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Intel Core i5-8400B

Intel Core i5-8400B: Outdated, but Still Relevant?

Analysis of Laptop Processors in 2025

Architecture and Process: The Foundation of Coffee Lake

The Intel Core i5-8400B processor, released in 2018, belongs to the Coffee Lake generation. This was an era when Intel increased the number of cores in mainstream CPUs to compete with AMD Ryzen.

- 6 Cores, 6 Threads: Unlike modern processors with Hyper-Threading support, here each core operates with a single thread. This limits performance in multitasking scenarios, but it provides enough resources for office tasks and basic multithreading (such as rendering simple projects).

- Clock Speeds: The base frequency is 2.8 GHz, with a maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 4.0 GHz. However, in laptops with passive cooling, the stable frequency under load rarely exceeds 3.5 GHz.

- Integrated Graphics UHD 630: 24 execution units, 4K@60Hz support through HDMI/DisplayPort. It is not suitable for gaming— even in 2025, it can only handle light projects like Minecraft or CS:GO at low settings (30–40 FPS).

- 14nm Process Technology: By 2025, this will be considered outdated. Modern CPUs from Intel (Meteor Lake) and AMD (Zen 5) use 5–7 nm, providing better energy efficiency.

Power Consumption and TDP: The Trade-off Between Power and Battery Life

A TDP of 65W is unusually high for a mobile processor. By comparison, modern ultrabooks are equipped with chips with TDPs of 15–28W.

- Heat Generation: Laptops with the i5-8400B require massive cooling systems. In compact cases (such as the Dell XPS 15 9570), the processor can overheat, leading to throttling.

- Power Consumption Under Load: Up to 80W at peak usage. This reduces battery life to 3-4 hours with active use (video editing, gaming).

Performance: What Can It Handle in 2025?

Office Tasks

- Microsoft Office, Browsers: Working with documents and 10–15 tabs in Chrome poses no issues.

- Video Calls: Zoom/Teams with background effects can push CPU usage up to 40–60%, with occasional brief stutters.

Multimedia

- Premiere Pro: Rendering a 10-minute 1080p video will take about 12–15 minutes (for comparison, the Ryzen 5 5600H does it in 7–8 minutes).

- Photo Editors: Photoshop and Lightroom work smoothly, but applying complex filters can introduce noticeable lag.

Gaming

Without a discrete graphics card (like a GTX 1650 or RTX 3050), a comfortable gaming experience is not achievable:

- The Witcher 3 (1080p, low settings): 25–30 FPS on UHD 630.

- Fortnite (720p, low): 40–45 FPS.

Turbo Boost Mode: The frequency temporarily rises to 4.0 GHz, but in laptops with poor cooling, this leads to rapid heating and a drop in performance after 5–10 minutes.

Use Cases: Who is the i5-8400B Suitable For in 2025?

- Students and Office Workers: Suitable for studying, working with documents, and less demanding applications.

- Budget Gamers: Only in combination with a discrete GPU level RTX 3050 or higher.

- Second-hand Market Users: Laptops with this CPU can be found for $300–400 (like HP Pavilion 15 or Lenovo IdeaPad 3), but usually only in refurbished condition.

Battery Life: The Weak Point

With active use (watching YouTube, working in Photoshop), battery life is 4-5 hours. Intel's energy-saving technologies (Speed Shift, C-States) provide only partial assistance.

Tip: Choose laptops with a battery of at least 60Wh (for example, Acer Aspire 7)—this can extend battery life to 6 hours.

Comparison with Competitors

- AMD Ryzen 5 5500U (2021): 6 cores/12 threads, TDP 15W. Better in multithreading tasks (+30% in Cinebench R23), integrated Vega 7 graphics are 50% more powerful.

- Apple M1 (2020): Power consumption of 10W, battery life up to 15 hours. A clear favorite for video editing and design.

- Intel Core i5-1240P (2022): 12 cores (4P+8E), 16 threads. 60% faster in multitasking with half the TDP.

Conclusion: The i5-8400B lags behind today's counterparts but is cheaper.

Pros and Cons

Strengths:

- Reliable performance for basic tasks.

- Supports up to 64GB DDR4-2666 MHz.

- Compatibility with most OS, including Windows 11.

Weaknesses:

- High power consumption.

- No support for PCIe 4.0 and Thunderbolt 4.

- Weaker graphics performance.

Recommendations for Laptop Selection

- Workstation: Look for models with a 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, and an IPS screen (for example, Dell Precision 3530).

- Budget Gaming: A discrete graphics card (GTX 1650 or higher) and dual fan cooling are necessary (for example, MSI GF63 Thin).

- Ultrabooks: Not recommended—processor generates too much heat for slim designs.

Final Summary

The Intel Core i5-8400B in 2025 is a choice for those who prioritize low price over performance. It is suitable for:

- Office work and study.

- A temporary solution with a limited budget.

- Users who do not plan to run modern games or heavy applications.

Key Benefits: Affordability, proven reliability, and sufficient power for everyday tasks. However, if your budget allows, it's better to look at laptops with 12th generation Intel processors or AMD Ryzen 6000/7000 as they offer better performance and battery life.

Basic

Label Name

Intel

Platform

Mobile

Launch Date

April 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.

i5-8400B

Code Name

Coffee Lake

CPU Specifications

Total Threads

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

Basic Frequency

2.80 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.

4.00 GHz

Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 Frequency

4.00 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.

CPU Socket

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

FCBGA1440

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.

64 GB

Memory Channels

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

Bus Speed

8 GT/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.

4096x2304@30Hz

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.

4096x2304@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.

4096x2304@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.

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