Intel Core i5-13400 vs Ryzen 5 8400F: Which is the better gaming CPU?

Modified May 20, 2024 15:47 GMT

Intel Core i5-13400F and Ryzen 5 8400F are competitive budget CPUs today (Image via Amazon)

The Intel Core i5-13400 and Ryzen 5 8400F are some of the most compelling budget CPUs in the market today. The older Team Blue offering has been discounted heavily today, while the newer Ryzen chip specifically targets the sub-$200 market. Both chips deliver superb performance, enough for even some of the most capable GPUs in the market. Choosing between them can be difficult.

Both Intel and AMD have their pros and cons. To help you make an informed decision, we will list the specs and performance differences in this article.

The Intel Core i5-13400 and Ryzen 5 8400F are value-for-money gaming CPUs

The Intel Core i5-13400 is a powerful budget gaming CPU (Image via Amazon)

The Core i5-13400 and Ryzen 5 8400F are based on completely different graphic architectures. While the Intel chip uses the monolithic Raptor Lake architecture, the AMD processor uses the chipset-based Zen 4 architecture. A head-to-head specs comparison is unscientific, but it will give you a clear picture of what to expect.

Specs comparison

The Intel Core i5-13400 is based on a hybrid architecture with ten cores. Six of these are high-performance 'P' rated and the rest are efficient 'E'-rated. The Ryzen 5 8400F, on the other hand, is a traditional six-core chip, all of which are high-performance.

The higher core count should help in the multi-core performance of the Intel processor. However, both chip makers have almost caught up with each other in terms of performance. Given how similar most of the spec sheets look, we don't believe either processor will have a significant advantage over the other.

The detailed list is as follows:

	Intel Core i5 13400	Intel Core i5 13400F	AMD Ryzen 5 8400F
Architecture	13th gen Raptor Lake-S	13th gen Raptor Lake-S	AMD Zen 4
Socket	LGA 1700	LGA 1700	AM5
Core count	10 (6P+4E)	10 (6P+4E)	6
Thread count	16	16	12
Base clock	2.50 GHz (P core) 1.80 GHz (E core)	2.50 GHz (P core) 1.80 GHz (E core)	4.2 GHz
Boost clock	4.60 GHz (P core) 3.30 GHz (E core)	4.60 GHz (P core) 3.30 GHz (E core)	Up to 4.7 GHz
Memory support	Up to DDR5 4800 MT/s Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s	Up to DDR5 4800 MT/s Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s	Up to DDR5 5200 MT/s
Cache	20MB Intel SmartCache	20MB Intel SmartCache	17 MB (L2+L3)
Integrated GPU	Intel UHD Graphics 730 @1.55 GHz	—	—
TDP	65W	65W	65W
Maximum Turbo Power (MTP)	154W	154W	—
Price	$228.99	$186.99	$170

The Core i5-13400F is a cheaper version of the 13400, just without the UHD 730 graphics processor. This variant has been made available at a heavy discount and is much cheaper than the Ryzen alternative.

Performance comparison

The Ryzen 5 8400F is Red Team's latest budget CPU (Image via AMD)

In terms of performance, both chips are expected to be quite close to each other. In synthetic benchmarks, however, the Intel processors take the lead in both single and multi-core performance metrics.

This difference is particularly because the newer 8000-series processors are a slightly cut-down version of the Ryzen 7000 chips. They mainly target value-for-money.

The detailed performance comparison in Cinebench R23 and CPU-Z benchmarks is as follows. The performance data has been sourced from the respective databases.

	Intel Core i5-13400	Intel Core i5-13400F	AMD Ryzen 5 8400F
Cinebench R23 single-core	1,791	1,745	1,686
Cinebench R23 multi-core	16,014	16,024	13,035
CPU-Z single-core	739	731	662
CPU-Z multi-core	6,522	6,514	5,339

The Ryzen chip is a bit slower as per synthetic performance. However, this difference isn't quite noticeable in video games. Both chips can handle the latest titles without major issues.

However, we recommend the Intel CPU if your budget allows it. The Ryzen chip can be a little cheaper if you settle with an A620 motherboard. The difference won't be much though. We are looking at about $20-30.

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Edited by Aatreyee Aich