Intel's 'fastest-ever' desktop processor can clock 6GHz

(Image Courtesy: Intel)

American semiconductor giant Intel has announced a flagship processor for its 13th Gen Raptor Lake series of CPUs. The Core i9-13900KS is now the fastest processor the company has ever launched with a boost clock of 6GHz, achieved without any overclocking.

It does this with the help of Intel's Thermal Velocity Boost, which can fillip clock speeds on processors well past their turbo frequency threshold, provided the CPU has enough power and thermal headroom to do so, the company said.

The Core i9-13900KS has similar specifications to the Core i9-13900K. It has the same 24 cores (8 P Cores + 16 E Cores) with a slightly improved base frequency on the P Cores at 3.2GHz and the same 2.2GHz base on the E Cores.

Like the 13900K, the KS variant has 36MB of L3 cache, and 32MB of L2 cache. The major change that makes the new boost possible is the base power usage which has now gone up to 150W and it can go up to 253W under max boost.

Intel says that existing Z690 and Z790 motherboards will support the Core i9-13900KS with a BIOS update, and the recommended selling price has been set at $699 (approximately Rs 57,000).

The CPU went on sale on January 12, 2023. Intel says it will be available as a boxed processor and in OEM systems.