According to a Tweet by @OneRaichu, Intel's Raptor Lake Core i9-13900K was tested in 7-Zip’s compression and decompression benchmark and found to be up to 60% faster than its predecessor, the Core i9-12900K.

With a 7-Zip file size of 384MB and 3847MB, the Core i9-12900K was able to output 126 MB/s in the compression test, while in the decompression test the chip managed approximately 1630 MB/s with file sizes of 3847MB and 38475MB. However, the Raptor Lake part managed a noticeably higher 150 MB/s in the compression test, with 513MB and 5130MB file sizes. In the decompression test, it ran at 2600MB/s with file sizes of 5130MB and 51300MB.

This performance translates to 20% better compression and a whopping 60% better decompression for the i9-13900K. We don’t know exactly how 7-Zip behaves with Intel’s hybrid architecture, but almost all file compression and decompression algorithms are very CPU intensive, which is why we’re seeing massive gains for the 13900K.

A key suspect in this performance boost is likely due to the efficiency core count doubling with Raptor Lake. Since compression and decompressing can usually spread out to multiple cores, usually peaking at around 32 to 48 cores. In the 13900K’s case, the chip has 16 efficiency (E) cores plus 8 performance (P) cores for a total of 24. Also, helping matters is the 13900K's higher clock speed margin on the P cores with boost frequencies beyond 5.5GHz.

Raptor Lake is Intel’s upcoming 13th Gen CPU architecture aimed at succeeding 12th Gen Alder Lake processors. The chips will be built on a more mature process of Intel 7 with more powerful P cores clocked at over 5.5GHz, and feature 2x more efficient cores for the SKUs that will support them.

All signs point to a Q4 2022 release, with the launch window rumored to be in late September.