Intel’s thirteenth Technology Raptor Lake processors are a few of the finest CPUs for gaming. There is not any doubt about it. Nonetheless, have you ever ever puzzled which chips overclock the most effective? German publication Igor’s Lab (opens in new tab) has examined as much as 480 Raptor Lake processors and printed the binning information on the silicon high quality you may count on from every processor tier.
Intel does its little bit of binning earlier than sending the Raptor Lake processors off to the retail market. Throughout manufacturing, the chipmaker evaluates every chip and implants a novel V/F curve into every one in all them.
The V/F curve homes the info for every core relating to the minimal voltage corresponding to every frequency. The V/F curve, totally different for every SKU, tells the motherboard how a lot voltage is required for a specific frequency. Some motherboard producers, reminiscent of Asus, make the most of these V/F curves to find out the standard of the processor and the chip’s overclocking potential.
Asus constructed a characteristic into the model’s ROG Maximus-and Strix-branded motherboards known as Silicon Prediction (SP), which makes use of a mathematical components to evaluate silicon high quality based mostly on the processor’s V/F curve. It ends in a easy quantity that tells you ways good the processor is.
Logically, the upper the quantity the higher because it correlates to a greater processor. Igor’s Lab’s methodology is straightforward. The information outlet sticks the Raptor Lake processor contained in the Maximus Z790 Hero, boots up the system, goes contained in the BIOS, and data the SP worth for every pattern.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Common SP | Median SP | Greatest SP | Worst SP | CPUs Examined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-13900K | 99.6 | 99 | 114 | 81 | 132 |
| Core i9-13900KF | 101.1 | 102 | 111 | 91 | 164 |
| Core i7-13700K | 82.9 | 83 | 96 | 75 | 42 |
| Core i7-13700KF | 83.5 | 84 | 90 | 75 | 43 |
| Core i5-13600K | 81.8 | 81 | 91 | 76 | 51 |
| Core i5-13600KF | 78.5 | 78 | 96 | 58 | 48 |
The information reveals that the Core i9 fashions include the highest quality silicon out of all of the Raptor Lake Okay-series chips. The Core i9-13900KF was the most effective overclocker, with a median SP of 101.1 out of 164 examined samples. Even the worst Core i9-13900KF had a rating of 91 factors. The Core i9-13900K, which comes with the iGPU, was only a hairline behind the KF counterpart. The processor had a median SP of 99.6 factors, lower than 2% behind the Core i9-13900KF. What’s attention-grabbing, although, is that the Core i9-13900K had the most effective SP rating out of the lot, with 114 factors.
The Core i7-13700K and Core i7-13700KF had been fairly shut relating to silicon high quality. The delta between the 2 common SPs was lower than 1%. Just like the case of the Core i9-13900K and Core i9-13900KF, the KF variant of the Core i7-13700K has a slight edge relating to overclocking.
In terms of the Core i5-13600K and Core i5-13600KF, it was the exact opposite. The common Okay-series mannequin had a better common SP (81.8) when in comparison with the KF mannequin (78.5). So we’re taking a look at a 4% distinction. Surprisingly, the Core i5-13600KF additionally had the worst pattern out of all of the examined Raptor Lake elements, with a specific pattern scoring simply 58 factors.
For the common shopper, silicon high quality isn’t an enormous promoting level because you usually decide up a processor in line with your wants. For instance, if you happen to want built-in graphics, you’d purchase a $599 Core i9-13900K, or if you happen to don’t need the iGPU, the Core i9-13900KF sells for $574, saving you $25 you can put into one other element to your construct. Nonetheless, for critical lovers, the Core i9-13900KF has higher probabilities of hitting a better overclock, reminiscent of 6 GHz, like Intel’s soon-to-be-released Core i9-13900KS, which can retail for $699.
