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.”

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