Total Tech Solutions from Rohit.

Intel Core i9-13900K Review

Just weeks prior to this review, AMD managed to claim the processor performance crown from Intel with its Ryzen 9 7950X, which has been the world’s fastest consumer-oriented processor for that short period of time. Unfortunately for AMD, Intel never sits still. Now, with the launch of the 13th Generation "Raptor Lake" Core i9-13900K, Intel is taking back the crown.

Intel’s approach with the Core i9-13900K differs significantly from the path AMD takes with its new Zen 4 processors. Whereas AMD's Zen 4 design is a drastic departure from its Zen 3 architecture, Intel's Raptor Lake design is an iteration on the Alder Lake that preceded it—AMD is pushing performance and efficiency with fewer cores, while Intel is piling them on, and to great effect. Still, the new Core i9 doesn’t manage to be quite better in all areas, particularly in heat and power consumption. But if getting the fastest performance possible is your top priority, then the $589 Core i9-13900K is unquestionably the best processor you can buy,

Design: Alder Lake, But Bigger

Intel’s 12th Gen processor line, better known as “Alder Lake,” marked a significant change in the way the company builds its processors. Traditionally, Intel has only utilized a single CPU architecture, but with Alder Lake, it essentially adopted Arm’s big.LITTLE design philosophy. Inside of high-end Alder Lake processors are high-performance CPU cores named P-Cores, and smaller, more energy-efficient cores known as E-Cores.
The core concept of this design is to improve energy efficiency by running low-priority, low-performance tasks on the E-Cores and running performance-hungry workloads on the P-Cores. That’s far from the only benefit of this design, however, as all of the cores can be used at the same time.

The extra E-Cores, which simply weren’t present on 11th Gen processors, give a significant performance boost to all of the processors that contain them. While not all Alder Lake processors contain E-Cores—and the E-Cores aren't as powerful as their P-Core counterparts—the ones that do contain E-Cores are notably faster, thanks to their higher overall core count.

When it comes down to it, Alder Lake of 2021 and Raptor Lake of 2022 aren’t all that different, which is why it was important to go over Alder Lake first. Intel made a few subtle changes under the hood, but by far the most notable change is a significant increase in core count. Whereas the Alder Lake Core i9-12900K has eight P-Cores and eight E-Cores, the new Core i9-13900K contains eight P-Cores and 16 E-Cores.

Intel increased the size of the L3 and L2 caches on the Core i9-13900K as well, giving it 36MB of L3 cache and 32MB of L2 cache. The Core i9-12900K’s L3 cache pool isn’t much smaller at 30MB, but its L2 cache is significantly smaller at just 14MB. Clock speeds have also increased on both types of processor cores, with Core i9-13900K’s P-Cores operating 600MHz faster than the P-Cores in the Core i9-12900K, and the E-Cores on the Core i9-13900K operating 400MHz higher.
Last but not least, the maximum supported memory speed has also increased from 4,800MHz on Alder Lake to 5,600MHz on Raptor Lake.

Should You Upgrade to the 2022 iPhone SE?

The small iPhone SE packs big-league power. Here's who needs to upgrade now.

The new iPhone SE, at $429, is Apple's smallest and least expensive new iPhone. It's designed for people new to the iPhone, or who have been hanging on to older iPhones for a while.

I've been reviewing iPhones for 15 years now, and for people with older phones, it's amazing how much things have changed (although the phones may look the same). Cameras and radios, especially, have gotten a lot better over the years, giving you faster connections, better low-light photography, and superior selfies.
But at the same time, if it ain't broke, you don't need to upgrade. If your phone works just fine, and you're satisfied with its speed, camera, and connectivity, you can stick with it.

Here's a rundown of who I think should consider upgrading, and whether they need to step up to the new iPhone SE:

iPhone 5s or earlier: Upgrade immediately. If your phone still works at all, it's dependent on 3G networks that are being turned off this year. You need a new iPhone to be able to keep making phone calls, and the iPhone SE is the most affordable option.

iPhone 6: Definitely upgrade. While your phone isn't being cut off from making phone calls, it's several generations behind on iOS, and apps may become less reliable with time. The cameras and connectivity on the new iPhone SE are also both massively better.
iPhone SE (2016): Definitely upgrade. Going from a 1-megapixel front-facing camera to a 7-megapixel sensor will change how everyone sees you. And the 2016 SE's signal reception is pretty bad now; it's missing frequencies for all the carriers.

iPhone 6s, 7, 8: Upgrade if you're on T-Mobile, period. These phones are missing a key frequency band (71) that matters a lot for T-Mobile coverage. They may also be starting to feel slow or overloaded now. If they are, the new iPhone SE is faster and may have more storage (depending on which model you currently own).
iPhone SE (2020): Upgrade if you're on T-Mobile and dissatisfied with coverage, or on Verizon and you have full bars but your connection mysteriously stalls out sometimes. The 2022 iPhone SE's new 5G capabilities will help with those two issues.

Other iPhones: If you have a larger iPhone, you probably won't want to move down to a smaller screen. The iPhone 13 is the best upgrade for you.

Android Phones: All the iPhone SE models have been excellent starter iPhones for people moving to the ecosystem for the first time, and that likely holds true for the 2022 model.