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For a gaming PC, there isn’t any higher worth CPU than a Core i5. For many of 2022, we really useful the Core i5 12600K for the very best gaming CPU (opens in new tab) and the Core i5 12400 as the very best gaming CPU on a finances. Final 12 months, the Core i5 13600K (opens in new tab) took excessive spot. And immediately, the Core i5 13400F pushes Alder Lake out of the runnings with an much more spectacular specification for the cash.
The Intel Core i5 13400F is a processor I have been ready patiently to check since I first heard wind of it final 12 months. You will perceive why when you learn these specs: A ten-core processor made up of six Efficiency-cores (P-cores) and 4 Environment friendly-cores (E-cores), the Core i5 13400F has a complete of 16 threads. Its quickest cores will run as much as 4.6GHz out of the field, a clock velocity that would not have appeared misplaced on the field of a Core i7 just a few years again.
For that spectacular spec, the Core i5 has been given an Intel-recommended price ticket of $196. Take into account the opposite choices: that is a handful of {dollars} greater than the Core i5 12400 (opens in new tab) from final 12 months, or $33 cheaper than AMD’s Ryzen 5 7600.
All of which implies, as somebody who has been fortunately operating an Intel Core i7 6700K over the previous six or seven years, and which now resides in a PC I constructed for my accomplice, that is the primary time I’ve thought-about upgrading that chip for one thing newer.
Core i5 13400F specs
Cores (P+E): 6+4
Threads: 16
L3 Cache (Sensible Cache): 20MB
L2 Cache: 9.5MB
Max P-core Turbo frequency (GHz): 4.6
Max E-core Turbo frequency (GHz): 3.3
Unlocked: No
Graphics: No iGPU
Reminiscence assist (as much as): DDR5 4800MT/s, DDR4 3200MT/s
Processor Base Energy (W): 65
Most Turbo Energy (W): 148
RRP: $196
It truly is significantly spectacular on paper. And within the check bench it continues to impress.
The Core i5 13400F is simply a handful of frames shy of the Core i9 13900K in Complete Battle: Three Kingdoms, Metro Exodus, and F1 2021. In Far Cry 6, this chip is considerably slower than Intel’s high-end processors, nevertheless, displaying Far Cry 6 to be a extra CPU-limited sport than the others. To a lesser extent, the identical is true for Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
But even in these two video games the place the Core i5 13400F falls off the tempo of the quicker thirteenth Gen processors, it stays faster than final 12 months’s finest gaming CPU, the Core i5 12600K. It is also considerably quicker than the Core i5 12400, although is extra power-hungry for it.
Gaming benchmarks
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The Core i5 13400F would not assist BCLK overclocking, nevertheless, and that was one thing we completely adored concerning the Core i5 12400. Intel blocks multiplier overclocks with all however its Okay-series chips, which means neither the Core i5 13400F or Core i5 12400 ought to have been capable of do it, however a couple of motherboard producers made BCLK overclocking obtainable to non-Okay twelfth Gen processors. With one such overclock in place, at 4.8GHz, the Core i5 12400 truly manages to prime the Core i5 13400F in some video games.
That stated, I would nonetheless take the Core i5 13400F for the additional cores any day, even when it meant giving up the illicit overclocking capabilities of its predecessor.
AMD has a aggressive stack of Zen 4 chips to compete with Raptor Lake immediately. Whereas its 3D V-Cache chips look set to be probably the most aggressive versus Intel, they’re far too dear for comparability with this Core i5. As a substitute, the i5 13400F goes head-to-head with the Ryzen 5 7600X, a $299 chip that is extra like $250 in immediately’s market, and the $229 Ryzen 5 7600.
Content material creation and artificial benchmarks
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Check rigs
Intel
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi
Storage: 2TB Sabrent Rocket 4.0 Plus
Cooler: Asus ROG Ryujin II
PSU: Gigabyte Aorus P1200W
AMD
Motherboard: ASRock X670E Taichi
Storage: 1TB WD Black SN850
Cooler: Corsair H100i RGB
PSU: NZXT 850W
Shared
Reminiscence: G.Talent Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 CL30 2x 16GB
Graphics card: Nvidia RTX 3080 10GB
In our testing, neither the Core i5 13400F or Ryzen 5 7600X can declare an outright win throughout the testing suite, although when AMD’s chip is quicker, it’s fairly a bit quicker. AMD’s chip does come out because the clear winner on the productiveness and content material creation facet of issues, however it’s that rather more costly for it. AMD-compatible motherboards additionally fall on the costly facet versus the cheaper Intel-compatible 600-series boards, so general prices will in all probability tack on round $100 extra for the X-series AMD possibility. That stated, the Core i5 13400F is round $210 on Newegg at time of writing, and the Ryzen 5 7600 is simply $229.
Intel’s platform is surprisingly low cost for the inclusion of each the most recent 700-series motherboards and older 600-series motherboards. Equally, we’re saving a bit of money right here on the ‘F’ designated mannequin. The ‘F’ denotes the Core i5 13400F’s lack of built-in graphics, which is not a deal breaker by any stretch of the creativeness. Usually, that built-in GPU is not going to come back a lot in useful for gaming, and even immediately’s least expensive discrete graphics card will outperform it by a rustic mile.
I might advocate pairing this CPU with both AMD’s RX 6600 (opens in new tab) or RX 6600 XT (opens in new tab), two GPUs which have mightily improved in standing on account of current value cuts. A current value minimize to Intel’s Arc A750 (opens in new tab) means you possibly can additionally go all-Intel on a finances and see some spectacular 1080p efficiency, too. However make no mistake, a higher-end GPU will nonetheless carry out properly with the Core i5 13400, as per our benchmark outcomes utilizing an RTX 3080.
Thermals and energy draw
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There’s something else to say on the Core i5 13400F. In contrast to the opposite thirteenth Gen processors we have reviewed to date, the Core i5 13400F would not utilise all the advantages obtainable to the brand new Raptor Lake structure. It is difficult.
Intel is utilizing each new Raptor Lake and previous Alder Lake dies for the Core i5 13400F. The ultimate product is identical, no matter which die is beneath the hood, however this does imply that you do not see the L2 cache improve that Intel launched with Raptor Lake on the Core i5 13400F. However earlier than you suppose that is solely an Alder Lake chip in disguise, whereas that is technically true, the Core i5 13400F does include extra cache than the Core i5 12400F on account of having extra cores. It simply would not embody extra L2 cache per core just like the higher-end Raptor Lake chips.
A reminder of the distinction in cache per core between Alder Lake and Raptor Lake:
- Raptor Lake: 2MB L2 per P-Core + 4MB L2 per E-core cluster
- Alder Lake: 1.25MB L2 per P-Core + 2MB L2 per E-core cluster
To try to put it extra plainly, the Core i5 13400F is both a Core i5 12600KF in a downclocked disguise or made to seem like one. It is pretty immaterial which you truly obtain, however you could find out whether or not you’ve a Raptor Lake or Alder Lake die from the CPU revision listed in purposes resembling CPU-Z. A B0 stepping is Raptor Lake and a C0 stepping is Alder Lake. Our evaluate pattern is a C0 chip.
With that out of the way in which, let’s get again to the great things: the Core i5 13400F. This chip is formally the great things. There’s rather a lot to love about this processor, from its speedy gaming efficiency to the ten cores beneath the hood, sufficient to make any older four-core CPU really feel extraordinarily outdated. Whereas the Core i5 13600K stays the decide for the very best gaming CPU, and AMD could be very aggressive within the ~$275 market, Intel’s Core i5 13400F is a shoe-in for the very best finances gaming CPU in 2023.
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