Intel Core i5-14400 Review: Intel's value gaming chip falls behind AMD

The $225 14th-gen Intel Core i5-14400 comes to market packing the same blend of performance in productivity applications and gaming as its predecessor, and you can also find the graphics-less i5-14400F model for $15 less, even though it offers the same level of performance. However, the new 14th-gen Intel models are a lackluster refresh of the existing 13th-gen chips yet still carry the same pricing, and that isn't enough to climb the ranks of our CPU benchmark hierarchy and take a spot on our list of the best CPUs for gaming.

Intel's Core i5 lineup is feeling the pressure of price reductions to the Ryzen 5 7600 and 7600X, which has substantially improved their value proposition. Lower DDR5 memory and motherboard pricing have also helped catapult Ryzen back into contention for value-centric builds. 

AMD also has its promising new Ryzen 7 5700X3D for value seekers. These chips are based on the previous-gen Zen 3 architecture, so they aren't quite as performant in productivity applications. However, they slot into affordable AM4 motherboards and deliver more gaming performance than the Core i5-14400 or the Ryzen 5 7600X, giving those only interested in gaming a compelling alternative. 

Intel's Core i5-14400 comes with the same architectural underpinnings as its predecessor, so it weighs in with six P-cores and four E-cores. As you can see above, the chip's sole advances over the prior-gen Core i5-13400 reside in a 100 MHz bump to the boost clock, bringing it up to 4.7 GHz and a 200 MHz increase in the E-core boost. 

Those minor improvements don't bode well for big, meaningful increases in real-world performance over the prior generation chips. Let's see how performance pans out with both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in our gaming and application testing. 

Core i5-14400/F Specifications and Pricing

As with the higher-end K-Series models that Intel introduced last year, the lower-power models feature the Raptor Lake Refresh design fabbed on the ‘Intel 7’ process node. Intel’s newest chips are a refreshed version of the 13th-Gen Raptor Lake processors that debuted in 2022. You can read more about the architecture in our Core i9-14900K, i7-14700K and i5-14600K review.

Intel has kept the same launch price as the prior-gen, and as before, you can opt for graphics-less F-series Core i5-14400F to save about $15 and receive the same performance — you just lose the 24-EU integrated UHD Graphics 730 engine, so you'll need a discrete GPU. The prior-gen Core i5-13400F is currently selling for $185, but Intel recently retired many of the 13th-gen boxed processors, so that deal might not be around for long.

As with their K-Series predecessors, the new Core i5 models drop into Intel’s 600- and 700-series motherboards, but the former is becoming increasingly hard to find at reasonable prices. The Core i5-14400 is a 65W / 125W model, so you’ll want to pair it with more affordable B- and H-series motherboards. 

Intel allows memory overclocking on its Core i5 models, but you cannot overclock via the multiplier (you can raise the power limits, though). Intel has also finally unlocked the System Agent (SA) voltage, so if you're interested in spending some extra time tuning, you could reach higher peak DDR4 speeds in Gear 1 (as with all overclocking, your mileage will vary). 

The bundled Laminar RM1 cooler is at least serviceable, though we always recommend buying a better cooler. The stock cooler isn't silent, so you'll have to accept the extra noise. The bundled cooler is good enough to handle the chip at the lower 65W/148W power limits and adequate for multi-threaded workloads with the power limits removed. You could see some performance impact with higher ambient temperatures or longer-duration workloads, so opting for a lower-end air or water cooler could improve performance in long-duration work.

The Core i5-14400 has most of the features of the more powerful models, like support for up to 192GB of memory, but the Core i5 models have a reduced DDR5 transfer rate that weighs in at DDR5-4800 instead of the DDR5-5200 found with the higher-tier models. Support for DDR4 remains at DDR4-3200, thus providing builders with a lower-cost option that delivers nearly the same performance as DDR5 if you stick with stock settings. However, DDR5 pricing has fallen considerably since we reviewed the prior-gen Core i5-13400, so any cost savings are much less pronounced. Additionally, the Core i5-14400 also has to contend with the Ryzen 7 5700X3D that also supports DDR4 and drops into the affordable AM4 ecosystem, providing plenty of healthy price competition. 

Intel used two types of dies with most prior-gen Core i5 models, with both dies offering identical performance. That practice continues with the 14th-gen Core i5-14400 and Core i3 models. With the 13th-gen, those two types of dies consisted of either a C0 stepping 12th-gen Alder Lake or a B0 stepping 13th-gen Raptor Lake die. Our test sample, which we purchased at retail, is a C0 die, meaning this is the same die with the same architecture as the two-generation-old Alder Lake chips (albeit with an additional four activated E-cores). 

The Core i5-14400 also supports the same PCIe 5.0/4.0 lane allocations as the prior-gen models and other connectivity options, like USB 3.2 with up to 20 Gbps transfer rates. On to the benchmarks.