Intel Core i9-13900KS

The fastest and most power-hungry PC chip ever

- PAUL ALCORN

THIS 24-CORE Intel Core i9-13900KS Special Edition processor carries an eye-watering $699 price tag, but it’s also the first PC chip to run at 6GHz without overclocking, extending Intel’s lead over AMD’s fastest Ryzen 7000 processors. However, with a whopping 250W base power specification, this 13th gen Raptor Lake chip is also now officially the most power-hungry desktop CPU in history— its voracious appetite even peaks at 320W in a new Extreme Power Delivery Profile.

We’ll have to wait a little longer to see what AMD does with the latest generation of its 3D V-Cache processors that have traditionally delivered explosive gains in gaming performance, but the Core i913900KS is meant to keep Intel’s silicon entrenched at the top of the benchmark charts when AMD’s new chips do arrive. That might be a tall order, as the 13900KS is built on the same architecture as the 13900K, with a higher speed binning to accommodate 200MHz faster clock rates.

There’s another reason performance enthusiasts might covet this new chip— Intel selects its premium-binned 13900K silicon for the 13900KS, so it’s guaranteed to be among the best the company has to offer. That will make the chips attractive to overclockers, as paying an extra $110 improves your odds in the silicon lottery, ensuring you get a cherry chip.