The Intel Core i9-13900KS Raptor Lake is the flagship desktop processor from team-blue, specifically engineered to deliver top-tier gaming and application performance. Being a Special Edition variant, availability may be limited compared to the standard i9-13900K in certain regions. This new i9-13900KS model is tailored for the meticulous PC enthusiast seeking the best Raptor Lake silicon bins, featuring a fully unlocked processor with the highest power limits. This allows users to pursue overclocking or benchmark records, while also offering gamers the fastest stock frequency processor on the market.
The Core i9-13900KS is built on the same “Raptor Lake-S” silicon as the i9-13900K, and maintains its CPU core-count of 8P+16E, consisting of 8 Raptor Cove performance-cores and 16 Gracemont efficiency cores. However, the key difference lies in the clock speeds, particularly for the 8 P-cores. The maximum boost frequency of the processor is 6.00 GHz, as opposed to 5.80 GHz for the standard i9-13900K. Additionally, the classic Turbo Boost 2.0 frequency has been increased by 100 MHz, from 5.5 GHz to 5.6 GHz, while the base frequency for the i9-13900KS has been slightly raised to 3.20 GHz, a 200 MHz increase from the i9-13900K. The E-core maximum boost frequency remains unchanged at 4.30 GHz, but the E-core base frequency is slightly higher on the i9-13900KS, at 2.40 GHz compared to 2.20 GHz on the i9-13900K.
The slight frequency bumps may appear insignificant, but they seem to have a notable impact on the power specifications, at least theoretically. The processor’s base power has been increased to 150 W, in contrast to the 125 W of the i9-13900K. Interestingly, the maximum turbo power remains at 253 W. Although Intel does not officially mention it in the specifications, specifically on its ARK product information page, the i9-13900KS features a 320 W maximum turbo power mode called “Extreme Power Delivery Profile,” which is automatically activated in the motherboard BIOS, establishing itself as the unofficial maximum turbo power value for the processor. These elevated power limits result in improved boost frequency sustainability compared to the i9-13900K, which defaulted to 253 W.
The rest of the specifications for the new Core i9-13900KS remain unchanged. Each of the 8 P-cores is equipped with 2 MB of dedicated L2 cache, while each of the four E-core clusters shares a 4 MB L2 cache among its 4 cores. The P-cores and E-core clusters share a large 36 MB L3 cache along with the same Xe LP-based UHD 770 integrated graphics, and a feature-rich memory controller that supports both DDR5 and DDR4 memory types, along with on-the-fly DRAM overclocking (a feature that competing Ryzen 7000 processors do not have). The processor provides 16 PCI-Express Gen 5 lanes that are by default allocated to the PCI-Express Graphics (PEG) slot. The CPU-attached NVMe slot still operates at PCIe Gen 4 speed, but motherboard designers have found ways to incorporate Gen 5 NVMe slots by reducing lanes from the PEG slot (a change that does not impact the performance of even the fastest RTX 4090).
The Raptor Lake microarchitecture marks the final monolithic client processor silicon from Intel, adding a unique touch to this review. Intel’s upcoming processor generations are anticipated to adopt chiplets. Raptor Lake is set to deliver exceptional gaming performance with its high-IPC P-cores, as well as efficient multi-threaded productivity performance from its E-cores. Intel has priced the Core i9-13900KS at, a increase from the standard i9-13900K. However, being a Special Edition SKU, we have observed inflated pricing for this chip. Availability of the 13900KS is limited, with some retailers listing prices exceeding. For our review, we are using a price point of, as the KS can be found at that price with some effort.