Intel Core i5 Coffee Lake Refresh i5-9400F OEM (CM8068403358819)

Junior six-core from the Coffee Lake Refresh line

The Core i5-9400F is the youngest six-core processor in the Coffee Lake Refresh family, and is the ideological successor to the wildly popular Core i5-8400, which was loved for its combination of attractive price and decent performance. With the Core i5-9400F, history repeated itself: thanks to the same “6 cores + price tag below $200” formula, this processor remains one of the most popular in the Intel line, bypassing the newer Core i5-10400, which, although it has acquired multi-threading, has also grown in price .

Disabled video core

Given the abundance of various versions that Intel has flooded the market with (regular Core, K index, F index, etc.), the Core i5 9400F model with a disabled video core and an extremely tempting price tag just under $150 is of the greatest interest. If we compare the Core i5 9400F with other 6-core chips, then in fact the only competitor will be a special 12nm version of the old Ryzen 5 1600. Both show excellent performance in games in Full HD resolution and will allow you to work with projects of medium complexity in conditional Reaper or Photoshop.

Optimal for gaming

If we are talking about more serious tasks like daily editing in 4K, then six cores without Hyper-Threading are unlikely to be enough for 100%. Here it will already make sense to fork out a little for an unlocked multiplier, virtual cores and a high-quality turntable that the Ryzen 5 3600 competitor offers. Otherwise, these are plus or minus processors of the same level, Intel is traditionally slightly better in games (5-7% difference), and AMD drags in resource-intensive applications, ahead of the competitor by 8 – 15%.