Question 13100 vs 13400 vs 13500 vs 13600K vs 12600K

[consptheory77]

I have decided on every part of my upcoming build, including the motherboard, which will be a Z790 (for reasons other than overclocking)

but I can't decide on what processor and when to initiate the purchase

I want a 13600K, ideally, but I don't want to pay $320 for it. I am willing to wait a few months to see if it goes on sale, but if if I have to wait until Meteor Lake releases, that's too long.

Since I will be getting a Z board, I thought about settling for a 12600K. If I overclock the 12600K, can I get standard 13600K performance?

But doesn't the 13th Gen have its own unique architecture advantages? (Thread Director 2, for example)

I plan on pairing it with a 3080 or 4070, but I am not concerned about the "bottle neck" issue, I'm not convinced that's a real thing except in an obviously unbalanced gap in the age of the CPU and GPU.

I am not concerned about power consumption, the PSU will be 1000W.

I plan to do video re-encoding, maybe some light video editing.

I ran though some of these questions with the Bing AI, which was...amusing.

As far as I can tell, the 13400 is a lot better than the 13100, but the 400/500/600 differences are only a matter of about 10% better performance over each iteration.

I've even considered just getting the 12100 to get things started.

PassMark CPU Value Chart says 13500 is the best non-F value, but the 13400 is not far behind.

 

[punkncat]

If the choice was something like "if I go" 12600K then I could get a better graphics card, I would probably pick that and wait for the sale prices on 13th gen and update that later.

 

[geofelt]

As you have discovered, there is a continuous price/performance difference as you move up the processor line.
You mostly get what you pay for.
My advice would be to find a way to buy the 13600K up front.
It is an outstanding processor for your purposes.
Interim processors do not work. There is too much lost when you sell the old to buy the new.
Of you do not buy the 13600K up front, you will be forever second guessing yourself.
The difference is about $75 from the 13500.
You say don't want to pay, that is not the same as saying "can't pay".
Surely there must be a way.
What Z790 motherboard are you looking at?
What reasons compel you to that chipset?
Would Z690 do?
MATX will cost less than ATX versions.
What are the rest of your prospective parts?
Possibly there are savings there.
FWIW, looking back over a long time, Intel does not normally reduce prices on old gen processors when a new gen is introduced.

 

[Bob.B]

I have decided on every part of my upcoming build, including the motherboard, which will be a Z790 (for reasons other than overclocking)

but I can't decide on what processor and when to initiate the purchase

I want a 13600K, ideally, but I don't want to pay $320 for it. I am willing to wait a few months to see if it goes on sale, but if if I have to wait until Meteor Lake releases, that's too long.

Since I will be getting a Z board, I thought about settling for a 12600K. If I overclock the 12600K, can I get standard 13600K performance?

But doesn't the 13th Gen have its own unique architecture advantages? (Thread Director 2, for example)

I plan on pairing it with a 3080 or 4070, but I am not concerned about the "bottle neck" issue, I'm not convinced that's a real thing except in an obviously unbalanced gap in the age of the CPU and GPU.

I am not concerned about power consumption, the PSU will be 1000W.

I plan to do video re-encoding, maybe some light video editing.

I ran though some of these questions with the Bing AI, which was...amusing.

As far as I can tell, the 13400 is a lot better than the 13100, but the 400/500/600 differences are only a matter of about 10% better performance over each iteration.

I've even considered just getting the 12100 to get things started.

PassMark CPU Value Chart says 13500 is the best non-F value, but the 13400 is not far behind.

Going from a 13400 to a 13500 is about 18 bucks.
Seems like it's worth the price bump.

 

[consptheory77]

If the choice was something like "if I go" 12600K then I could get a better graphics card, I would probably pick that and wait for the sale prices on 13th gen and update that later.

I'd be getting the GPU after I pay off the desktop, so any savings by going lower spec on the CPU wouldn't be passed on immediately.

 

[consptheory77]

As you have discovered, there is a continuous price/performance difference as you move up the processor line.
You mostly get what you pay for.
My advice would be to find a way to buy the 13600K up front.
It is an outstanding processor for your purposes.
Interim processors do not work. There is too much lost when you sell the old to buy the new.
Of you do not buy the 13600K up front, you will be forever second guessing yourself.
The difference is about $75 from the 13500.
You say don't want to pay, that is not the same as saying "can't pay".
Surely there must be a way.
What Z790 motherboard are you looking at?
What reasons compel you to that chipset?
Would Z690 do?
MATX will cost less than ATX versions.
What are the rest of your prospective parts?
Possibly there are savings there.
FWIW, looking back over a long time, Intel does not normally reduce prices on old gen processors when a new gen is introduced.

Intuitively, I agree, but I think I am trying to rationalize a different choice.

I am getting the components in installments (and watching for sales), which I know is not advisable, but it's the only way I can go right now, and I'm going like this

SSD>PSU>CPU fan>Case>RAM

(I've already bought the first three)

which then leaves Motherboard and CPU, which I think I ought to purchase both at once

The motherboard I want is MSI MAG Tomahawk Z790. It is is a more expensive option, particularly as prices on the Z690 board have dropped, but I can definitely say I want the four M.2 slots and the heat shields (for aesthetics at the least) and the DDR5, and this is the cheapest board with all those options. Originally, it was $320, then it dropped to $270, now it's dropped to $260, I'd buy it now if it weren't for needing to buy it with the CPU (and, alas, I don't live near a Micro Center).
The 13700K has just stood at $320 since I starting eyeing the components back in January. I'm hoping maybe in July Amazon will do some Cyber Summer thing, but will the 13600K ever be $250? I expect not until sometime late in 2024 (the 12 Gen prices have been dropping - I saw the 12100 (not the F) on sale for $99!)

SSD (boot drive) is Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB for $103 (sale!)
PSU is MSI MPG A1000G for $180 (sale!)
CPU fan is Deep Cool AK620 (white) for $60 (sale!)

So I've already saved $25 plus $20 plus $10 over retail, I guess I could consider those savings allocated to the 13600K

 

[consptheory77]

Seen on Reddit

i5 13500 vs i5 13600k

"As a person who has worked on chip MEMS & NEMS for years at BNL Long Island and IBM Watson Research Center NY, let me say this: 13500 and 13600K are NOT the same chip with just different frequencies.

13500 has a lower quality than 13600K at the chip level, for example, there is a significant difference in QA quality, e.g. uniformity of dopant concentration of the silicon body in FETs, causing different leakage currents, and uniformity of thickness control of the gate materials in FETs, and there're many other indexes that can affect two seemingly same chips to perform differently... All these will result in the former (13500) generating more hard errors and requiring more energy and time for auto-correction, making it less efficient in handling data processing tasks, while the latter (13600K) will generate fewer errors and work in a more effective way.

In the game, you will see that the latter has a higher FPS than the former, even when the two chips are locked at exactly the same frequency and equipped with the same caches."

 

[yinitialize]

Seen on Reddit

i5 13500 vs i5 13600k

"As a person who has worked on chip MEMS & NEMS for years at BNL Long Island and IBM Watson Research Center NY, let me say this: 13500 and 13600K are NOT the same chip with just different frequencies.

13500 has a lower quality than 13600K at the chip level, for example, there is a significant difference in QA quality, e.g. uniformity of dopant concentration of the silicon body in FETs, causing different leakage currents, and uniformity of thickness control of the gate materials in FETs, and there're many other indexes that can affect two seemingly same chips to perform differently... All these will result in the former (13500) generating more hard errors and requiring more energy and time for auto-correction, making it less efficient in handling data processing tasks, while the latter (13600K) will generate fewer errors and work in a more effective way.

In the game, you will see that the latter has a higher FPS than the former, even when the two chips are locked at exactly the same frequency and equipped with the same caches."

The GPU used in benchmark of most 12th and 13th gen CPU are mostly 4090 or 4080. There will be no difference between 13500 and 13600k if u arent using gpu above 4070, not for alder lake and raptor Lake, they are both nearly the same in terms of IPC. There is no point buying 13500 over 13600k if the price aren't justifying that 10% difference between them. Ppl keep using future proofing as a reason to pay more for that little improvement, its not worth it.