Introduction

The Core i5-13600K leads the performance-segment of the company’s swanky new 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake” desktop processor family. This $300-ish market segment attracts a wide range of users, from gamers to creators on a budget. You get almost the entire feature-set of the series, at a lower core-count. It joins the Core i9-13900K, which we’ve also reviewed for you today; besides the i7-13700K. While the Core i5 desktop processor series have historically spanned mid-range prices, Intel has done several value-additions to Core i5 over the years, such that it created two sub-series—the Core i5 K/KF-series, and the non-K/KF; with the two having distinct CPU core-configurations, L3 cache sizes, and other features.

The 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake” series brings with it generational CPU core-count increases, and the same holds true even for the Core i5-13600K. The chip gets six performance cores (or P-cores), and eight efficient cores (E-cores). This 6P+8E configuration is higher than the 6P+4E one of the previous-generation i5-12600K “Alder Lake,” and while it might seem insignificant, given that only the E-core count has increased; Intel also replaced the P-cores with the new “Raptor Cove” ones that come with higher IPC, larger caches, and faster clock speeds.

The 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake” is Intel’s second rodeo with the Hybrid architecture, the 12th Gen Core helped it shore up CPU core-counts and chase down AMD’s lead in that area, and Intel is smart about it: the silicon only has six or eight P-cores, which Intel wagers are sufficient for taking on compute-intensive less parallelized tasks; while a swarm of physically smaller E-cores handles most light to moderate workloads, and in a crunch situation (all cores loaded); can contribute greatly to the processor’s overall multi-threaded performance. So AMD’s advantage with gaming performance is overcome with the high clock-speed P-cores, and its advantage with multi-threaded creator workloads is dusted by E-cores working in concert with the P-cores.

With “Raptor Lake,” Intel is introducing new “Raptor Cove” P-cores that come with higher IPC (single-threaded performance at a given clock speed); the ability to sustain higher clock-speeds generationally; and higher amounts of dedicated L2 cache—increased to 2 MB compared to 1.25 MB on the “Golden Cove” cores of “Alder Lake.” While the E-cores are the same “Gracemont” ones, the E-core counts have increased generationally, as did their clock speeds and L2 cache sizes. Each “Gracemont” 4-core cluster now shares 4 MB of L2 caches among the cores, compared to 2 MB on “Alder Lake.” The Core i5-13600K has two such clusters, and hence eight E-cores. The shared L3 cache size has increased, too, which is now 24 MB compared to 20 MB on the i5-12600K.

The 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake” processors are built on the same Socket LGA1700 package as the 12th Gen, and are compatible with existing Intel 600-series chipset motherboards via BIOS updates; although they are accompanied by the 700-series chipset motherboards with improved power architecture and downstream PCIe connectivity. The new processors support the same I/O as the 12th Gen, with PCI-Express 5.0 x16 PEG, one PCI-Express 4.0 x4 NVMe slot wired to the processor, and DMI 4.0 x8 chipset-bus. The processors support both DDR4 and DDR5 memory types, improving choice for the consumers.

Intel is pricing the Core i5-13600K at USD $320, a similar price to that of the i5-12600K, and $20 higher than the competing Ryzen 5 7600X. It features a 6P+8E core configuration, and the P-cores tick at 3.50 GHz with a maximum boost frequency of 5.10 GHz, while the E-cores do 2.60 GHz, with up to 3.90 GHz boost. The processor base power (PBP) value is the same as the other processor models launching today, at 125 W, while the maximum turbo power is generationally increased, it’s now 181 W. In this review, the i5-13600K squares off against the bulk of the $250-$400 desktop processor segment that’s cluttered with chips such as the i5-12600K, 7600X, 7700X, and even i7-12700KF. If you can live without integrated graphics, you can opt for the i5-13600KF over the i5-13600K, which is practically identical, but $25 cheaper, at $295.