Ryzen 9 9900X vs Core i7-13700K

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Ryzen 9 9900X and the Core i7-13700K are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Ryzen 9 9900X has 12 cores and 24 threads, and the Core i7-13700K has 16 cores and 24 threads. The extra cores of the Core i7-13700K help with video editing, streaming while you play and heavy multitasking more than with the game itself. Boost clocks are 5.6 GHz and 5.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Ryzen 9 9900X uses the AM5 socket and the Core i7-13700K uses LGA1700, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 120 W for the first and 125 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Ryzen 9 9900X cost $499 and the Core i7-13700K $409, which gives 16.4 and 19.8 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Ryzen 9 9900X can feed a card up to the GeForce RTX 4080 Super before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i7-13700K reaches the GeForce RTX 4080 Super. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 9 9900X if you want the faster gaming chip. Choose the Core i7-13700K if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.