)
Another popular open-source tool is Blender. For the next couple of tests, we will see the render times and number of samples per minute in Blender version 3.4. The Intel Core i7 13700K took 10 seconds over 8 minutes while the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X took a little over 11 minutes.
Blender Samples Per Minute (Higher is Better)
The results for number of samples in a minute for Blender Render is also very similar to the render time results. Here you can see the samples per minute score across the three test scenes: monster, junkshop, and classroom.
Adobe Photoshop 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
The Adobe suite has a couple of important tools that many creators and artists use. We will start with the Adobe Photoshop 2022. It has a built-in Puget System Standard Benchmark. If you look at the overall scores, the Intel Core i7 13700K and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X go neck on neck where the former has a 5% performance gain.
Adobe Premier Pro 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
Next application in the Adobe suite is the Premier Pro 2022. The results in this test are not similar to the Adobe Photoshop 2022. The Intel Core i7 13700K boasts a 20% better performance over the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X.
7-Zip File Manager Compression (Higher is Better)
One of the popular and widely used open-source applications is the 7-Zip File Manager. It helps in archiving files. For this test, we are performing the built-in benchmark feature. Here is the result in million instructions per second (MIPS) for compressing using a standards 32 MB dictionary size and 10 passes.
7-Zip File Manager Decompression (Higher is Better)
Even in decompression, the Intel Core i7 13700K shows its dominance as it performs just under 160K MIPS while the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X could perform only 135K MIPS.
Chromium Code Compilation Time (Lower is Better)
Developers working on large projects need a stable multi-threaded system with a powerful CPU. So, we tested the code compilation performance by taking the open-source Chromium project code. The performance of Intel Core i7 13700K is very close to that of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X.
Corona 1.3 Render Time (Lower is Better)
The last “application” benchmark is the Corona 1.3, which is a high-quality shading engine for production rendering. Here, you can see the Intel Core i7 13700K could render in just 50 seconds while the AM Ryzen 7 7700X took 75 seconds.
Gaming Benchmarks
Let us move to some gaming performance. We tested some popular titles at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 (1080p) as anything beyond, the GPU will dominate the performance. We are running all the games in DirectX 12 with Ray Tracing and DLSS off.
Far Cry 6
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: Ultra DirectX Raytracing: Off
The first game is Far Cry 6. Here, the Intel Core i7 13700K shows its dominance over AMD counterparts. Here are the rounded off average frames and also 1% low fps.
Cyberpunk 2077
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: Ultra Texture: High Ray Tracing: Off DLSS: Off
Next, we have another popular title, Cyberpunk 2077. The story is the same, where the Intel Core i7 13700K can pump over 140 fps on average while the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X struggles to push past 130 fps.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: High DLSS: Off
Last but not least, we tested the Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X put up some fight but ultimately fall short of the Intel Core i7 13700K.
Clock Speed
We ran the AIDA64 Stress Test for 10 minutes and here are the maximum frequency and average frequency of all cores.
CPU Temperature
During the same AIDA64 Stress Test, we monitored the CPU Temperatures with Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler. Here are the CPU temps for your reference.
Power Consumption
During the Blender render, we measured the CPU Package Power Draw using the HWiNFO tool. The following table consists of the peak CPU Package Power Draw as reported by HWiNFO.
Which One Should You Buy, Intel Core i7 13700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X?
Coming to the important question, “Which one should you buy, Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 7700X?”. Apart from higher power consumption and temperatures, the Intel Core i7 13700K is a far better processor than the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. While the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X CPU has a lot of architectural improvements from the previous gen CPUs i.e., the AMD Ryzen 5000 Series, it falls short in front of the Intel Core i7 13700K. Whether you are looking at gaming or applications, the Intel Core i7 13700K is a better CPU even with a $50 price bump over the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. While we tested both the Intel Core i7 13700K and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with DDR5 Memory kits, the advantage of the Intel Raptor Lake CPU is it supports DDR4 memory as well.
Conclusion
The Intel Core i7 13700K vs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is one of the most sort after comparisons as both these CPUs are in the similar price bracket. In this guide, we saw the basics of both the Intel Core i7 13700K as well as the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X. After that we listed their specifications and moved on to a one-on-one comparison in terms of application benchmarks and gaming performance. Comment * Name * Email * Website
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