Intel Core i5-13500 CPU Benchmarked, Faster Than The i5-12600K At A Lower Price

Benchmarks of the Intel Core i5-13500 CPU continue to leak as the chip is already available for purchase at various retail outlets around the globe.

Intel Core i5-13500 CPU Might Become The Best Budget CPU At Launch As Early Benchmarks Reveal

There has been no shortage of Intel Core i5-13500 CPU benchmarks over the last couple of weeks. We have seen benchmarks here and here but the latest one comes from renowned overclocker & also tech enthusiast, Alva Jonathan aka Lucky_n00b. The CPU is already available for sale within the Indonesian PC market place so it wasn't that hard for Alva to acquire the chip. He did put the CPU through various tests and the results are very interesting.

Intel's Core i5-13500 CPU will be part of the 13th Gen Non-K CPU lineup but will utilize the Alder Lake C0 die since its cache structure is similar to that rather than Raptor Lake chips. The Core i5-13500 comes with 6 Performance Cores & 8 Efficiency cores for a total of 14 cores and 20 threads. That's the same amount of threads as the Intel Core i7-12700K but that has a higher number of Performance Cores. There's also 24 MB of L3 cache and 11.5 MB of L2 cache on board the chip.

The Intel Core i5-13500 CPU was tested on an MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 motherboard and it comes with a maximum 1-core clock speed of 4.8 GHz (P-Core) and a sustained all-core clock speed that ranges between 2.8-2.9 GHz for the P-Cores and 2.9 GHz for the E-Core under the 65W PL1 mode. With the maximum PL1 mode, this frequency jumps to 4.5 GHz across all P-Cores and 3.5 GHz on the E-Cores.

Intel Core i5-13500 CPU Clock Frequencies & Power Limits (Image Credits: Alva Jonathan):

2 of 9

At stock, the Intel Core i5-13500 CPU has a 65W PL1 and a max PL2 rating of 154W. During tests, the CPU can hit up to 130W All-core package power bursts while 65W is sustained in the majority of multi-core tests. Users can also select the Unlimited Power mode on certain motherboards which will allow the CPU to utilize up to 150W+ power in all-core workloads but doing so will result in a lot of heat so you'll need a better cooler. Alva was using the stock air cooler so a high-end heatsink or liquid cooling is recommended if you want to push the chip this hard.

When it comes to benchmarks, the Intel Core i5-13500 scored 1834 points (PL1 - 65W) and 1885 points (PL1 - Unlimited) in the Cinebench R23 single-threaded test. In multi-threaded, the Core i5-13500 scored 17104 points (PL1 - 65W) and 21103 points (PL1 - Unlimited). While the single-core score doesn't get a huge performance boost, the multi-threaded score gets a 23% boost with the unlimited power profile. Even at the stock 65W profile, the CPU is on par with the Core i5-12600K but with the Unlimited Power profile, the CPU ends up close to the Core i7-12700K which is very impressive for a chip that will cost just slightly above $200 US.

Intel Core i5-13500 CPU Cinebench R23 Benchmarks (Image Credits: Alva Jonathan):

2 of 9

Alva also provides a few notes on his experience with the Intel Core i5-13500 CPU:

Quick Pretest Core i5-13500 notes:
- Run on MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 (1.90 BIOS), and GSkill TridentZ RGB DDR4-3600 2x16GB
- Judging from the L2 Cache, seems like an Alder Lake C0 die with 2 less P-Core?

- Default detected power config is 65W PL1/154W PL2
- Increasing PL1 from default 65W to Max/Unlimited mode will give massive clock boost

- Max Clock 1-Core 4.8Ghz (P-Core)
- Sustained All-core Clock on default 65W Mode 2.9-3Ghz P-Core, 2.9Ghz E-Core
- Sustained All-core Clock on Max/unlimited PL1 4.5Ghz P-Core, 3.5Ghz E-Core

- Default 65W Mode might be feasible for Stock Heatsink
(Temp might be higher just for the initial Burst to 130W ish)
- Unlimited/Max PL1 Power IS NOT RECOMMENDED for Stock Heatsink (will easily hit TjMax)

- 65W Multi-Core Performance almost match an i5-12600K on Cinebench R23
- Max/Unlimited Power Multi-Core Performance slightly below i7-12700K!
- Single-Core close to i5-12600K.

Quick Summary:
- Pretty Decent overall performance
- Might be run on cheap/value H610 board, but PLEASE make sure power is 65W, not maxxed out
- Recommended to pair with midrange B660 and Decent 120mm Tower HSF (like Thermalright TA120 EX or ID-Cooling SE-224XT), max out all power limit on the board to get optimal multi-core performance

Now I'm not sure if i5-13600K is my best CPU of the year, this i5-13500 CPU might have better multi-core performance-per-dollar 😀

*PS : CPU is bought at retail shop, not an engineering sample, all run with publically available BIOS 😉

Also, I need sleep 

We have previously reported in our exclusive that the Intel B760 motherboards and Non-K 13th Gen CPUs will be launching at CES 2023 on the 3rd of January so stay tuned for more information. The Intel 13th Gen Non-K CPUs will be compatible with B760 & cheaper B660 motherboards which are plentiful in the new and user market plus being available in DDR5 & DDR4 flavors gives Intel a massive advantage over AMD's Ryzen 7000 Non-X CPUs which are going to launch in January too.

News Sources: Videocardz, Alva Jonathan aka Lucky_n00b