Intel Core i5 14400F CPU Review

Last year we saw the inception of Intel’s latest 14th generation processors, with the i5 14600K, i7 14700K and i9 14900K hitting the market, and while there were some small changes, we all knew that it was a refresh of the 13th generation, and the gains to be had weren’t going to be huge in the grand scheme of things. Since then, it was all a bit quiet, until at the start of the year when the i3 and i5 lower-end parts were announced, bringing us on to today with the i5 14400F, which if history has taught us anything, in terms of gaming, we should be in for a bit of a treat as the x400 line of CPUs are generally pretty strong for gaming, and without breaking the bank. Intel i5 14400F Features REVOLUTIONARY PERFORMANCE AND MULTITASKING - Newly optimised hybrid architecture and industry-leading technology enable you to go beyond gaming and creation. From progressing in-game to advancing in real life, Intel® empowers you to be your best self. 6 PERFORMANCE CORES - unleashes the capability to optimise the latest games and gaming software. 4 EFFICIENT CORES - Provides multi-tasking power to work, create and play together. INTEL THREAD DIRECTOR - Keeps your gaming free of interruptions by making sure your background tasks never slow you down. REALISE YOUR DREAM BUILD - 14th Generation Intel Core desktop processors deliver broad spectrum support and maximum versatility to enable you to personalise and optimise your system to suit your needs using the latest gaming technologies. EXPANDED MEMORY OPTIONS - Support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory gives you complete control over your memory configurations. BUILD OUT YOUR SETUP - Support for the latest PCIe Gen 5.0 components. COMPETITIVE CONNECTIVITY - Connect quickly and without interference with support for up to Wi-Fi 7 networks. INTEL® THREAD DIRECTOR - Intel® Thread Director dynamically assigns tasks so you can do it all without slowing down. OPTIMISE YOUR SETUP - Performance hybrid architecture can easily run streaming software in the background while prioritising gameplay. 14th Gen So being part of the 14th generation, we are again, much like the higher-end SKUs looking at a refresh today. Compared to its predecessor, the 13400F, not much has changed, sporting the same 10 cores, which are made up of 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, with the performance cores incorporating hyperthreading, giving us a total of 16 threads, so no change there. What has changed though is the speed of the cores. The efficiency cores base clock has remained unchanged at 1.8GHz and the same for the performance cores at 2.5GHz, but it’s the boost speeds that have seen a small bump with the efficiency max turbo frequency now sitting at 3.5GHz, which is a 200MHz increase from 3.3GHz on the 13th gen. The performance cores have also seen a bump but only by 100MHz from 4.6GHz to 4.7GHz on the max turbo frequency. Beyond this, that’s the only changes. We still get 20MB of Intel Smart Cache and the 14400F still has a 65W base power that can go up to 148 Watts, much like we saw on the 13400F, so essentially, we have a slightly overclocked 13400F so you have to ask if those small increases are worth it. So getting onto the good stuff and taking a look at the performance. For our testing, we used our Intel based test bench consisting of an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme motherboard with 32GB of TEAMGroup T-Force Delta RGB 7600MHz CL36 DDR5 memory. For our Zen 4 bench, we used the Gigabyte X670E AORUS Master 32GB of G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 6000MHz CL30 memory and for Zen 3, we used the Gigabyte X570S AORUS Master with 32GB of Kingston Fury 3600MHz CL16 memory. All testing was used with an INNO3D RTX 4090 iChill X3 OC to alleviate any bottlenecks and the latest version of Windows 11 was used. As this is a CPU review and we’re looking at CPU performance, we are focussing on 1080p today as this is where the CPU is typically at its highest utilization and our main focus will be on the increase in performance if any over its predecessor, the 13400F..Also, if you want to see all of the charts, we will be putting them up onto our Patreon, where you’ll also get a ton of other cool and exclusive benefits as well as helping to support everything we do on the channel. What Intel Had to Say "Go beyond performance with the latest 14th Generation Intel Core processors, based on the Raptor-Lake Refresh Architecture with a hybrid-design incorporating a mixture of high performance P-Cores and efficient E-Cores. The i5-14400F comes in with up to 10 cores (6 Performance and 4 Efficient Cores) and up to 16 threads. Capable of reaching maximum clock speeds of 4.7GHz and providing incredible versatility with support for PCIe 5.0 components, DDR4 and DDR5 memory and All-New Wifi 7 connectivity. Be your Best with Intel." Video How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Processor Test Systems Test System (AM5) Motherboard Gigabyte X670E AORUS Master Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review Review Buy Now GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM TEAMGroup T-Force Delta RGB 7600MHz CL36 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Test System (AM4) Motherboard Gigabyte X570S AORUS Master Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review Review Buy Now GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz CL16 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Test System (Z690) Motherboard MSI Z690 UnifyBIOS Version 7D28v17 Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM TEAMGroup T-Force Delta RGB 7600MHz CL36 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Test System (Z790) Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme Review Buy Now Processor Changes Per Review GPU INNO3D RTX 4090 iCHILL X3 OC Review Buy Now RAM TEAMGroup T-Force Delta RGB 7600MHz CL36 Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 537.42 Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download) AIDA64 (download) Blender 3.6.0 Classroom (download) CapFrameX 1.7.0 (download) Cinebench R23 (download) Corona 1.3 (download) CPU-Z (download) Geekbench 5 (download) Google Octane 2.0 (link) GPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Keyshot Viewer 11.2.1 (download) Mozilla Kraken 1.1 (link) PCMark 10 Express (download) PugetBench For Davinci Resolve Super PI 2.1 WP (download) V-Ray 5.00.20 (download) WebXPRT 4 (link) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II Cyberpunk 2077 F1 23 Far Cry 6 Hogwarts Legacy Horizon Zero Dawn Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Remnant II The Riftbreaker Watch Dogs: Legion Resolutions 1080p (Full HD) Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw at both idle and load, we now have the ability thanks to sensors built into the system to find the exact CPU package power draw during any one instance. We now check power draw during Cinebench R23 single and multi-core runs as well as during a set amount of games. Temperatures Temperatures are measured in a very similar way to power consumption and are taken during a Cinebench R23 multi-core and single-core run, as well as during a set amount of games at the max levels seen. Super PI 2.1 WP Super PI is a single-threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. It uses the Gauss-Legendre algorithm and is a Windows port of a program used by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 to compute pi to 232 digits Available now on Super PI. So starting things off with Super PI and we’re off to a good start. The 13400F came in at 428 seconds originally, while the 14400F has cut this time down by a modest 9%. It might not sound like a lot, but considering the extra cost is less than 2%, it’s definitely a win and now sees the 14400F come in better than the Ryzen 5 5600 though that is a much much cheaper CPU, but more importantly rivals the 5800X3D which has seen its price increase back up to a little over $300. Blender 3.3.0 Blender Open Data is a platform to collect, display and query the results of hardware and software performance tests - provided by the Blender community. Available now on Blender. Looking at Blender and the results are much closer. The 14400F does come in 3% better overall, which is still good considering the cost difference of the 13400F and 14400F is so minimal, and this further extends the lead over AMD including the 5800X3D and Ryzen 5 7600 so good all round for Intel on this occasion. Cinebench R23 Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer's hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 23 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D's ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Best of all: It's free. Available now on Maxon. In Cinebench R23, single-core performance actually sees a decrease in performance of 3% which really puts it on the cusp of margin of error when compared to the 13400F and a slightly less 2% in the multi-core performance score. Again, there isn’t really much to discuss when results are this close, so let's just say that you’re essentially getting the same performance on both CPUs which was already ahead of AMD’s 5800X3D anyway. Corona 1.3 Test and compare the performance of your CPU using this free benchmark application, which is built upon Corona Renderer 1.3. Available now on Corona In Corona, the 14400F continues to give stronger performance, with a margin of 2% over the 13400F. Again this doesn’t do anything for our standings, other than extending the lead over the similarly positioned AMD parts from both the Zen 3 and Zen 4 lineup. Keyshot Viewer 11.2.1 KeyShot Viewer is a free, stand-alone desktop application that enables secure sharing of KeyShot scenes for interactive, photo-realistic 3D model viewing, presentation and configuration, using the same real-time ray tracing render engine as KeyShot to produce amazing visuals with speed and quality. Available now on KeyShot. In Keyshot viewer, the margin increases slightly by 4%, so again, better performance based on the price difference, but this really is just a small amount higher than margin of error, and retesting could see the results draw slightly closer. That aside, it’s still good to see an increase in performance, though some may have been expecting a higher increase in performance, but again this is only a refresh. V-Ray 5.00.20 V-Ray® Benchmark is a free standalone application to test how fast your system renders. It’s simple, fast and includes three render engine test. Available now on Chaos. Without sounding too much like a broken record, V-Ray is the same. There’s a 2% margin between the 13400F and the 14400F with the newer chip taking the lead, and this further extends its lead over AMD’s 5800X3D, 5600X, 5600 and 7600, so still nice to see based on the cost, but when results are so close like we see here, we’d just treat it as identical performance so again, the extra clock speed, which is the only differing factor, doesn’t make a difference. 3DMark Firestrike 3DMark tests your system's GPU and CPU performance by rendering extremely demanding game-like scenes in real-time. The faster the benchmark runs, the better your score. Now your quest begins. What can you do to get a better score? 3DMark is available on Steam here. Moving over to 3DMark Firestrike and there’s no real change between the 13th gen and the newer 14400F with a margin of error difference between both CPUs in both the main score and physics score and this still puts it behind the 5600 in the main overall score, though does see the 14400F come in better in the physics score than both the 5600 and 5600X and now rivals the newer Ryzen 5 7600 whilst also only sitting 5% behind the 5800X3D in the physics score though being a synthetic benchmark, it doesn’t mean much for real-world representative performance. 3DMark Timespy Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for gaming PCs running Windows 10 and above only. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, built from the ground up to support the latest API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal benchmark for testing the DirectX 12 performance of modern graphics cards and is typically a good benchmark for mid-to-high-end hardware. Furthermore, Timespy Extreme is designed for 4K performance testing. 3DMark is available on Steam here. In 3DMark Timespy the 14400F saw much bigger gains, with a 6% improvement in the CPU score over the 13400F and this also meant that the overall score rose by 5% as well. This now puts the 14400F ahead of the more expensive Ryzen 7 5800X3D in both metrics and could be a sign of what’s to come in our other tests. Geekbench 5 Geekbench 5 is a cross-platform benchmark that measures your system's performance with the press of a button. How will your mobile device or desktop computer perform when push comes to crunch? How will it compare to the newest devices on the market? Find out today with Geekbench 5. Available now on Geekbench. Then in Geekbench, the single score actually has both the 13400F and 14400F evenly matched with a 0.3% margin so margin of error, which retesting could see both CPUs trade places, so nothing really much to talk about. The margin is slightly bigger on the multi-score with the 14400F pushing out a little over 1% more performance, but again, margin of error, though this is enough to push passed the 5800X3D, though when we’re in the realm of such small margins, it can go either way. PCMark 10 PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With a range of performance tests, custom run options, Battery Life Profile, and new Storage benchmarks, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office. Available now on Steam. In PCMark we see the 14400F actually lose a few points when compared to the 13400F but with only 50 points between them, it’s really nothing to worry about and can be deemed as margin of error. Something else we notice is that it’s pretty much neck and neck with the 5800X3D from AMD, which just barely beats the Intel CPU but for about $100 more. This is good news for intel and those wanting better productivity out of their CPU, but we’re yet to see how it compares in gaming, which is the 5800X3D’s strength Google Octane 2.0 Octane 2.0 is a benchmark that measures a JavaScript engine’s performance by running a suite of tests representative of certain use cases in JavaScript applications. Google Octane now on Google Developers. Google Octane is very much the same. Less than a 1% margin and while the 14400F does come in better, that doesn’t do anything for the overall standings, as the likes of the Ryzen 5 7600 is even better than that and is pretty evenly matched in terms of price too, with around $10 separating them in favour to AMD. Mozilla Kraken 1.1 Kraken is a JavaScript performance benchmark created by Mozilla that measures the speed of several different test cases extracted from real-world applications and libraries. Mozilla Kraken now on Github. In Mozilla Kraken, the results between the 13400F and 14400F are so small again, separated by just 1% but this time in favour of the 13400F. Retesting did garner similar results each time, so we settled on these results, but at such a low difference between them, we’d class them as performing identically in this test and the newer CPU doesn’t lend itself any extra performance. WebXPRT 4 WebXPRT 4 is a browser benchmark that compares the performance of almost any web-enabled device. It contains HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly-based scenarios created to mirror the tasks you do every day: Photo Enhancement, Organize Album Using AI, Stock Option Pricing, Encrypt Notes and OCR Scan using WASM, Sales Graphs, and Online Homework. Use WebXPRT to see exactly how well different devices handle real-world tasks. Mozilla Kraken now on Principled Technologies. As we move over to WebXPRT, this is another example of where silicon lottery rears its ugly head. We do actually see a drop in performance going from the 13400F to the 14400F of just under 2%, but it’s still within margin of error, so you could argue that performance is identical. What this shows is that clock speed just isn’t important in this test and we’re already at the limits of what this “type” of CPU can do. Watch Dogs: Legion Follow the grim tale of young Amicia and her little brother Hugo, in a heartrending journey through the darkest hours of history. Hunted by Inquisition soldiers and surrounded by unstoppable swarms of rats, Amicia and Hugo will come to know and trust each other. As they struggle to survive against overwhelming odds, they will fight to find purpose in this brutal, unforgiving world. Available now on Steam. So moving onto gaming and starting things off with A Plague Tale where we do find the 14400F coming in with a small 1% uplift over the 13400F. Again, being such a small variance, we’d class this as a draw, but 2 FPS more is still 2 FPS more, even though at such a high frame rate, it would be unnoticeable, and it does nothing for the standings and still falls 6% behind the 5800X3D, though that CPU is still more expensive by a pretty staggering 49%. Assassin's Creed Valhalla Become Eivor, a Viking raider raised to be a fearless warrior, and lead your clan from icy desolation in Norway to a new home amid the lush farmlands of ninth-century England. Find your settlement and conquer this hostile land by any means to earn a place in Valhalla. England in the age of the Vikings is a fractured nation of petty lords and warring kingdoms. Beneath the chaos lies a rich and untamed land waiting for a new conqueror. Will it be you? Available now on UPlay. It’s the same in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with just a 2% lead in favour of the 14400F which brings it closer to the 5800X3D separated by just 9%, though again given the stark price difference, Intel are definitely onto something, though AMD’s X3D Zen 3 CPU has seen a bit of a price hike lately, and given its price just a month ago, I could have been saying something a little different. Baldur's Gate 3 Gather your party and return to the Forgotten Realms in a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Mysterious abilities are awakening inside you, drawn from a mind flayer parasite planted in your brain. Resist, and turn darkness against itself. Or embrace corruption, and become ultimate evil. From the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes a next-generation RPG, set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Available now on Steam. In Baldur’s Gate 3, the 13400F was sitting 1% slower than the Ryzen 5 7600, though the increase in speed on the 14th gen has now seen that take the lead, albeit by a single frame per second. What’s more interesting here is how the 5800X3D is now topping our charts with huge performance, which more than makes up for the close performance in the other games we’ve looked at so far. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II drops players into an unprecedented global conflict that features the return of the iconic Operators of Task Force 141. From small-scale, high-stakes infiltration tactical ops to highly classified missions, players will deploy alongside friends in a truly immersive experience. Infinity Ward brings fans state-of-the-art gameplay, with all-new gun handling, advanced AI system, a new Gunsmith and a suite of other gameplay and graphical innovations that elevate the franchise to new heights. Modern Warfare® II launches with a globe-trotting single-player campaign, immersive Multiplayer combat and a narrative-driven, co-op Special Ops experience. Available now on Steam. In Call Of Duty, we see our largest gain in performance for games as the 14400F now comes in 6% faster. At 175 FPS for the 13400F and 186 FPS for the 14400F it’s unlikely that you’d ever notice the difference in performance, but it’s still a nice increase to see given the similar price point that both chips have, though AMD do tend to come out stronger across the board which pushes Intel down in the standings. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. In Cyberpunk, the gain in performance hits new levels with the 14400F now coming in 12% faster overall though looking at the placement of the i5 12400, there’s definitely a limiting factor, and the extra speed that comes with the 14400F definitely makes a difference, and it’s not like you can just overclock as the F series of chips have a locked multiplier. Enabling Ray Tracing sees the uplift come in much lower with just a 1% margin between the 13th and 14th generation now matching the performance of both the 5800X3D and 7600, though the more important aspect is in the 1% lows which is separated by 11% in favour of the 13400F, though the 13400F already had stronger low figures in the first place compared to AMD which was only 1 FPS ahead in the averages to start with anyway. F1 23 Be the last to brake in EA SPORTS™ F1® 23, the official video game of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship™. A new chapter in the thrilling "Braking Point" story mode delivers high-speed drama and heated rivalries. Available now on Steam. F1 23 always gets some pretty high frame rates, which is useful for gauging bottlenecks, and it’s clear to see that the 14400F does improve on its predecessor, but with only 2% more FPS, it’s really nothing all that exciting, and falls within margin of error. On the other side, the 7600 from AMD sees a significant boost over the 14400F in this title with 24% more frames on average and for slightly cheaper, which is considerably bad news for intel. Far Cry 6 Welcome to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time. As the dictator of Yara, Antón Castillo is intent on restoring his nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps. Their oppressive rule has ignited a revolution. Available now on Ubisoft Connect. In Far Cry 6, we’re again at very small margins that doesn’t do anything to the overall standings. We do see 2% more performance from the 14400F compared to the 13400F which equates to just 3 FPS and extends the gap over the cheaper 5600X, now with a margin of 5 FPS. We’re much like with other games, at high performance levels to start with, so nothing you’d ever notice, but it’s still nice to see nonetheless. Hogwarts Legacy Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. Embark on a journey through familiar and new locations as you explore and discover magical beasts, customize your character and craft potions, master spell casting, upgrade talents and become the wizard you want to be. Experience Hogwarts in the 1800s. Your character is a student who holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart. Make allies, battle Dark wizards, and ultimately decide the fate of the wizarding world. Your legacy is what you make of it. Live the Unwritten. Available now on Steam. Hogwarts is able to harness the potential of the extra turbo frequencies by way of a 5% increase in performance over the 13400F. In terms of how things compare to AMD, it doesn’t really do much short of bringing performance closer to the Ryzen 5 7600 but that’s still a healthy 18% ahead now which considering it’s $10 cheaper, is a big win for Team Red. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered In Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, the worlds of Peter Parker and Spider-Man collide in an original, action-packed story. Play as an experienced Peter Parker, fighting big crime and iconic villains in Marvel’s New York. Web-swing through vibrant neighbourhoods and defeat villains with epic takedowns. Available now on Steam. Spider-Man sees a lesser performance gain of 3% over its predecessor but the stand-out CPU is still the Ryzen 5 7600 which ends up packing 11% more performance, and for less money. If this continues, then Intel may have to address their pricing to reflect how things are against the competition because right now, it’s not looking great. Turning Ray Tracing on, which arguably makes the CPU work harder and we start to see some sizable gains again with the 14400F now coming in 10% faster than the 13400F. Again, gains are good, and at that level, it makes for a good argument, but all it does in comparison to the other chips tested is show stronger performance, and not necessarily overtake any other CPUs that are tested. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC. Available now on Steam. Microsoft Flight Simulator is well known for having pretty severe bottleneck issues and we can certainly see some of that going on here with a handful of CPUs unable to even break the 60 FPS mark at 1080p. The 14400F from Intel sees a pretty healthy 9% increase in performance from the older 13400F, but when we look at the next CPU up from the 14th gen line-up we actually see quite a large jump in performance, along with the 7600 from AMD out performing Intel by a whopping 32%. With gains like this in certain titles, the argument for AMD is only going to get stronger and just makes Intel look worse. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart With all new graphical and technical enhancements for deeper immersion, Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC takes full advantage of the power of the PC to bring every corner of this massive, rich and detailed world to life including increased draw distances; higher quality global illumination and ambient occlusion for improved day and night lighting; improved reflections and deeper, higher resolution shadows at all distances; tessellated tree textures and improved grass and fur textures for added realism in every plant and animal. Available now on Steam. In Ratchet & Clank, we again see a gain, but this time of only 3%, which don’t get me wrong, is nice to see any uplift in performance, but at such a small amount, it doesn’t give a reason to upgrade, though I doubt anyone would be moving from a 13th gen CPU to a 14th gen equivalent, though more importantly, the Ryzen 5 7600 is flying here and overtaking the likes of the more expensive 5800X3D and i5 14600K. With Ray Tracing enabled, we drop to now just a single FPS difference between both i5 processors, though it’s clear to see based on how close the 14600K is that we are quite limited with performance across the board showing that most CPUs will net similar performance in the scene we tested and a stronger CPU won’t necessarily give much more performance over another. Remnant II Remnant II is the sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes that pits survivors of humanity against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses across terrifying worlds. Play solo or co-op with two other friends to explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself. To succeed, players will need to rely on their own skills and those of their team to overcome the toughest challenges and to stave off humanity’s extinction. Available now on Steam. It’s the same in Remnant II. A single FPS between the 13400F and 14400F but it still falls short when compared to AMD’s Ryzen 5 7600 by 9%, so again, AMD are looking stronger, and maybe we’ll make some content in the future in the way of a head to head considering their similar pricing but in many more titles. Watch Dogs: Legion Build a resistance from virtually anyone you see as you hack, infiltrate, and fight to take back a near-future London that is facing its downfall. Welcome to the Resistance. Recruit and play as anyone in the city. Everyone you see has a unique backstory, personality, and skill set. Hack armed drones, deploy spider-bots and take down enemies using an Augmented Reality Cloak. Explore a massive urban open world featuring London’s many iconic landmarks and fun side activities. Take your recruits online and team up with your friends as you complete missions and challenging endgame content. Available now on UPlay. Lastly, in Watch Dogs: Legion, you can probably guess what I’m going to say, but clock speed just doesn’t change things much, with just a single FPS difference, now putting the 14400F at 122 FPS and the same 1 FPS increase in the lows. AMD are still ahead, and this now seems to be a trend all the way through our tests. Overall Game Average FPS Testing a variety of games allows you to see how a particular piece of hardware performs in that title, but with the ability to look at overall game averages and how they perform across all titles, we can extrapolate the positioning of that hardware compared to similar hardware on the market. So I’m pretty sure I said this when I looked at the 14900K, 14700K and 14600K. When looking at refreshes, it’s very hard not to lose my mind because the performance gains are generally pretty small. For the most part, we’re talking margin of error, with a few random anomalies that may see the margin increase and that’s exactly what we saw today. Some games are able to utilise the extra clock speed that the 14400F has, and when that happens, it makes a good, solid difference in performance, but most see it having no effect or to such a small degree that performance at the levels it was at was basically identical. The productivity benchmarks speak for themselves, but we all know the main reason you’re here and that’s to see the gaming performance and I have to say that the most interesting part is definitely how things look when comparing Intel to AMD because AMD do have some strong products, and mainly on the gaming side of things and the stand-out chip was clearly the Ryzen 5 7600 which was consistently ahead and in some cases by quite a big difference. How much is easier to see when you look at the overall averages. It’s here where we do see an uplift going from the 13th generation to the 14th generation of a smidge under 3% which overall equates to just 4 FPS and that’s funny because at the start I said about how the price was $4 more expensive and that the clock speeds were 4% faster, but also how that wouldn’t equate to 4% more performance, but at 3%, it’s not exactly far off. Sure we’d all love to see huge increases, but that’s never going to happen with a refresh and considering the small disparity between prices, it’s not actually too bad. This really is game-dependent as some games love cores, some love clock speeds, and some like a balance of the two. With the titles that can utilise the clock speed, the 14400F will come out stronger. Now when compared to AMD and that Ryzen 5 7600, the 14400F does fall short. The Ryzen 5 7600 was already sitting 21% ahead of the Core i5 13400F, and while the 14400F does see a small bump in performance, it still means that the Ryzen 7600 is still 17% ahead, and for $10 less too. Cost Per Frame Looking at the cost per frame allows us to see where a particular product is positioned relative to the competition and previous-generation products. By taking the price of the product and dividing it by the overall game average FPS, we have a simple formula that allows us to see if a product offers superior value for money. Another way of looking at the value for money aspect is by looking at the cost per frame. It’s here where the 13400F was coming in at $1.47 per frame when looking at the 1080p data, and even though there is an increase in performance moving to the 14th generation, the extra cost involved means that we’re looking at a saving of a whole 1 cent per frame and in terms of what that does for it standings, especially compared to AMD, well it doesn’t do a thing. How Much Does it Cost? Well if we look at the price, it’s actually good news. Both processors launched for the same price, and while the 13400F has seen some small movement, it can now be had for $206 US while the 14400F will set you back another, are you ready for it? $4. That’s it. So $4 for 4% higher frequencies. Now I’m not going to say that you’re going to get 4% extra performance, because it doesn’t work like that and other things are still at work like the silicon lottery, though we did find that the 14400F was stable with 7400MHz memory speeds, while the 13400F only managed to boot and be stable with 7000MHz speeds but again, this could be luck of the draw with silicon lottery and if we had a different 13400F and 14400F, we could find them supporting different speeds due to the integrated memory controller. Overview So there are multiple ways you can look at this. If you went into this expecting huge gains, then I’d say that you misunderstood the product and what it entails, because it is a refresh. That’s part of the reason I was somewhat reluctant to look at it, but I actually have other plans for the chip in some future content and looking at comparisons to AMD across more titles and more resolutions. Now if you knew that it was a refresh, then you’d know straight away that the gains were never going to be huge, but at a somewhat similar price point, any extra performance is welcomed though I feel if you can find the 13400F on a deal, which I have seen it as low at $185 not too long ago, then this would make more sense though if you really really want that extra performance, you’ll have to buy something faster as the F lineup of chips can’t be overclocked. Now the more interesting stuff comes down to that thorn in Intel’s side, and of course, I’m talking about AMD. In terms of gaming performance, which is where I’d like to think most of our audience is geared towards, the 5600, 5600X and 7600 are all better performing than the 14400F in a cost-per-frame sense. The 14400F is stronger than both the 5600 and 5600X in terms of raw performance, but for more money, so the argument of if you want more, you pay for more and you get more comes into play, but the real big one is the 7600. Not only are you getting the latest AMD generation of processor, but you’re getting a significant amount more performance, and for a cheaper price, and I feel that Intel need to address that, but, and it’s a big but. Intel does have an overall cheaper cost for the whole system. AMD’s 7600 is $199, while the 14400F is $209 so $10 in it, not much. Motherboard-wise, you could pick up something like an MSI B650-P Wifi for $188 or the Intel equivalent B760-P Wifi for $160 so now we’re talking a $18 saving to Intel but memory is the big factor here. You can pick up 32GB of DDR4 for as low as $55 right now while the equivalent capacity DDR5 is almost double that so that’s where the overall savings come in, meaning that the 7600-based system will cost you around $50 more. Whether the extra performance is worth that to you, for that extra cost, really comes down to the individual because if you’re looking at the 14400F to start with, I’d probably hazard a guess that you’re on a budget, and $50 could actually be quite a lot of money to some. So there we have it. The results speak for themselves, and in all honesty, things lined up exactly how I expected them to. The x400 series of CPUs are good in terms of performance and are able to rival the AMD 5000 lineup, but AMD has evolved since then and are the cheaper of the two so unless Intel are planning to drop their prices, if only by a little soon, I fear they may lose out on quite a few sales because of it.