Intel Core i7-13700K review

Even though we only reviewed the Core i7-13700K recently, this powerhouse 16-core CPU already costs a little less money than it did at launch, with the latest cuts shaving around $30 off its price from a couple of months ago, so it now sits at $420 / £420.

As luck would have it, for those of you sitting there with a tub of popcorn waiting for the fight, the Ryzen 9 7900 now costs about the same amount of money, while the Ryzen 9 7900X will set you back around $15 more.

At Custom PC, we’ve been reviewing the latest CPUs since 2003, and we’ve tested and overclocked hundreds of CPUs, going right back to the Pentium 4 and Athlon XP era. We’ve developed an expert testing methodology that covers all the key areas of performance, including single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, as well as gaming.

Our benchmarks include our very own RealBench suite, which had a GIMP image editing test that stresses single-threaded performance, and a Handbrake H.264 video encoding test to gauge multi-threaded performance, as well as multi-tasking tests.

We also use the single and multi-threaded tests in Cinebench, Far Cry 6 and Watch Dogs: Legion. For our game tests, we record the 99th percentile and average frame rates, and finally, we also measure the idle and load total system power consumption at the wall, while running Prime95’s smallest FFT test with AVX disabled.

AMD’s latest price slashes make for a juicy battle, and here the DDR5 memory and pricier motherboard argument in favor of Intel holds less sway too, since the Core i7-13700K is a high-end CPU that’s more likely to be paired with a premium motherboard and DDR5 memory anyway.

Under the hood, the Raptor Cove P-Core count sits at eight, which is the same number of P-Cores found in this chip’s predecessor, the Core i7-12700K. The number of Gracemont E-Cores has doubled, though, from four to eight, with the CPU giving you a total of 16 cores and 24 threads, compared to 12 cores and 20 threads with the Core i7-12700K.

Boost frequencies are noticeably lower than those of the Core i9-13900K, peaking at 5.4GHz for its P-Cores, which is 400MHz lower than the Core i9-13900K, but on the plus side it’s also 300MHz higher than the Core i5-13600K. Multi-threaded workloads saw all P-Cores hit 5.2GHz, so as well as having more P-Cores than the Core i5-13600K, they run faster too.

Overclocking the Core i7-13700K wasn’t as fruitful as on the Core i5-13600K, however, with the Core i7-13700K hitting a wall at 5.5GHz across all P-Cores with a vcore of 1.35V. This is a 100MHz boost to the maximum boost frequency and 300MHz to the all-core P-Core boost frequency.

Core i7-13700K application performance

Even at stock speed, the Core i7-13700K is a fast CPU, matching the Ryzen 9 7900X in our RealBench tests, with the AMD CPU slightly ahead overall. However, the Intel CPU had a big lead in the Cinebench multi-threaded test. Once overclocked it came even closer to matching the Ryzen 9 7900X in the system score and extended its lead in Cinebench too, although this tweak didn’t do much for gaming performance.

Despite producing some impressive benchmarks, the Core i9-13900K is still quicker than this chip for multi-threaded work, managing a video encoding score of 1,409,689 compared to 1,197,961 for the Core i7-13700K. The Core i9-13900K also demonstrates its superior content creation might over the 13700K in the Cinebench multi-threaded test.

1/12

Core i7-13700K gaming performance

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a superb gaming CPU, thanks to its massive 5.4 GHz boost clock. It even beat the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in our Far Cry 6 test at stock speed, with an average frame rate of 141 fps, compared to 138 fps for the AMD CPU. However, it’s not far off the performance of the cheaper Core i5-13600K in games, and in most cases matches it.

1/4

Core i7-13700K power draw

The total system power draw of our test system with the Core i7-13700K installed was 389W, which was thankfully only 60W or so more than our Ryzen 9 7900X test rig, but nearly double that of the Ryzen 9 7900. It Core i7-13700K draws even more power when overclocked, with our system drawing a massive 415W from the mains.

1/2

Core i7-13700K pros and cons

Pros

• Great multi-threaded performance
• A little faster than Ryzen 9 7900X overall
• Much cheaper than Core i9-13900K

Cons

• Core i5-13600K just as quick in many tests
• Power hungry
• Limited overclocking headroom

Core i7-13700K specs

The Intel Core i7-13700K specs list is:

Core i7-13700K price

The Core i7-13700K offers great value if your top priority is multi-threaded content creation software, but the Core i5-13600K offers better value for gaming.

Price: Expect to pay $420 USD / £420 GBP

Core i7-13700K review conclusion

If you need more poke in content creation than the Core i5-13600K provides, but can’t justify the extra $170 for a Core i9-13900K, then the Core i7-13700K is a great choice. It’s faster overall than the Ryzen 9 7900X, and the cash saving over the Core i9 can practically pay for a motherboard.

The Core i7 range has often been piggy in the middle recently, but despite the Core i5-13600K being a fantastic buy, the Core i7-13700K offers enough of a step up in multi-threaded performance to justify its price. Check out our guide to the best gaming CPU for a range of CPUs to suit different needs and budgets.