Core i9-13900HX Raptor Lake Mobile CPU Outperforms 12900K in Geekbench

Intel Alder Lake Mobile CPU
(Image credit: Intel)

@BenchLeaks on Twitter shared a new Geekbench 5 benchmark result for Intel's upcoming Core i9-13900HX Raptor Lake CPU. This mobile chip should be a monster, with single and multi-core results that surpass Intel's previous generation best CPUs, the desktop Core i9-12900K at stock frequencies. Once released, it will be the fastest mobile chip Intel has ever made.

Geekbench shows the 13900HX with 24 cores, 32 threads, and 36MB of L3 cache. The differentiating core and thread counts imply it uses the same configuration as its bigger brother, the i9-13900K that has eight P-cores and 16 E-cores. This is a substantial upgrade over the i9-12900HX's 8P+8E configuration and a big part of why the 13900HX can outperform the desktop 12900K in Geekbench's multi-core benchmark. There are of course other upgrades Raptor Lake includes, like higher clock speeds.

We don't know how much power it will consume, or how high the clock speeds will go, but we expect it will behave similarly to its 12900HX predecessor that had a max boost of 5GHz and a max turbo power rating of 157W, with a 55W base processor power.

This 13900HX sample scored 2,039 points in the single-core benchmark and hit 20,943 points in the multi-core benchmark. Compared to Geekbench 5's reference i9-12900K result of 1,987 points and 17,319 points respectively, the 13900HX is 2.6% faster in the single-core result and a whopping 20.9% faster in the multi-threaded counterpart.

Even Intel's Core i9-12900KS Special Edition can't fully beat out the 13900HX, only beating it in the single core result by a fraction of a percent. To clearly surpass it, we have to go all the way up to the Core i7-13700K's Geekbench scores.

AMD's mobile Ryzen competitors don't even come close to what Intel has to offer, either. One of Geekbench 5's best Ryzen mobile scores to date comes from a Ryzen 9 6900HX Lenovo 82UH laptop, scoring just 1,638 points and 10,200 points in the single and multi-core benchmarks. Obviously, we'll have to wait for AMD's Ryzen 7000 mobile processors to see any competition in the mobile space.

Thankfully, it won't be long before i9-13900HX-powered laptops hit the market. Intel has already confirmed Raptor Lake mobile will launch before 2023. But realistically, we'll probably see Raptor Lake mobile products launch during CES 2023 and afterward, due to other factors not involving Intel (like the reported China labor shortages).

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • Neilbob
    I often wonder about the need for these many cores for the majority of desktop users, but I can see a purpose in some cases. In this form factor, I'm really struggling to figure out who could possibly benefit from them? Are there really that many people rendering and video editing on a laptop?

    Other than people (and companies of course) being able to gas on about how big their numbers are in this benchmark that REALLY represents a regular usage scenario! Whoo!
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    Actually, you'd be very surprised at how many people use laptops as workstations these days. They really are becoming popular for content creation and stuff like that. Heck, smartphones and tablets these days are also used extensively for video editing.
    Reply
  • samopa
    Most of students, especially university students (at least in my country) only have laptops, no desktops, because : a. Its to expensive to them to own 2 PCs, and b. It provide conveniences (easy to carry, less space, less power) that matter to them.
    For university students, specially IT or IT related students, their laptops must be capable to tackle many assignment throw at them, and in my country, the number of IT (related) student grows exponentially.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    I thought battery life was also an important metric for mobile parts? I mean, getting "desktop like" performance is not terribly hard if you just make the mobile CPU behave like a desktop one. This is not impressive in the least.

    What would be impressive is Intel getting this performance AND beating AMD in battery life of a fully assembled laptop using the same battery size. Until then, this is just a misleading "win".

    I can hear people now say "but you can work plugged in!". So we're at the point where we're willing to sacrifice mobility and portability of a laptop for raw power? Sure, these can lower their TDP dynamically, but still make a laptop unnecessarily bulky to cool it when going full blast. I still dislike that dichotomy.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    -Fran- said:
    I thought battery life was also an important metric for mobile parts? I mean, getting "desktop like" performance is not terribly hard if you just make the mobile CPU behave like a desktop one. This is not impressive in the least.

    What would be impressive is Intel getting this performance AND beating AMD in battery life of a fully assembled laptop using the same battery size. Until then, this is just a misleading "win".

    I can hear people now say "but you can work plugged in!". So we're at the point where we're willing to sacrifice mobility and portability of a laptop for raw power? Sure, these can lower their TDP dynamically, but still make a laptop unnecessarily bulky to cool it when going full blast. I still dislike that dichotomy.

    Regards.

    Yeah for sure. But Intel's chips do have an extensive amount of configurable clock speeds and TDPs. So maybe it depends on the laptop manufacturer?
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    TechyInAZ said:
    Yeah for sure. But Intel's chips do have an extensive amount of configurable clock speeds and TDPs. So maybe it depends on the laptop manufacturer?
    Indeed it is. OEMs will probably make a few "poster children" and that's it.

    Flipping the argument on its head: you could put a 5800X3D or 7950X in a laptop, change their name slightly and call it a day. That doesn't make them mobile CPUs, I guess, perhaps?

    Regards.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    -Fran- said:
    Indeed it is. OEMs will probably make a few "poster children" and that's it.

    Flipping the argument on its head: you could put a 5800X3D or 7950X in a laptop, change their name slightly and call it a day. That doesn't make them mobile CPUs, I guess, perhaps?

    Regards.

    Very true, with how power-hungry Intel's mobile CPUs have gotten, you can basically blurr the lines between desktop and laptop these days.
    Reply