Intel announced the Comet Lake-S desktop processors last week but hasn't lifted the embargo on performance figures yet. That hasn't stopped some from revealing figures though, as one channel on the Chinese video website Bilibili got the scoop on the Intel Core i5-10400, as spotted by @Momomo_us. The channel compared the i5-10400 to the i5-9400F and the i7-9700F while using a hilarious method of maintaining anonymity.
The channel ran a multitude of tests including Grand Theft Auto 5, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, 3DMark Time Spy, PCMark 10, wPrime 2.1, CineBench R15, and more.
Surprisingly, although the i7-9700F (obviously) outpaces the new Intel Core i5-10400 in heavily-threaded applications, the i5-10400 almost matches the i7-9700F in gaming. Naturally, this isn't all too surprising given that most games typically aren't heavily threaded and rely more on strong performance from individual cores, but the i5-10400 doesn't have more cores than the 9th-Gen i5-9400F.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | i5-9400F | i5-10400 | i7-9700F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cores / Threads | 6 / 6 | 6 / 12 | 8 / 8 |
| Base Clock | 2.9 GHz | 2.9 GHz | 3.0 GHz |
| Max Turbo Clock | 4.1 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 4.7 GHz |
| Cache | 9 MB | 12 MB | 12 MB |
| iGPU | No | Intel UHD Graphics 630 | No |
| TDP | 65 W | 65 W | 65 W |
Of course, where the difference comes into play is that the new i5 chip comes with a 200 MHz max turbo clock boost, a bump in Cache from 9MB to 12MB, and the addition of hyperthreading so that it can handle 12 threads simultaneously.
Either way, as unverified data from a channel we're not familiar with outed before the embargo lifts, we do have to take this information with a small pinch of salt. However, if the data is true, it looks like the Comet Lake-S Intel Core i5-10400 might become a very interesting chip for gamers looking for a mid-tier CPU.
