Intel ‘Raptor Lake’ Mobile Tested: Flagship 13th Gen Core i9 CPU Devours All Its Prey

Not too long ago at CES 2023, Intel announced that its impressive-sounding 13th Generation processors, code-named “Raptor Lake,” were headed for laptops. The first units with these new chips have just landed on our test benches, so we’re bringing you the first round of test results to see how much of Intel's blistering-fast Raptor Lake desktop performance made its way to mobile.

In particular, we’re testing a top-end Core i9 13th Gen chip, nothing like your run-of-the-mill mainstream laptop processor. Our guinea-pig laptops for this performance testing are two powerhouse laptops from MSI and Asus, both outfitted with the Core i9-13980HX. Let’s dive into the details and testing results.

The MSI Titan GT77, powered by Intel's new Core i9-13980HX chip
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Welcome to Laptops, ‘Raptor Lake'

First things first: You can read much more about 13th Generation laptop processors in our original coverage, linked above. We don’t need to rehash all of the fine details, but here’s a shortened recap of the Raptor Lake architecture. Generally speaking, it utilizes the same hybrid Performance core and Efficient core structure as 12th Generation “Alder Lake” chips, with even more cores and greater performance.

Another angle on the GT77
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

These two types of cores handle different workloads, splitting active and more passive tasks to improve both speed and efficiency. If you’re caught up on Alder Lake, there’s less to explain with Raptor Lake, because the previous generation was the first time this so-called “hybrid architecture” was deployed. This is a refinement of that format.

As the improved second take on this architecture, Intel claims Raptor Lake delivers 11% better single-threaded performance, and an eye-catching 49% improvement in multitasking. Tall orders, but we’ll see how they fare in a moment. These chips are the closest to desktop-like performance, and max out at 55 watts (W)—far more than the lesser CPUs found in lighter laptops that often sit around 20W or even less.

The GT77 in profile
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The HX series is Intel’s highest consumer tier, specifically meant for gaming laptops and mobile workstations. For Raptor Lake, this includes the Core i9-13900HX, the Core i9-13950HX, and the Core i9-13980HX. These three chips all boast the same core and thread count, but the max frequency of the other two is a touch lower than the 13980HX chip’s 5.6GHz max turbo speed. These 13th Gen HX chips support PCI Express Gen 5 x16 or 2×8, dual Thunderbolt 4 controllers, and up to 128GB of RAM (either DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200). Dynamic overclocking is built-in, too, with XMP 3.0 support.

(Credit: Intel)

Intel's Core i9-13980HX—the star of the show for this testing piece—sits atop this new stack, holding a staggering 24 cores (eight P-cores and 16 E-cores) inside and support for 32 threads. The top 12th Generation Alder Lake chip topped out at eight P-cores and eight E-cores. You can read more about Raptor Lake's step-down 13th Gen H Series, as well as the P and U Series, at the coverage link above.

On one hand, most users don’t need the performance potential of Intel’s Core i9 series. It’s meant for demanding media editing and creation tasks, and any workload that benefits from utilizing as many threads as possible. On the other hand, it makes a great showcase for what a new generation of processors can do, and so we’re happy to put the Core i9-13980HX through its paces as Raptor Lake's best-foot-forward mobile representative.

Meet Our 13th Generation Contenders

The processor is the star of the show, but of course can’t exist on its own! Fortunately we have not one, but two, 13th Gen laptops on hand that get as near to an ideal test scenario as possible, given that they are big, meaty laptops with plenty of cooling capacity. One is the MSI Titan GT77, the main test case we’ll be using for this chip, and the other is the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, which we have also fully reviewed.

The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, our second 13th Gen Core i9 laptop
(Credit: Molly Flores)

Just as important: You can read a deep dive into the graphics performance in these systems, as well. Why that matters? In addition to being the 13th Gen Core i9 debut, this is also the first chance we’re getting to test Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40 Series laptop GPUs. It’s just as enticing to look at those numbers as it is the new CPU—both are running Nvidia's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 GPU alongside their 13th Gen processors.

To gauge the performance of this new silicon, we’re running it through our usual suite of benchmark tests. We're comparing it with 12th Generation (via the HP ZBook Studio G9, the Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 7, and the MSI CreatorPro X17) and 11th Generation (the 2021 MSI GE76 Raider) Intel systems, as well as other relevant CPUs (including AMD and Apple alternatives, which are discussed more below) to judge the generational improvement Raptor Lake is delivering. Here are the specs of the laptops we’ll be comparing…

Worth noting: Not all of these systems are quite as large as the hulking GT77 Titan (17.3 inches) and the Strix Scar 18 (18 inches), with the latter being part of the new wave of 18-inch-screened systems we saw announced at CES 2023. They have more room for cooling than most laptop chassis, though the chip is still ultimately the main factor in performance. We’ll start with an Intel-only face off, so we can zero in on generation-on-generation gains more closely.

Tested: Gauging Raptor Lake's Gen-on-Gen Improvement

Here, we’re judging the Raptor Lake processors in the Titan and the Strix against previous-generation systems before moving on to their rivals from AMD and Apple. Be sure to arrow through the charts to see the results from different tests, which are then discussed below.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing.

Three further benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

While PCMark is an important measure of the type of everyday performance you can expect from a laptop, it’s a little less relevant with this tier of processor. The top dogs will all breeze through this workload, as it doesn’t really push a chip to its limits or maximize its threads.

Regardless, the i9-13980HX in the Strix Scar 18 posts top marks (less so with the Titan) in PCMark, easily clearing any competitors. Only a handful of past systems have even reached the 8,000-point mark, and the Strix cruises over 9,000 points. The Titan’s score is lower, and the Legion’s 12th Gen equivalent actually posts a higher score than MSI's newest gaming powerhouse. That could be due to a number of software or thermal factors, so we’ll look at other tests first before drawing any conclusions, but the Strix’s result demonstrates a new high ceiling for everyday multitasking.

The Raptor Lake systems truly impress on the content creation tests. Here, the two 13th Gen systems are in lockstep, handily outperforming the previous generation silicon. Unlike PCMark, as explained, these are the tests that really push a chip’s full capabilities, making use of those many cores and threads.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The Cinebench test results are especially impressive, which are a fine measure of a chip’s raw processing power and really make use of those E-cores. Intel's i9-13980HX crushes the i9-12900HX inside the Legion, nearly doubling up on its score. That's not the ideal 12th Gen score we have, even though that's a top-performing system, so let's look at the hulking MSI CreatorPro X17. Its score is much higher than the Legion’s, despite using the same CPU, so we can treat that as the 12th Gen ceiling, much like the mighty Titan. Even then, the Raptor Lake systems clear its score comfortably, and are in a new stratosphere compared to most of their predecessors.

HandBrake shows a significant reduction in the time it takes to encode the video file, shaving a minute and a half off the best last-gen time. The one half-exception is, again, the CreatorPro X17, which hangs much closer than anything else to the 13th Gen laptops. Across these tests, you can also observe how quickly the 11th Generation system has been left in the dust, thanks to the hybrid architecture.

Long story short, Raptor Lake looks extremely impressive for crunching through processor-heavy media tasks, but there’s one more relevant set of tests to check out.

Adobe Creative Suite Tests

Finally, we’re moving on to two benchmark tests based on the popular Adobe Creative Suite environment. First we run workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe's famous image editor to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters. We do the same with a PugetBench script for Premiere Pro 15, which, like Photoshop, draws on the full power of the laptop to manipulate video.

These 13th Gen laptops don’t hold nearly as much of a lead over their predecessors on the Adobe tests, interestingly. They are better, particularly in Premiere Pro, but not by as large of a gulf. This is a useful real-world example that shows how performance can vary greatly within certain software, and even from one Adobe application to another.

As stated, these tests draw more on the full system, perhaps somewhat minimizing the processor improvements. Still, given what we know about the hardware, and looking at the other results, you’d be better off with 13th Gen—but don’t necessarily expect a world of difference if you work primarily in Photoshop.

Tested: 13th Gen Intel vs. AMD Ryzen and Apple M2

It’s refreshing and relieving to see the gen-over-gen improvements that Raptor Lake brings. For Intel loyalists (or those who were considering a 12th Gen system but decided to wait), the improvement over Alder Lake may be the chief deciding factor in buying a just-released system at a premium rather than something a bit older.

The dual-screen Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, a top AMD-based performer
(Credit: Molly Flores)

The performance gains look worthwhile there, but how does Raptor Lake stack up to top laptop competition? AMD delivered fierce competition with Ryzen 5000 and 6000, but Intel started to pull away again with 12th Gen, and looks even more difficult to beat here. Ryzen 7000 is on the horizon soon, but not yet tested.

Meanwhile, Apple’s homebrewed M1 and M2 silicon have deeply impressed, delivering efficient processing and graphics performance. Between AMD and Apple, if you’re looking for the fastest possible laptop CPUs—or academically curious which is faster—there is some stiff competition for Intel’s latest products.

The 2023 Apple MacBook Pro 16-Inch, equipped with M2 Max silicon
(Credit: Brian Westover)

The comparison systems are listed in the original spec chart above if you need to refer back: The i9-13980HX is competing against an AMD Ryzen 8 6980HX (in the Zephyrus Duo 16), a Ryzen 9 6900HS (in the Corsair Voyager), and an Apple M2 Max (via the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro). We’ll be using the same benchmark tests, when possible—the MacBook can’t run Windows-based PCMark 10, for instance.

In positive news for Team Blue, there is one clear takeaway here: Intel has a true workhorse on its hands this generation. The performance looks about as impressive as it did against Intel’s own past silicon, at times doubling the performance of AMD competition and cruising past Apple’s mighty M2 Max chip.

The latter is a serious accomplishment, as the M2 Max just recently beat all comers by a wide margin itself. Obviously these are much bigger laptops than the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but that’s not an especially small system, either. Photoshop is again the outlier of sorts, about equal on all of these systems. It should also be said that on Photoshop, the Apple laptop is working through a layer of emulation for compatibility.

Some users will stick with Apple regardless for other workflow purposes, but make no mistake: If we’re recommending one chip for performance on demanding media and editing tasks, Raptor Lake is the one to pick.

At the Top End, Raptor Lake Mobile Eats Up the Field

Simply put, Intel has a winner on its hands. As far as top-end performance goes for enthusiast gamers, content creators, media professionals, and anyone else who can benefit from raw power in a workstation, you have to tip your cap to Intel. This chip, with its eight extra E-cores versus the Core i9 12th Gen flagship CPU and amped-up various boost speeds, goes beyond the incremental generation-on-generation improvements we had come to expect for a few years, and does so without a new architecture.

Of course, adding more cores and threads in the top-end chips, at some point, will stop scaling. (Intel may well have reached the practical limits with 13th Gen; we'll see in the coming year or years.) Still, the jump for 12th Gen to 13th Gen is commendable; it was less surprising when the 12th Gen hybrid architecture generally outperformed equivalent 11th Gen processors, for example. These 13th Gen tests most definitely reflect the effect of more added E-cores, but they also give validity to Intel’s claims of increased efficiency and refinement within the same architecture. Not everything can take equal advantage of just bolting on more cores; far from it.

A lot of considerations, beyond processor speeds and core counts, come into play when buying a laptop—you can check out our detailed advice for doing so—so we won’t pretend these high-end chips and niche use cases are the be-all and end-all for many shoppers. But this type of performance does matter to a lot of enthusiast users, and crucially, will likely cascade down to the lower 13th Gen processors to follow the HX chips in the stack, which we'll see when we can test them ourselves.

Check back for full reviews of the MSI Titan GT77 and other 13th Generation Intel laptops soon. Meanwhile, dig into our review of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and our parallel look at the GeForce RTX 4090 mobile GPU, launching in concert with the first 13th Gen Core laptop chips.