In the process, we will take a look at their basic specifications, compare their application and gaming performance. We will also take a look at their clock speeds, power consumption, and CPU temperatures. If you are looking to purchase a new CPU or want to upgrade from Intel Core i5 12600K to Intel Core i5 13600K, then we hope that this guide could help you make a better buying decision.
A Brief Note on Intel Core i5 12600K
Intel launched the 12th Gen processors with code name Alder Lake in November 2021 with the Core i9 12900K leading the charts. The launch price of the Intel Core i9 12900K was $589. But the $289 Intel Core i5 12600K was the center of the buzz due to its price tag and also the gaming performance it offers. Everyone was excited for what Intel has in their pockets for their 12th Gen CPUs as this is their first generation of “Hybrid” CPUs. The Intel Core i5 12600K sports a combination of Performance or P Cores and Efficiency or E Cores. To be specific, it has 6 P Cores with support for multithreading and 4 E Cores without multithreading. So, the Intel Core i5 12600K has a total of 10 Cores and 16 Threads. The microarchitecture of the 12th Gen CPUs are the Golden Cove P Cores and Gracemont E Cores. The base clock speed of the P and E Cores of 12600K are 3.7 GHz and 2.8 GHz respectively while the turbo clocks of P and E Cores are 4.9 GHz and 3.6 GHz respectively. Intel introduced a new LGA 1700 Socket for the 12th gen Alder Lake processors. The Intel Core i5 12600K CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM types in dual channel mode with frequencies as DDR4-3200 and DDR5-4800. Coming to the cache layout, each P core of the 12600K Processor gets 1.25 MB L2 Cache and one module of E cores gets 2 MB L2 Cache. Speaking of E Core modules, Intel grouped four E Cores into a cluster that share the L2 cache. So, in 12600K, you get 2 MB for four E Cores. This makes the total L2 Cache of 12600K at 9.5 MB. It also has 20 MB L3 Cache, which is common for all the cores. The Intel Core i5 12600K processor has 20 PCIe lanes from the CPU. Of these, 16 are PCIe Gen 5 while the remaining 4 are Gen 4. The 12th Gen Alder Lake processors are fabricated using the “Intel 7”. Even though Intel calls it “Intel 7”, it is technically a 10 nm node. The base processor power of Intel Core i5 12600K CPU is 125W while the maximum turbo power is 150W.
Important Specifications of Intel Core i5 12600K
6 P Cores, 4 E Cores and total 16 Threads LGA 1700 Socket Supports both DDR4 and DDR5 Cache: Total L2 Cache is 9.5 MB [1.25 MB per P Core (6 * 1.25 MB = 7.5 MB) 2 MB per E Core Module (1 * 2 MB = 2 MB)], Total L3 Cache is 20 MB Total 20 PCIe Lanes (16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes and 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes) Intel UHD 770 Integrated Graphics Base Power is 125 Watts and Turbo Power is 150 Watts Manufacturing Node is Intel 7 (based on 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin)
A Brief Note on Intel Core i5 13600K
In October 2022, Intel launched the 13th Gen processors with code name Raptor Lake. While the Core i9 13900K is an expensive, top-of-the-line processor of this generation (subsequently dethroned by Intel Core i9 13900KS), the Core i5 13600K is a relatively low-cost option with a launch price of $319. Continuing the Hybrid Architecture from the 12th Gen Alder Lake processors, the Intel Core i5 13600K consists of 6 Performance (P) Cores and 8 Efficiency (E) Cores (double the E Core from 12600K). The performance cores support hyper threading but the efficiency cores don’t. So, the 6P + 8E Core 13700K supports 20 threads. The base clock speed of the P and E Cores of 13600K are 3.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz respectively. The turbo clocks of P and E Cores are 5.1 GHz and 3.9 GHz respectively. Intel made the 13th gen Raptor Lake processors using the same LGA 1700 Socket as the 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. So, if you have a decent motherboard, then the upgrade cost will be less. The Intel Core i5 13600K CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM types in dual channel mode. While the DDR4 frequency is only DDR4-3200, DDR5 saw a huge improvement with support for DDR5-5600. Coming to the cache layout, each P core of the 13600K Processor gets 2 MB L2 Cache and one module of E cores gets 4 MB L2 Cache. If you aren’t familiar with the E Core modules, Intel grouped four E Cores into a cluster that share the L2 cache. So, in 13600K, you get 4 MB for four E Cores. This makes the total L2 Cache of 13600K at 20 MB. It also has 24 MB L3 Cache, which is common for all the cores. The Intel Core i5 13600K processor has 20 PCIe lanes from the CPU. Of these, 16 are PCIe Gen 5 while the remaining 4 are Gen 4. Similar to the Alder Lake processors, even the 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors are fabricated using the “Intel 7”. Even though Intel calls it “Intel 7”, it is technically a 10 nm node. The base processor power of Intel Core i5 13600K CPU is 125W while the maximum turbo power is 181W.
Important Specifications of Intel Core i5 13600K
6 P Cores, 8 E Cores and total 20 Threads LGA 1700 Socket Supports both DDR4 and DDR5 Cache: Total L2 is 20 MB [2 MB per P Core (6 * 2 MB = 12 MB) 4 MB per E Core Module (2 * 4MB = 8 MB)] and Total L3 is 24 MB Total 20 PCIe Lanes (16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes and 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes) Intel UHD 770 Integrated Graphics Base Power is 125 Watts and Turbo Power is 181 Watts Manufacturing Node is Intel 7 (based on 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin)
Specifications: Intel Core i5 13600K vs Intel Core i5 12600K
In the following table, we made a side-by-side list of all the essential specifications of the Intel Core i5 13600K and the Intel Core i5 12600K.
Comparison of Intel Core i5 13600K and Core i5 12600K
Let us now compare the performance of the Intel Core i5 13600K CPU against the Intel Core i5 12600K. (6 * 2 MB = 12 MB) 4 MB per E Core Module (2 * 4 MB = 8 MB) (6 * 1.25 MB = 7.5 MB) 2 MB per E Core Module (1 * 2 MB = 2 MB) 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes
Test System
Before we begin, here is a quick look at our Intel and AMD test systems.
Application Benchmarks
Cinebench R23 Multi-Core (Higher is Better)
Let us start with the most popular benchmark tool, the Cinebench R23. After the 10-minute multicore loop test, the Intel Core i5 13600K we got a score of just over 24000 points while the Intel Core i5 12600K could only manage just over 17500 points. If you compare the performance difference of Intel Core i5 13600K and Intel Core i5 12600K, then the former boasts a 37% performance gain.
Cinebench R23 Single-Core (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single core performance in the Cinebench R23, the story is the same. The single-core performance of the Intel Core i5 13600K is roughly 6% better than the Intel Core i5 12600K.
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Multi-Threaded/Overall (Higher is Better)
Next, we have another popular benchmark tool from PassMark, the CPU Mark. The following results show the overall or multi-threaded CPU Mark Score of all the processors in this test. The story is similar to the Cinebench Multi-threading test. Here the Intel Core i5 13600K scores just over 40000 points while the Intel Core i5 12600K scores just under 30000 points. The performance gap between the Intel Core i5 13600K and the Intel Core i5 12600K is roughly 34% in favor of the former.
PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Single-Threaded (Higher is Better)
Coming to the single threaded performance in CPU Mark, the results are once again similar the previous single thread test. The Intel Core i5 13600K could score just over 4200 points while the Intel Core i5 12600K score under 4100 points.
Blender Open Data Render Time (Lower is Better)
Another popular open-source tool is Blender. For the next couple of tests, we will see the render times and number of samples per minute in Blender version 3.4. The Intel Core i5 13600K took 40 seconds over 9 minutes while Intel Core i5 12600K slightly just under 14 minutes.
Blender Samples Per Minute (Higher is Better)
The results for number of samples in a minute for Blender Render is also very similar to the render time results. Here you can see the samples per minute score across the three test scenes: monster, junkshop, and classroom.
Adobe Photoshop 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
The Adobe suite has a couple of important tools that many creators and artists use. We will start with the Adobe Photoshop 2022. It has a built-in Puget System Standard Benchmark. If you look at the overall scores, the Intel Core i5 12600K falls short in front of the Intel Core i5 13600K by about 7%.
Adobe Premier Pro 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)
Next application in the Adobe suite is the Premier Pro 2022. In this test, the Intel Core i5 13600K scores just shy of 1100 points. This is 130 points more than the Intel Core i5 12600K.
7-Zip File Manager Compression (Higher is Better)
One of the popular and widely used open-source applications is the 7-Zip File Manager. It helps in archiving files. For this test, we are performing the built-in benchmark feature. Here is the result in million instructions per second (MIPS) for compressing using a standards 32 MB dictionary size and 10 passes.
7-Zip File Manager Decompression (Higher is Better)
In decompression, which usually favors AMD Ryzen CPUs, the Intel Core i5 13600K finishes with over 127K MIPS. But the 12th gen Intel Core i5 12600K couldn’t get past 87K MIPS.
Chromium Code Compilation Time (Lower is Better)
Developers working on large projects need a stable multi-threaded system with a powerful CPU. So, we tested the code compilation performance by taking the open-source Chromium project code. The performance of Intel Core i5 13600K is not that great as it could finish the compilation in just over 69 minutes. Even worse, the Intel Core i5 12600K finished the compilation in over 79 minutes.
Corona 1.3 Render Time (Lower is Better)
The last “application” benchmark is the Corona 1.3, which is a high-quality shading engine for production rendering. Let us now see the rendering time of different Intel and AMD CPUs.
Gaming Benchmarks
Let us move to some gaming performance. We tested some popular titles at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 (1080p) as anything beyond, the GPU will dominate the performance. We are running all the games in DirectX 12 with Ray Tracing and DLSS off.
Far Cry 6
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: Ultra DirectX Raytracing: Off
The first game is Far Cry 6. Here, the Intel Core i5 13600K shows its dominance over Intel Core i5 12600K as the former got shy of 150 fps while the latter could only push 135 fps. Here are the rounded off average frames and also 1% low fps.
Cyberpunk 2077
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: Ultra Texture: High Ray Tracing: Off DLSS: Off
Next, we have another popular title, Cyberpunk 2077. The story is the same, where the Intel Core i5 13600K can pump over 140 fps on average while the Intel Core i5 12600K struggle to push past 125 fps.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Resolution: 1920 × 1080 DirectX 12 Game Setting: High DLSS: Off
Last but not least, we tested the Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Unsurprisingly, the results are once again similar. The Intel Core i5 13600K could easily push over 230 fps while the Intel Core i5 12600K could only get over 190 fps. What surprised in this game is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D beating all the current gen Intel and AMD flagships. Based on this result, we are very excited to get our hands on the upcoming Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs with 3D V-Cache.
Clock Speed
We ran the AIDA64 Stress Test for 10 minutes and here are the maximum frequency and average frequency of all cores.
CPU Temperature
During the same AIDA64 Stress Test, we monitored the CPU Temperatures with Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler. Here are the CPU temps for your reference.
Power Consumption
During the Blender render, we measured the CPU Package Power Draw using the HWiNFO tool. The following table consists of the peak CPU Package Power Draw as reported by HWiNFO.
Is It Worth the Upgrade from Intel Core i5 12600K to Intel Core i5 13600K?
The retail price of both the Intel Core i5 13600K and the Intel Core i5 12600K is very similar. But performance wise, you can clearly see the architectural upgrade. While the Intel Core i5 12600K was one of the best gaming CPUs from Intel, you can replace it with the Intel Core i5 13600K as a drop in replacement as they both use the same LGA 1700 Socket. In terms of gaming as well as productivity, the Intel Core i5 13600K performs much better than the Intel Core i5 12600K. If you are looking for a new CPU, then the Intel Core i5 13600K is one of the best gaming CPU at the moment and we highly recommend it (either as first-time purchase or an upgrade over the Intel Core i5 12600K). However, the thermals and power consumption of the Intel Core i5 13600K is a concern. It runs hotter than the Intel Core i5 12600K and also consumes almost double its power. Comment * Name * Email * Website
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