KB 545001 - Faster is not always better, A comparison of Intel's 13th Gen i5 and i7 for gaming
With better in-game performance than the 2021 flagship Core i9 12900K while consuming less power, the intel Core i5 is the best overall CPU in the market right now.
The i7 13700K provides 7% better gaming performance, at higher resolutions, like 1440p and 4K the difference in gaming performance will get even more negligible as we approach GPU bottlenecks.
However, the i7 has 40% higher power and thermal requirements.
At max boost (MTP), The i7 13700K/KF consumes 253W compared to the i5 13600K’s 181W. This leads to a nosier system that runs hotter. Intel recommends having at least a 280mm/360mm liquid cooler for the i7 whereas the i5 will run fine with a 240mm AIO or even an air cooler.
This allows pairing the i5 with a less expensive cooler and power supply and potentially put the savings towards a more powerful GPU, which is what matters the most for gaming. Since the performance is better than an i9 12900K, pairing the i5 with even a flagship GPU, like the RTX 4090 is fairly balanced for gaming.