AMD Ryzen 5 8400F vs. Intel Core i5 14400F: 230+ Benchmarks For Sub-$200 CPU Performance
Well, that was a busy benchmarking session... See all 230+ benchmarks in full via this OB result page. Due to the difference in core/thread counts and ISA differences, which of these two CPUs is the better performer and delivering the best value really depends upon what particular workloads are of interest to you. For gaming, highly threaded content creation, and related scenarios of software being highly scalable but not taking advantage of AVX-512, the Core i5 14400F tended to be the front-runner. But for HPC-like workloads, AI, and other software able to leverage AVX-512, the Ryzen 5 8400F is the obvious choice. The Ryzen 5 8400F was also pulling ahead in various single-threaded workloads like audio encoding and web browser Chrome/Firefox benchmarks.
If taking the goemetric mean of all 230+ benchmarks, for those in the sub-$200 target for a processor, the Ryzen 5 8400F was around 7% faster overall than the Intel Core i5 14400F. Plus the Ryzen 5 8400F is slightly cheaper too. The Ryzen 5 8400F performance at least under Linux was many times better than the Core i5 14400F, the AVX-512 support helped a great number of workloads, this Zen 4 processor was far more power efficient. The mix of hybrid P/E cores on the Core i5 14400F also caused higher run-to-run variance due to task scheduling between the cores sometimes being less than optimal.
When looking at the CPU power consumption over the span of ~22 hours benchmarking each processor, the Ryzen 5 8400F on average had a 59 Watt CPU power consumption and recorded peak of 88 Watts. The Core i5 14400F meanwhile had a 64 Watt average and a peak of 104 Watts. So for overall power efficiency, the Ryzen 5 8400F was ahead of the Core i5 14400F.
For those needing integrated graphics, there are other options to consider like the similar AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor. The Ryzen 5 8400F does lack the Ryzen API NPU but at least under Linux the driver is still rather primitive, not mainlined in the upstream kernel, and limited software support. So the lack of Ryzen AI isn't a big loss to Linux users for now while the AVX-512 support with Zen 4 meant much better AI performance in a number of workloads compared to Intel's also AI-less Raptor Lake processors.
Those interested in the Ryzen 5 8400F can find it in-stock from the likes of Amazon.com (affiliate link) for around $189 USD. That's slightly cheaper than the Intel Core i5 14400F currently retailing online for $199+. The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and Intel Core i5 14400F as part of a larger Linux CPU benchmark comparison will be coming up soon on Phoronix when finishing fresh re-testing of the Intel/AMD CPUs under Ubuntu 24.04 LTS paired with the Linux 6.9 kernel.
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