The Importance of Efficiency Cores in Gaming Performance

Efficiency cores are often overlooked as a crucial factor in gaming performance. These cores are used to run background tasks, such as Discord, capture software, and other applications that consume system resources. While they may not seem like a significant contributor to overall gaming performance, efficiency cores play a vital role in maintaining a smooth gaming experience.

When it comes to gaming, the Windows scheduler can often struggle to allocate resources efficiently. Efficiency cores help alleviate this issue by providing an extra layer of processing power for background tasks. This allows the game to focus on its primary task of rendering graphics and handling input, resulting in improved performance. However, the effectiveness of efficiency cores can vary depending on the specific system configuration and the game being played.

In recent years, Intel has released several processors that feature significant upgrades over their predecessors. The 13900k is a prime example, boasting improved performance across the board. When compared to its predecessor, the 13700k, the 13900k offers noticeable gains in performance. However, these gains are not as pronounced when comparing it directly to other processors, such as the 12700k.

One of the most significant factors affecting gaming performance is memory speed. A faster memory speed can greatly improve performance, especially at higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K. The difference between a 6 GHz memory clock speed and a 7.2 GHz clock speed may seem negligible, but it can have a significant impact on overall system performance.

In terms of real-world performance, the difference between a 13900k and a 13700k is relatively small. However, the 13900k does offer a few key advantages over its predecessor. One of these advantages is improved thermal velocity boost, which allows for slightly higher clock speeds under certain conditions. This boost is not as significant as it seems, but it can still have a noticeable impact on overall performance.

Another important consideration when choosing a processor for gaming is the quality of the silicon. Intel's 13th-generation processors feature improved silicon quality compared to their 12th-generation counterparts. However, this improvement does not necessarily translate to better performance in all scenarios.

The 13700k is an excellent example of a high-performance processor that offers significant gains over its predecessor. Its improved thermal velocity boost and enhanced silicon quality make it a compelling option for gamers looking to upgrade their system. When paired with fast memory speeds, the 13700k can deliver outstanding performance at 1440p and 4K resolutions.

In conclusion, efficiency cores are an often-overlooked aspect of gaming performance. By understanding the importance of these cores and how they interact with other system components, gamers can optimize their setup for improved performance. When paired with fast memory speeds, a high-quality processor like the 13700k or its successor, the 13900k, can deliver exceptional results.

The Impact of System Configuration on Performance

When it comes to building a gaming PC, there are many factors to consider beyond just the processor. Memory speed, for example, plays a crucial role in determining overall system performance. A fast memory speed can greatly improve performance, especially at higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K.

The 7200 MHz memory speed is an excellent example of a fast memory speed that can significantly impact gaming performance. When compared to a 6 GHz memory clock speed, the 7.2 GHz clock speed offers noticeable gains in performance. However, this difference may not be as pronounced when considering other factors, such as the quality of the processor and the system's overall configuration.

In terms of real-world performance, the impact of memory speed is often underestimated. A faster memory speed can greatly improve performance, especially in games that heavily rely on memory bandwidth. However, this improvement comes at a cost – higher memory speeds require more powerful cooling systems to keep temperatures under control.

When building a gaming PC, it's essential to consider the system configuration as a whole. This includes not only the processor and memory speed but also other components like the graphics card and storage drive. A balanced system configuration can significantly impact overall performance, and gamers should take the time to research and understand these factors before making a purchase.

The Rant: 40-Core vs. 16-Core Processors

Recently, there was a debate among gamers about whether building a PC with a 40-core processor is necessary for gaming at high resolutions like 1440p and 4K. Proponents of the 40-core argument claimed that it provided significant performance benefits, while opponents argued that it was overkill for most users.

In reality, the difference between a 16-core processor and a 40-core processor is relatively small when it comes to gaming performance. The 13700k, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, offers excellent performance in games that heavily rely on multi-threading. However, this performance gain is not as pronounced when comparing it directly to other processors.

The 13900k, with its 24 cores and 32 threads, offers a more significant performance boost than its predecessor. This increased core count allows for better multitasking and improved overall system performance. However, the difference between these two processors may not be as noticeable in games that do not heavily rely on multi-threading.

In conclusion, building a PC with a 40-core processor is not necessary for gaming at high resolutions like 1440p and 4K. While it provides some benefits, these gains are relatively small compared to other factors like memory speed and system configuration. Gamers should focus on finding a balance between performance and cost when selecting a processor for their PC.

The Importance of Thermal Velocity Boost

Thermal velocity boost (TVB) is a feature that allows processors to operate at higher clock speeds under certain conditions. This boost can provide significant performance gains, especially in games that rely heavily on multi-threading.

In the case of the 13900k and its predecessor, the 13700k, TVB plays a crucial role in determining overall system performance. The 13900k's improved thermal velocity boost allows for slightly higher clock speeds under certain conditions, resulting in better performance. However, this gain is not as significant as it seems – it's more of a minor tweak that can add up to noticeable gains.

When building a gaming PC, it's essential to consider the thermal design and cooling system when selecting a processor with TVB. A high-performance cooling system can help maintain stable temperatures and prevent throttling, ensuring optimal performance from the processor.

In conclusion, thermal velocity boost is an important feature that can significantly impact gaming performance. By understanding how this feature works and optimizing the system configuration to take advantage of it, gamers can unlock improved performance and enjoy a more immersive gaming experience.

The Importance of Silicon Quality

Silicon quality refers to the quality of the semiconductor material used in processor fabrication. In recent years, Intel has made significant strides in improving silicon quality, resulting in improved processors that offer better performance and efficiency.

The 13700k and its successor, the 13900k, are excellent examples of high-quality processors with exceptional silicon quality. These processors feature advanced manufacturing processes and materials that enable them to operate at higher clock speeds while maintaining low power consumption.

When building a gaming PC, it's essential to consider the silicon quality when selecting a processor. A high-quality processor can provide better performance, efficiency, and reliability, making it an excellent choice for gamers who want to optimize their system for peak performance.

In conclusion, silicon quality is an often-overlooked aspect of processor design that plays a crucial role in determining overall system performance. By choosing a high-quality processor with exceptional silicon quality, gamers can unlock improved performance and enjoy a more immersive gaming experience.

The 13700k vs. the 13900k: A Comparison

The 13700k and its successor, the 13900k, are two of the most popular processors released by Intel in recent years. Both processors offer excellent performance and efficiency, but there are some key differences between them.

One of the primary differences between these two processors is the number of cores and threads. The 13700k features 14 cores and 20 threads, while the 13900k boasts 24 cores and 32 threads. This increased core count allows for better multitasking and improved overall system performance.

In terms of real-world performance, both processors offer exceptional results. However, the 13900k provides a more significant performance boost than its predecessor due to its increased core count and improved thermal design.

Another key difference between these two processors is their thermal design. The 13700k features a traditional thermal design with a large heatsink and fans, while the 13900k boasts an updated thermal design with a smaller heatsink and more efficient cooling system. This updated design allows for better heat dissipation and reduced temperatures under heavy loads.

In conclusion, both the 13700k and the 13900k are excellent processors that offer exceptional performance and efficiency. However, the 13900k provides a more significant performance boost due to its increased core count and improved thermal design.

The Impact of Memory Speed on Performance

Memory speed is an often-overlooked aspect of system configuration that can significantly impact overall performance. A faster memory speed can greatly improve performance, especially in games that heavily rely on memory bandwidth.

In recent years, the 7200 MHz memory speed has become a popular choice among gamers due to its exceptional performance benefits. When compared to a 6 GHz memory clock speed, the 7.2 GHz clock speed offers noticeable gains in performance.

However, this improved memory speed comes at a cost – higher memory speeds require more powerful cooling systems to keep temperatures under control. It's essential for gamers to consider the thermal design and cooling system when selecting a processor with fast memory speeds.

In terms of real-world performance, the impact of memory speed is often underestimated. A faster memory speed can greatly improve performance in games that rely heavily on memory bandwidth. However, this gain may not be as pronounced in other applications.

When building a gaming PC, it's essential to consider the system configuration and balance between performance and cost. By choosing a processor with fast memory speeds and optimizing the thermal design and cooling system, gamers can unlock improved performance and enjoy a more immersive gaming experience.

In conclusion, memory speed is an important aspect of system configuration that can significantly impact overall performance. By considering the pros and cons and balancing between performance and cost, gamers can optimize their system for peak performance and enjoy a more immersive gaming experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign KS almost a stealth release a rushed release they've cut some Corners they've made some mistakes even the Intel Arc website has some some oopsies we'll talk about that 3 900 KS this is a legend in the making because it's six gigahertz out of the box but this reminds me of a launch from very nearly 20 years ago the Intel Pentium 4 they released a real hot real fast Pentium 4 it was record-breaking then six gigahertz out of the box that's record-breaking now but I think there's a little bit more to the story so if you ordered the 3900 KS the millisecond it was available thanks python script robots that's this is pretty much your unboxing experience foreign there's really not much to it you know it's plastic core I9 this box looks the same they they slapped a special edition sticker on it and boom that's pretty much it okay we're gonna do something fun we're gonna do a build for the one percent seven hundred dollars right here by the way which is quite an upgrade in price over the I9 maybe Intel is going to do a Stealth price increase where you can only buy the ks you can't buy the I9 anymore and it's just 200 more anyway if we're doing a one percent build of course it's going to feature the Nvidia 4090 because there is literally nothing faster there's also nothing it uses more electricity so to support that I'm going to go with the fsp group Hydro PTM Pro now this has the extra pcie5 connector on it these just came back in stock so they can't make them fast enough FSB group has a well-known name for itself good reputation I should say in the server Market server power supply market and so this is fsp groups engineering for the server Market distilled down into desktop PC power supplies 1200 watts 1200 watts is overkill for just a single GPU system this is more like something I would use in some of my higher end builds and in fact I do use this in the higher end build but this this dongle cable thing is utterly ridiculous I don't like this but if you're gonna deal with this kind of a power connector on your GPU because there's not a lot of other options this power supply has the connector for that built in as I've shown in other videos for the rest of our build we're going with the MSI z790 Godlike why the MSI z790 God like because this is obviously a motherboard for the one percent build it comes with a cool little LCD screen it says a bunch of stuff on it has built-in 10 gigabit Ethernet there is a lot to like here about this motherboard for the absolute maximum highest end now you could go for the 0.1 percent build which would include custom Loop cooling I've instead opted for the the MSI aceitec partnership 360 millimeter cooler with a built-in LCD screen that's got the bling but a second runner-up that I would mention is also the Arctic liquid freezer 2 that I've reviewed previously the 420 millimeter version 420 millimeters is the larger cooling area and we really do need that for the 13900 KS so if you look at the Intel Arc page for this processor you can see that it does actually have some significant upgrade trades over to the 13900 for one the e-cores the efficiency cores their base clock and boost clock is higher we've also got a little bit more wattage it's not listed on the arc page but 320 watts is an option some other board vendors are building that option directly into BIOS where you can just pick the 320 watt profile which means that you need enough cooling to be able to handle that and you know sort of d-litting and direct dye Cooling and stuff like that makes sense again that's maybe more on the 0.1 percent side for memory we have G skill Trident Z 7200 I've reviewed that separately as well that makes perfect sense for this build which you'll see in just a minute I've opted to use the mesh Phi 2 white from fractal now you can pick a higher end case I like to Define cases for noise dampening but for airflow this one's hard to beat unless you go with the torrent or another case from you know whatever you like for cases but I like this oh yeah what are you using for storage in a one percent build I'm glad you asked this is the Intel optane p5800x it's about sixteen hundred dollars for 800 gigabytes or several thousand dollars if you enter the multi-terabyte range but I've got two P 5800 X's here they are unmatched they're PCI Express 4 in terms of latency and throughput they're Enterprise grade nvme and they do need cooling I've got two of them on an X8 pcie add-in card but I'm only going to run one at PCI Express by four in this configuration because I want my GPU to have all 16 lanes for these benchmarks that we're doing now as we look at the benchmarks with the out of the box configuration again from the overclock to ddr5 two sticks of memory at 7200 plus our six gigahertz thermal velocity boost now really real world that's more like 5.8 gigahertz and our game boost is really more on the order of like 5.6 so that's a very modest gains over the 13900k for real world gaming and so you might expect that the benchmarks especially around 1080p with the 4090 are not dramatically different and yet as we see here and here with our game benchmarks the performance is actually quite a bit higher 3900 KS secretly the star of the show no it's actually our G skill memory our ddr5 7200 I mean with this platform we're talking about a maximum theoretical memory bandwidth with the overclock of just about 100 gigabytes per second theoretical in real world we're seeing north of 70 gigabytes per second with this memory kit which is substantial for games that are limited by this round trip between system memory pcie peripherals and the CPU sort of the triumvirate of high frame rate gaming then yeah this performance uplift really is breathtaking but it's not really the 13900 KS that's enabling that it's the better memory controller maybe theoretically silicon Lottery you know because it's still technically an overclock we look at ARC here the ddr5 performance numbers aren't really any better it's like okay this is what it supports so 7200 is definitely an overclock it also depends on your board you have to get the highest in board eight or more PCB layers there's a whole lot of dependencies that go into being able to run the thing at full memory speed the good news is that you don't necessarily have to dump 300 watts of power into the CPU I mean sure that's kind of cool for your all core sustained you know 16 efficiency cores eight performance cores number and you get some pretty cool stuff in the Benchmark but for gaming those efficiency cores generally don't really make a huge difference the difference they make is that they run interference for all the crap going on in the background the game can get all the performance cores and all the crap you got going on in the background with Discord and capture and you know whatever else those can live on efficiency cores and that will help your one percent lows that'll help everything else assuming that the windows scheduler can get everything correct which you know from game to game doesn't always do it I mean here we are I don't want to call this three generations later but here we are three generations later and Far Cry 6 still struggles with these efficiency cores from run to run there's a lot of variation when you actually play the game okay admittedly it's not as bad as it was but it's not as good as I would expect it to be in terms of the uplift from the K to the ks and and everything in between so then I got to thinking what's the real MVP here what if we put that 7200 memory into the 13900k that is actually where you should spend your money first so these one percent builds sort of give us a clue it's like where should you spend your money what do you do if you you know are looking for the biggest bang for your buck but still at that upper echelona system I mean just because you're a one percenter it doesn't mean that you became a one percenter by spending all your money on the best thing that's absolutely available and then you can actually step down to the i7 the i7 can't you buy like two of these for the price of the the I9 3900 KS yeah yeah you can and for gaming it doesn't matter it doesn't even if you're doing this 1080p stuff now I'll also give you the rant which is related to this which is if you're buying a 40 90 and a 3900 KS and you're still gaming at 1080p that's a little odd there are a couple of people that made a case for that on the level one Forum but it's sort of unusual and when you step up to 1440p or 4K there is functionally no difference even between an i7 and the 13900 KS when you keep the memory the same and the performance of everything else in the system the same mostly it's okay three and a half percent variation worst case scenario but real world I think is actually less than that I get why Intel didn't really sample anybody for the 3900 KS meaning that they sent them to reviewers ahead of time because even at six gigahertz even with the bump in e-cores functionally there's not a lot of difference between the 3900k and the 3900ks but also it sure seems like the 12700k which is also very close in performance to the 13700k although the 13700k is better again you know in that five percent range it looks like the the 12th gen has become more expensive from intel if you're buying those versus the 13th gen so are they phasing those out has production ended is that perfectly normal in the supply chain probably but it's something to watch and then there are there are also competitive parts from other vendors also available in the market because maybe you want to build a team red system and maybe that's an option and blah blah blah you're not going to enjoy ddr5 7200 on a team red system so depending on what your gaming goals are maybe that's important to you but for 1440p and 4K gaming the memory speed between six thousand and seventy two hundred doesn't make a huge difference it's really interesting that we look at the ks and say oh the thing that benefits the ks the most is maybe you have a slightly higher chance of getting better silicon for the memory controller more than the six gigahertz clock speed more than everything else it's important to understand that that six gigahertz boost is really a thermal velocity boost which means that it's only going to do it opportunistically if you roasted team red for their you know fleeting boosts a generation ago you're going to experience basically the same thing on this team blue part for those six gigahertz thermal velocity boost but you do get some you know that aside you do get some solid gains in terms of the the e-core Boost and then maybe a little bit higher gain clocks and a little bit higher everything else I mean the Silicon really has been and it is a little better quality silicon for those things but I get why there wasn't a lot of fanfare and whether this is level one there's been a quick look at the 3900 KS I'm signing out you can find me in the level one forums\n"