Home » Intel Core i9-13900KS Review: Is The +0.2 GHz For $100 More Worth It?

Intel Core i9-13900KS Review: Is The +0.2 GHz For $100 More Worth It?

Debamalya Mukherjee

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27 July 2023 |

Smart Technology

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The new Intel Core i9-13900KS is very much like the 12900KS and 9900KS that came before it – this is a ‘special edition’ CPU that comes mildly overclocked out of the box. It surely is binned silicon, but for the most part, that simply means it’s a whisker faster and a boatload more expensive. 

How much faster and how much more expensive, that’s what you will find out by reading this post till the end. 

Intel Core i9-13900KS Release Date & Price

The Intel Core i9-13900KS is one of the upgraded versions of the original Intel 13th Generation Core i9-13900K. While the latter came out last year around September 2022, the 13900KS launched on January 2023. 

However, do keep in mind that the 13900KS is a “Special Edition” variant of the original 13900K. Therefore, its production will be limited, being sold in only a few countries, unlike the 13900K. This status as a “Limited Edition” makes the i9-13900KS price skyrocket to $699 in US markets. 

Intel Core i9-13900KS Specifications

The main specifications of the Intel Core i9-13900KS are:

As per its specifications above, you can clearly tell that this processor has better specs than the Ryzen 5 7600X and the i5-11600K as well.

Intel Core i9-13900KS Benchmarks & Performance

The best way to test the power of any computer processor or graphics card is by running various benchmarking tests. This is because, unlike simply running apps and games, benchmarking tools provide numbers to indicate their performance. This helps me review products easily and compare them with competitors.

Here are the base specifications of the test computer setup I used for this review:

Note: I also used other competing processors for this review, like the i9-13900K, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. The Intel Core i7-13700K also comes as a close competitor, but I have not directly compared it with this processor. However, it’s not compared with super processors like the Alienware Area51 Threadripper.

Similarly, my Intel Core i9-13900KS review will consist of various benchmarking tests, which are as follows:

Cinebench R23 Test (Both Multi & Single Thread Tests)

The Cinbench R23 test provides a clearer depiction of how stable a CPU remains while handling high-end 3D tasks and how well its cooling solutions work while doing so. Using this tool, I can calculate both the single and multi-threaded performance of the i3 13900KS. 

Here, the single-threaded cores relate to the processor’s performance regarding lighter tasks like web browsing, office tasks, and playing videos. However, multiple threads get used when conducting more intensive tasks like gaming, 3D Modeling, and video editing.

Have a look at how well this processor performs compared to competitors:

From the Cinebench R23 scores above, you can see that the i3-13900KS outperforms both its AMD rivals – the Ryzen 9 7950X and the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. However, the performance is not as high as expected, considering this is a 6 GHz processor. Therefore, it’s considerably higher than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, while the now ancient AMD Ryzen 3 3100 is nowhere close to it. 

PugetBench Tests Tests (Adobe Creative Suite)

One of the main reasons why people want to shift to using a high-speed processor is for graphical design. While you might expect that graphic designing will lean more on the power of the GPU, it’s quite the opposite. Programs like the Adobe Creative suite rely more on the rendering power of the processor.

To do so, the  PugetBench benchmarking app is the best for this task. Here’s the PugetBecnh score of the Intel Core i9-13900KS, compared with its competitors:

Here, we see that when it comes to using Adobe Photoshop, a relatively less resource-intensive task, 6 Ghz means nothing. This is because the 5.8 GHz i3-13900K performs slightly better here. When I used Photoshop normally, it ran smoothly like silk, rendering everything on the screen perfectly. 

However, when it comes to video editing using Adobe Premiere Pro, the i9-13900KS is a bit better. This is largely due to it having more rendering threads. However, rendering a 4k minute video took me almost identical times on both CPUs, while editing the video on the timeline felt super smooth.

Blender 2.93 Test (Image Rendering Time)

When it comes to 3D modeling and animation, Blender is one of the best free tools available on the market. Therefore, I asked my friend to send me her work, which was a pretty complex 3D model she made.

When I tried to render it from my system, here were the results:

Again, I saw that the i9 13900K performs better here than the i9-13900KS. My guess is that the use of multiple CPUs makes the processor heat up significantly, lowering performance.

Unreal Engine 5 Game Development Test

Unreal Engine 5 is one of the best video game development tools right now. However, using it to create amazing video games like the upcoming Black Myth: Wukong proves what a powerhouse of a development tool it is. 

However, all UE 5 development processes follow a similar process of building, cooking, and packaging. This involves asset optimization, compilation, and compression. The entire process takes a lot of power to run. 

Since I am no expert, I called in my friend to do this test for me. To render a small scene, this is the times:

Here, the i3-13900KS is the clear winner. However, you can see that the Ryzen processors actually swing out powerfully here compared to the original i9-13900K. 

Visual Studio C++ Software Development Test

Similar to game development on UE 5, Windows software development on Visual Studio 2022 C++ is no slouch either. Again, my friend helped me out here.

Again, the i3-13900KS is the clear winner here.

Gaming Tests

Now, here comes my favorite test to test – gaming performance.

As usual, I tested all four of these processors. Here are the frames that I got, playing all of these titles at 1080p max settings with RTX turned on and DLSS turned off:

As you can see here, the i3-9300KS does provide amazing frames, especially when paired with high-end GPUs like the NVIDIA RTX 3080. However, it’s not meant to be a gaming processor and is meant to be used for professional rendering work. However, Ryzen processors seem to have an edge in gaming overall. 

Final Verdict: Is The Intel Core  i9-13900KS Worth Buying In 2023?

While the Intel Core i9-13900KS is one of the fastest processors around with a 6GHz clock speed, it’s not worth buying for most people. Most users will be content using the i9-13900K for gaming and other productive work. 

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