Final Thoughts
Pricing
The Intel Core i5-8400 is priced to be a mainstream processor for those building a new Z370 based system. It should be in retail stores both online and in-store from today for around £200. Of course, we expect retailers to battle it out with each other and demand and stock availability could see the prices fluctuate up and down at these early stages. However, for around the same money as a Ryzen 5 CPU, it looks like Intel are coming out fighting for the mid-to-high-end market.
Overview
Having tested the Intel Core i7-8700K CPU this week, I wasn’t expecting the i5-8400 to come anywhere near that CPU in terms of performance. They’re pretty much the same CPU at the heart of it, but the i5 doesn’t have hyper-threading and isn’t a K series CPU, so doesn’t overclock like the i7 we tested. That being said, it’s still no slouch when it comes to straight up per-core performance, and with 6 cores rather than the dowdy old 4 cores of the i5 range, it really pulls out a lead.
Z370… Why tho!
Admittedly, I’m a little confused by the whole Z370 launch. It doesn’t appear to offer much of anything over Z270 and that’s honestly a damn shame as it’s no incentive to upgrade for those on the last/current gen. That being said, while the socket may be almost identical, the pin layout is changed and it gives us support for the new Coffee Lake CPUs. As both you and I have seen from the benchmarks, these new CPUs are rather fantastic.
Should you upgrade from something like the 7700K? I don’t think it’s worth it right now, especially if you’ve got it around 5 GHz. If you’re rocking two generations or older, then buying a Z270/7700K now is madness short of finding a bargain somewhere. The X299 7740X is the same performance as the 7700K but runs cooler and uses a lot less power, and the i5-8400 and the i7-8700K set a blazing trail for PC gaming performance.
More Cores, More Performance
A six-core mass market CPU is no bad thing. Sure, AMD got theirs to market first, but in my opinion, the Ryzen and Intel offerings are both very competitive. Each has their strong points and to have multiple 6 cores+ CPUs on the market for little over £200, and more competitively priced motherboards are really good for the PC system building market.
The new i5 isn’t too expensive, and when it comes to productivity, it’s going to be great at home and in the office. From running extensive photoshop actions to having lots of Chrome tabs open, those extra cores will come in handy. For gaming, it set some of our fastest ever scores, and that’s honestly something we didn’t expect to see. If the i7 is a little out of your budget range, the new i5’s are waving their arms in the air to get your attention.
Pros
- 6 core design
- Great for productivity tasks
- Exceptional 1080p gaming performance
- Great for 4K gaming
- Runs surprisingly cool for a 6-core CPU
- Very competitive price
Cons
- Higher than expected idle power consumption
Neutral
- New CPUs require Z370 motherboard
“The latest i5 is competitively priced for a 6 core CPU, and while it does lack Hyper-Threading, it doesn’t lack raw gaming performance. An ideal choice for any gaming build without the added cost of the i7 series.”
