Intel Core i5-8400 6-Core 6-Thread CPU Review

Intel Core i5-8400

The new Intel Core i5-8400 Coffee Lake CPU is here at last. Of course, we’re not expecting it to keep up with the 6 core 12 thread performance of the lovely i7-8700K. However, with its own 6 core (non-threaded) design, the i5-8400 looks set to be strong competition for the Ryzen 5 CPUs, at least in terms of price. Can it deliver performance on par with the similar priced Ryzen chips, or even beat them? Let’s find out!

As you may already know, 6 cores are the new 4 for Intel. Sure, they’ve made higher core count CPUs for years now, but not on their main consumer CPUs, and that’s especially true of their i5 series, which have been quad-core seemingly since time began. With a base clock of 2.8 GHz and a Max Turbo of 4.7 GHz, this CPU is already running faster than a Ryzen chip straight out of the box, at least on paper.

Specifications

• Cores: 6
• Threads: 6
• Base Clock: 2.8 GHz
• Max Turbo: 4.7 GHz
• Cache: 9 MB
• Max Memory Size: 64 GB
• Memory Types: DDR4 2666
• PCIe Lanes: 16
• TDP: 65W
• Optane Ready: Yes
• Lithography: 14 nm

Additional

Our Z370 reviews all feature this lovely stick of Optane Memory from Intel. This is a feature that’s still limited to the Intel platform, but one we hope to see expand into other parts of the market over the next few years.

“Intel Optane memory is a smart, adaptable system accelerator for PCs. It provides uncompromising system responsiveness for large capacity storage drives, making everything you do fast, smooth and easy.” – Intel