Core i9-13900KS vs Core i9-9900

Compare the Core i9-13900KS and Core i9-9900 on real gaming and productivity benchmarks, full specifications, live retailer prices and performance-per-dollar, then jump straight to the cheapest in-stock option.

Core i9-13900KS
From$707.00
Buy
Core i9-9900
From$699.10
Buy

The short answer

The Core i9-13900KS is the better buy here: it's both faster for gaming and gives more performance per dollar.

  • Core i9-13900KS is about 83% faster for gaming at 1080p (gaming index 76.8 vs 42.0).
  • Core i9-13900KS is roughly 185% faster in multi-core work, an edge in rendering, encoding and compiling.
  • Core i9-9900 is the cheaper chip right now, by roughly 1%.
  • Core i9-13900KS delivers about 81% more gaming performance per dollar.
  • Core i9-13900KS has more cores (24C/32T vs 8C/16T), which helps in heavily threaded workloads.
  • Core i9-9900 has a lower TDP (65W vs 150W), so it runs cooler and is easier to cool quietly.

Gaming performance

CPU-bound gaming score: a geometric mean of in-game frame rates at 1080p, normalized so the fastest gaming CPU we track = 100.

Core i9-13900KS76.8
Core i9-990042.0

Does the CPU matter at 1440p or 4K? Much less. At higher resolutions the graphics card sets the frame rate, so the gap between two CPUs shrinks — often to nothing. The 1080p figure above is the demanding case, where the CPU is stressed and the difference actually shows.

Performance per dollar

Gaming index divided by the current lowest price — higher is better value. This moves with the market as prices change day to day.

Core i9-13900KS10.9 / $100
Core i9-99006.0 / $100

The Core i9-13900KS gives about 81% more gaming performance per dollar at today’s prices.

Full platform cost

A complete-platform price needs a live CPU price and an in-stock compatible motherboard on both sides. We can’t build one for Core i9-9900 right now, which is common for older sockets like AM4 where we don’t track current boards. The gaming, value and specs comparisons still apply.

Specs head-to-head

Core i9-13900KS
Core i9-9900
Price (from)
$707.00
$699.10
Gaming (1080p index)
76.8
42.0
Cores / threads
24 / 32
8 / 16
Cores (P + E)
8P + 16E
8P
Boost clock
6.0 GHz
5.0 GHz
Base clock
3.2 GHz
3.1 GHz
L3 cache
36 MB
16 MB
L2 cache
32 MB
2 MB
TDP
150W
65W
Max power
300W
180W
Socket
LGA1700
LGA1151
Memory support
DDR5, 5600; DDR4, 3200
DDR4, 2666
Integrated graphics
Intel UHD 770
UHD Graphics 630
Architecture
Raptor Lake
Coffee Lake
Process node
Intel 7
14nm
MSRP
$700.00
$439.00

Productivity & compute

Core i9-13900KS
Core i9-9900
Geekbench 7 (multi-core)
23,555
8,258
Geekbench 7 (single-core)
2,772
1,694
Cinebench R23 (multi-core)
40,837
12,205
Cinebench R23 (single-core)
2,317
1,284

Efficiency

Gaming performance per watt (gaming index per 100W of TDP) — higher means more frames for the heat and power.

Core i9-13900KS51.2
Core i9-990064.6

Where to buy

Core i9-13900KSfrom $707.00
RetailerAvailabilityPriceBuy
AmazonIn stock$707.00
Buy
Core i9-9900from $699.10
RetailerAvailabilityPriceBuy
NeweggIn stock$699.10
Buy

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