Home / Intel Core i5 / Intel Core i5-9400: Performance and Specs

Intel Core i5-9400

Intel Core i5-9400 in 2025: Is It Worth Getting the "Veteran" for a Budget Build?

(A Relevant Analysis for Budget-Conscious Users)

Key Specifications: Coffee Lake in Detail

The Intel Core i5-9400 processor, released in 2018, is still found in budget builds. Its Coffee Lake architecture (14 nm) and 6 cores without hyper-threading (6 threads) is a typical example of Intel's engineering compromise from the late 2010s.

- Manufacturing Process: 14 nm (optimized "++" version). Don’t expect energy efficiency like that of modern 7 nm chips, but the TDP of 65 W makes it manageable for compact PCs.

- Performance: In Geekbench 6 (2025) it scores 1378 (single-core) and 4776 (multi-core). In comparison, the Ryzen 5 5500 (6/12, 7 nm) shows ~1600/6200 but costs more ($130-150).

- Key Features:

- Turbo Boost 2.0: Automatic overclocking up to 4.1 GHz under load.

- UHD Graphics 630: Integrated graphics for office tasks or emergencies (e.g., if a discrete GPU fails).

- 9 MB L3 Cache: Sufficient for light gaming and multitasking.

Real-Life Experience: In 2024, a friend built a PC with the i5-9400 and GTX 1660 Super for Fortnite and Photoshop work. Result: stable 60 FPS at medium settings, but rendering complex projects takes 20-30% longer than on the Ryzen 5 3600.

Compatible Motherboards: What to Choose in 2025?

The LGA 1151 v2 socket is the main limitation. Suitable chipsets include:

- H310/B365: Basic motherboards priced at $60-80 (e.g., ASUS Prime H310M-K). No overclocking, 2 DDR4 slots, minimal ports.

- Z390: The top choice for enthusiasts (ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E, $150-200). Supports overclocking (but i5-9400 is locked!), more USB and SATA options.

Tip: In 2025, new motherboards for LGA 1151 v2 are hardly being produced. Look for leftovers on Amazon or local stores. Avoid boards with damaged sockets on the secondhand market!

Memory: DDR4-2666 as the Ceiling

The i5-9400 officially supports DDR4-2666 (in dual-channel mode). Recommendations:

- Capacity: 16 GB (2×8 GB) is optimal for Windows 11 and gaming.

- Timings: CL16 — a reasonable balance of price and speed.

- Limitations: Boards with H310 chipsets may not work with speeds above 2666 MHz.

Example: A Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-2666 16 GB (2×8) kit costs around $45. For Ryzen 5 5500, a similar DDR4-3200 kit would be $55.

Power Supply: 500 W is Ample

With a TDP of 65 W and no overclocking, the i5-9400 is modest in its demands. Recommendations:

- Without discrete GPU: 300 W (though such systems are rare in 2025).

- With a GPU like RTX 3060/RX 6600: 550 W (e.g., be quiet! Pure Power 11 550W, $75).

- Important: Don’t skimp on the power supply! Cheap models (like Apevia) can harm other components.

Experience: In 2023, a Reddit user saved on the power supply for an i5-9400 + RX 580. Six months later, the PSU burned out, damaging the motherboard.

Pros and Cons: Who Is It Suitable For?

Pros:

- Low price (on the secondhand market — $50-70).

- Good energy efficiency for a 6-core processor.

- Reliability (no reports of mass defects).

Cons:

- No hyper-threading: lags behind Ryzen in multi-threaded tasks.

- Outdated platform: upgrading to 10th-13th Gen Intel is impossible.

- No PCIe 4.0/5.0: SSDs and GPUs won’t realize their full potential.

Use Cases: Where Is i5-9400 Still Relevant?

1. Office PC: Word, Excel, and a browser with 20 tabs — no issues.

2. Media Center: 4K video via HDMI 1.4 (limited to 30 Hz), sufficient for Netflix.

3. Gaming: Paired with a GTX 1660/RX 6600 GPU — comfortable in Full HD on medium settings (Cyberpunk 2077 — ~40 FPS).

Life Hack: For streaming, use NVENC (Nvidia) or AMF (AMD) — the processor won’t handle live encoding well.

Comparison with Competitors: Who Is Better?

- Ryzen 5 3600 (6/12): On the secondhand market — $60-80. Pros: +30% in multi-threading, PCIe 4.0 support. Cons: Requires strong cooling.

- Core i5-10400 (6/12): $80-100. Has hyper-threading, but is more expensive.

- Ryzen 5 5500 (6/12, new): $130. Modern architecture, but twice the price of a used i5-9400.

Conclusion: If your budget for the entire build is up to $300 — the i5-9400 is a great choice. If you have $500 — it’s better to get the Ryzen 5 5500.

Practical Assembly Tips

1. Motherboard: Look for B365 with M.2 for NVMe SSD (e.g., WD Blue SN570 500 GB for $40).

2. Cooling: The stock cooler will suffice, but for quiet operation, consider the DeepCool GAMMAXX 400 ($20).

3. Case: Micro-ATX (Fractal Design Focus G Mini) saves space.

4. GPU: Don’t purchase cards more expensive than the RTX 3060 — the processor will bottleneck.

Sample Build for $400 (2025):

- CPU: i5-9400 (used, $60)

- Motherboard: ASUS Prime B365M-A (used, $50)

- Memory: 16 GB DDR4-2666 ($45)

- SSD: 500 GB NVMe ($40)

- PSU: EVGA 500 BR ($55)

- Case: Zalman S2 ($40)

- Graphics Card: GTX 1660 Super (used, $110)

Final Conclusion: Who Is the i5-9400 Suitable for in 2025?

This processor is suitable for:

- Budget Gamers willing to compromise on graphics.

- Office PCs where stability is important.

- A second computer for home use (e.g., for children's schooling).

Why Not to Buy: If you are video editing, working in Blender, or want to play Alan Wake 2 on ultra settings.

Philosophy: The i5-9400 is like a reliable Toyota Corolla from the 2000s. Not trendy, but it works. In a world where technology becomes obsolete in a year, this approach has its merits.

Basic

Label Name

Intel

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

October 2018

Model Name

The Intel processor number is just one of several factors - along with processor brand, system configurations, and system-level benchmarks - to be considered when choosing the right processor for your computing needs.

i5-9400

Code Name

Coffee Lake

CPU Specifications

Total Cores

Cores is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).

Total Threads

Where applicable, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology is only available on Performance-cores.

Basic Frequency

2.90 GHz

Max Turbo Frequency

Max Turbo Frequency is the maximum single-core frequency at which the processor is capable of operating using Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and, if present, Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 and Intel® Thermal Velocity Boost. Frequency is typically measured in gigahertz (GHz), or billion cycles per second.

4.10 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency

4.10 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology dynamically increases the processor's frequency as needed by taking advantage of thermal and power headroom to give you a burst of speed when you need it, and increased energy efficiency when you don’t.

2.0

Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) delivers two processing threads per physical core. Highly threaded applications can get more work done in parallel, completing tasks sooner.

L3 Cache

9 MB

CPU Socket

The socket is the component that provides the mechanical and electrical connections between the processor and motherboard.

FCLGA1151

Technology

Lithography refers to the semiconductor technology used to manufacture an integrated circuit, and is reported in nanometer (nm), indicative of the size of features built on the semiconductor.

14 nm

TDP

65 W

Max. Operating Temperature

Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

100°C

PCI Express Version

PCI Express Revision is the supported version of the PCI Express standard. Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (or PCIe) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard for attaching hardware devices to a computer. The different PCI Express versions support different data rates.

3.0

Number of PCI Express Lanes

A PCI Express (PCIe) lane consists of two differential signaling pairs, one for receiving data, one for transmitting data, and is the basic unit of the PCIe bus. Max # of PCI Express Lanes is the total number of supported lanes.

Intel 64

Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Yes

Instruction Set

The instruction set is a hard program stored inside the CPU that guides and optimizes CPU operations. With these instruction sets, the CPU can run more efficiently. There are many manufacturers that design CPUs, which results in different instruction sets, such as the 8086 instruction set for the Intel camp and the RISC instruction set for the ARM camp. x86, ARM v8, and MIPS are all codes for instruction sets. Instruction sets can be extended; for example, x86 added 64-bit support to create x86-64. Manufacturers developing CPUs that are compatible with a certain instruction set need authorization from the instruction set patent holder. A typical example is Intel authorizing AMD, enabling the latter to develop CPUs compatible with the x86 instruction set.

64-bit

PCI Express Configurations

PCI Express (PCIe) Configurations describe the available PCIe lane configurations that can be used to link to PCIe devices.

Up to 1x16 | 2x8 | 1x8+2x4

Memory Specifications

Memory Type

Intel® processors come in four different types: Single Channel, Dual Channel, Triple Channel, and Flex Mode. Maximum supported memory speed may be lower when populating multiple DIMMs per channel on products that support multiple memory channels.

DDR4-2666

Max Memory Size

Max memory size refers to the maximum memory capacity supported by the processor.

128 GB

Memory Channels

The number of memory channels refers to the bandwidth operation for real world application.

Bus Speed

8 GT/s

Max Memory Bandwidth

Max Memory bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by the processor (in GB/s).

41.6 GB/s

ECC Memory Supported

ECC Memory Supported indicates processor support for Error-Correcting Code memory. ECC memory is a type of system memory that can detect and correct common kinds of internal data corruption. Note that ECC memory support requires both processor and chipset support.

GPU Specifications

Integrated Graphics Model

An integrated GPU refers to the graphics core that is integrated into the CPU processor. Leveraging the processor's powerful computational capabilities and intelligent power efficiency management, it delivers outstanding graphics performance and a smooth application experience at a lower power consumption.

Intel® UHD Graphics 630

Graphics Base Frequency

Graphics Base frequency refers to the rated/guaranteed graphics render clock frequency in MHz.

350 MHz

Graphics Frequency

Graphics max dynamic frequency refers to the maximum opportunistic graphics render clock frequency (in MHz) that can be supported using Intel® HD Graphics with Dynamic Frequency feature.

1.05 GHz

Graphics Video Max Memory

64 GB

4K Support

Yes | at 60Hz

DirectX Support

DirectX* Support indicates support for a specific version of Microsoft’s collection of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for handling multimedia compute tasks.

Max Resolution (HDMI)

Max Resolution (HDMI) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the HDMI interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096 x 2304@24Hz

Max Resolution (DP)

Max Resolution (DP) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor via the DP interface (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your system.

4096 x 2304@60Hz

Max Resolution (eDP - Integrated Flat Panel)

Max Resolution (Integrated Flat Panel) is the maximum resolution supported by the processor for a device with an integrated flat panel (24bits per pixel & 60Hz). System or device display resolution is dependent on multiple system design factors; actual resolution may be lower on your device.

4096 x 2304@60Hz

Number of Displays Supported

Miscellaneous

Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x)

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) allows one hardware platform to function as multiple “virtual” platforms. It offers improved manageability by limiting downtime and maintaining productivity by isolating computing activities into separate partitions.

Yes

Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environments.

Yes

Intel Standard Manageability (ISM)

Intel® Standard Manageability is the manageability solution for Intel vPro® Essentials platforms and is a subset of Intel® AMT with out-of-band management over Ethernet and Wi-Fi, but no KVM or new life cycle management features.

Intel® SSE4.1 | Intel® SSE4.2 | Intel® AVX2

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling high performance while meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep® Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology builds upon that architecture using design strategies such as Separation between Voltage and Frequency Changes, and Clock Partitioning and Recovery.

Yes

Execute Disable Bit

Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network.

Yes

Cache

CPU Cache is an area of fast memory located on the processor. Intel® Smart Cache refers to the architecture that allows all cores to dynamically share access to the last level cache.

9 MB Intel® Smart Cache

Intel AES New Instructions

Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) are a set of instructions that enable fast and secure data encryption and decryption. AES-NI are valuable for a wide range of cryptographic applications, for example: applications that perform bulk encryption/decryption, authentication, random number generation, and authenticated encryption.

Yes

Intel Boot Guard

Intel® Device Protection Technology with Boot Guard helps protect the system’s pre-OS environment from viruses and malicious software attacks.

Yes

Intel Clear Video HD Technology

Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, like its predecessor, Intel® Clear Video Technology, is a suite of image decode and processing technologies built into the integrated processor graphics that improve video playback, delivering cleaner, sharper images, more natural, accurate, and vivid colors, and a clear and stable video picture. Intel® Clear Video HD Technology adds video quality enhancements for richer color and more realistic skin tones.

Yes

Intel Clear Video Technology

Yes

Intel VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT)

Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT), also known as Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), provides acceleration for memory intensive virtualized applications. Extended Page Tables in Intel® Virtualization Technology platforms reduces the memory and power overhead costs and increases battery life through hardware optimization of page table management.

Yes

Intel InTru 3D Technology

Yes

Intel OS Guard

Yes

OpenGL Support

OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, multi-platform API (Application Programming Interface) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics.

4.5

Intel Quick Sync Video

Intel® Quick Sync Video delivers fast conversion of video for portable media players, online sharing, and video editing and authoring.

Yes

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6

Single Core Score

1378

Geekbench 6

Multi Core Score

4776

Geekbench 5

Single Core Score

990

Geekbench 5

Multi Core Score

3878

Passmark CPU

Single Core Score

2445

Passmark CPU

Multi Core Score

9492

Compared to Other CPU

Geekbench 6 Single Core

Xeon Gold 5418Y

1478 +7.3%

Core i3-7350K

1425 +3.4%

Core i5-9400

1378

Core i3-9100E

1347 -2.2%

Core i7-8750H

1294 -6.1%

Geekbench 6 Multi Core

Core i7-10700E

5412 +13.3%

Ryzen 3 4300G

5071 +6.2%

Core i5-9400

4776

Ryzen 3 5400U

4513 -5.5%

Xeon X5680

4212 -11.8%

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Xeon E-2244G

1034 +4.4%

Core i7-8559U

1012 +2.2%

Core i5-9400

990

Ryzen Threadripper 1950X

965 -2.5%

Xeon E3-1505M v6

945 -4.5%

Geekbench 5 Multi Core

Ryzen 5 7535H

4316 +11.3%

Core i7-11375H

4086 +5.4%

Core i5-9400

3878

Xeon E3-1230 v6

3725 -3.9%

Athlon Gold PRO 3150G

3593 -7.3%

Passmark CPU Single Core

Ryzen 3 PRO 4350GE

2533 +3.6%

Core i7-1180G7

2495 +2%

Core i5-9400

2445

Ryzen 3 3100

2421 -1%

Pentium Gold G6400E

2384 -2.5%

Passmark CPU Multi Core

Xeon E5-2643 v3

10459 +10.2%

Xeon W-2125

10010 +5.5%

Core i5-9400

9492

Xeon E5-2643 v2

9134 -3.8%

Core i5-1130G7

8641 -9%