Intel Core i5-13400F vs Intel Core i5-13600HX

Intel Core i5-13400F

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a mid-range desktop processor of the Raptor Lake series. It includes a hybrid architecture for the CPU cores with combined 10 cores. Six fast Golden Cove / Raptor Cove performance cores (P-cores) with HyperThreading and a clock speed of 3.5 - 5.1 GHz and four Gracemont efficiency cores without HyperThreading and a clock speed of 2.6 - 3.9 GHz. The 13400F can be based on the older Alder Lake chips (at least for early models) or the newer Raptor Lake chips. The F-series of CPUs do not integrate a iGPU.

The performance is clearly higher than the old Core i5-12400F due to the additional four E-cores. These help in multi-threaded workloads and the higher boost core of the p-cores help for single threaded workloads.

The power consumption of the 13400F is rated at 65 Watt for sustained workloads (PL1) and 148 Watt for short bursts (PL2).

Intel Core i5-13600HX

The Intel Core i5-13600HX is a fast mid-range mobile processor of the Raptor Lake series. Is was announced in early 2023 and integrates 6 fast Raptor Cove performance cores (P-cores) with HyperThreading and 8 Gracemont efficiency cores without HyperThreading. The P-Cores clock between 2.6 GHz (base) up to 4.8 GHz (single core boost, all-core 4.5 GHz). The smaller E-Cores clock between 1.9 and 3.6 GHz. All cores can access the combined 24 MB L3 cache. The CPU supports vPro (Enterprise) management features.

Compared to Alder Lake, Raptor Lake offers improved P-Cores (Raptor Cove micro-architecture) with bigger caches and more E-Cores (same Gracemont micro-architecture). Furthermore, the chip supports faster DDR5 memory (up to 5600 MHz for the 13980HX, but only 4800 MHz for the i5).

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 13600HX as of August 2023, we have plenty of performance data for the i7-13650HX, a chip with almost the same specs (six P-cores mated to eight E-cores, with the latter running at the same clock speeds as what the 13600HX has and the former running at up to 100 MHz faster which is a very small difference). Based on that, we expect the 13600HX to be just a few percentage points behind the i7-13700HX and the i9-12950HX, meaning it's a very, very fast CPU, as of mid 2023.

Your mileage may vary depending on how competent the cooling solution of your laptop is, and how high the CPU power limits are.

Power consumption

The chip's "minimum assured" power consumption sits at 45 W. Its peak Turbo power consumption is not supposed to go over 157 W and its Intel-recommended Base power consumption is 55 W. Most laptop makers will probably go for a noticeably higher value to get better performance.

The i5-13600HX is built with Intel's 4th generation 10 nm process marketed as Intel 7 for average, as of early 2023, energy efficiency.