Low-Power Intel 13th Gen T Series CPUs Finally Hit Market
35W Raptor Lake CPUs for the masses
Intel's new Raptor Lake T series CPUs are finally being sold online, including the i9-13900T, i7-13700T, i5-13600T, 13500T, 13400T, and i3-13100T from German retailer CaseKing. Originally these chips were supposed to launch a month ago, but that did not come to pass for unknown reasons.
With a 35W TDP, Intel's 13th Gen T series CPUs are the lowest power-consuming processors you can buy that use Intel's latest Raptor Lake architecture and fit into a desktop socket. If you are planning your own build (see how to build a PC), you probably won't want one of these, unless you plan to put it in a small form factor chassis without a lot of (or any) active cooling. However, we often see T series chips in prebuilt mini PCs such as Lenovo's ThinkCentre M Tiny series.
All models from the Core i9-13900T down to the Core i3-13100T share identical cache, and core count configurations to their vanilla counterparts, but the clock speeds for both the P-Cores and E-Cores have taken a big hit due to the stricter power requirements. These won't be among the best CPUs for gaming or productivity.
CPUs | Core Count + L2 / L3 Cache | Clock Speeds Base / Boost (P Cores) | Price Converted from Euro to USD |
i9-13900T | 24 (8+16) + 32MB / 36MB | 5.3GHz / 1.1GHz | $671 |
i7-13700T | 16 (8+8) + 24MB / 30MB | 4.9GHz / 1.4GHz | $469 |
i5-13600T | 14 (6+8) + 11.5MB / 24MB | 4.8GHz / 1.8GHz | $308 |
i5-13500T | 14 (6+8) + 11.5MB / 24MB | 4.6GHz / 1.6GHz | $283 |
i5-13400T | 10 (6+4) + 9.5MB / 20MB | 4.4GHz / 1.3GHz | $272 |
i3-13100T | 4 (4+0) + 5MB / 12MB | 4.2GHz / 2.5GHz | $155 |
For instance, the Core i9-13900T and i7-13700T have a 300 MHz reduction in max turbo frequency compared to the i9-13900 and i7-13700, with max turbo clocks of 5.3 GHz and 4.9 GHz respectively. Base clocks take a more significant hit, being almost a full GHz lower on the 13900T and 13700T, coming in at 1.1GHz and 1.4GHz.
In a similar vein, the base and boost clocks of the E-cores are 500 to 700 MHz lower on the same i9 and i7 compared to their vanilla counterparts. For instance, the E-Core frequencies on the i9-13900T come in at 0.8 GHz base and 3.9 GHz boost, while the i9-13900 has a base of 1.5 GHz and a boost of 4.2 GHz. The i7-13700T features a base of 1 GHz and a boost of 3.6 GHz, while the 13700 features a 1.5 GHz base and 4.1 GHz boost.
On the flip side, maximum turbo power has been reduced considerably, being less than half the power consumption of the standard parts (not to mention the K SKUs). The i9-13900T and i7-13700T come in at a max turbo power of just 106W, while the 13900 and 13700 come in at 219W.
Unfortunately, the lower clock speeds of Raptor Lake T do not necessitate a large reduction in price as one would hope. All chips hold identical pricing to their non-K brethren. According to CaseKing's listings, the i9-13900T comes in at $671, i9-13700T at $469, i5-13600T $308, 13500T $283, 13400T $272, and i3-13100T at $155. All prices include VAT plus shipping costs and are converted from Euro to USD.
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Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
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BillyBuerger The T series CPUs always sounded good to me from a low power (and therefore low noise) system. But the problem is that there never really seemed to be anything special about these. They seem to be just the same CPU but with lower clock/power settings. You can get the same results by lowering the clocks/power of a normal CPU. Definitely not worth the premium. Now, if on the other hand these were binned CPUs that are actually able to run at lower voltages and therefore lower power at similar clock speeds, then that might be worth it. But that would also likely make them good overclockers so would end up binned in the higher performance CPUs. So it seems they're mostly just price gouging people for nothing.Reply
Would be interesting to see a T, normal and K CPU all set to the same voltage/power settings to see if there is really any difference between them. But my guess would be very little. -
Neilbob BillyBuerger said:Definitely not worth the premium.
Someone has to pay for all the extra effort needed to provide all this segmentation ... -
Eximo Basically just binned chips that run at really low voltages for use in small form factor systems.Reply -
I couldn't find a T model 12th gen offered at retail, so I bought a used working i5-12600T to put in my dedicated server I leave on 24/7 Plex, Gaming, etc. The lower idle wattage will more than pay for itself over the years, and it still has plenty of horsepower if needed for more involved tasks. Just my $0.02 on use case for something like these models.Reply
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BillyBuerger magmcbride said:I couldn't find a T model 12th gen offered at retail, so I bought a used working i5-12600T to put in my dedicated server I leave on 24/7 Plex, Gaming, etc. The lower idle wattage will more than pay for itself over the years, and it still has plenty of horsepower if needed for more involved tasks. Just my $0.02 on use case for something like these models.
Does it idle any lower? If so, then that could actually make it worth something. But the standard models already can idle very low and from what I recall, the T models don't really do anything to change that. They just have the lower max power.