The Intel Core i5 11400F is one of the best of the latest 11th generation desktop CPUs and one of the least expensive 6-core, 12-thread processors. At half the price of an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with comparable cores, it doesn't offer half the gaming performance. [Bizarro CPU World has come true. This strange new reality is that AMD, with the most expensive and most powerful chips available to PC gamers, is the dominant player in processors, and Intel is the player offering cheap alternatives that punch above their class.

This is a turnaround of epyc proportions:smug: [The "F" suffix on the Core i5 11400F indicates that the processor package does not include an iGPU, which is not bad for a budget gaming CPU and usually means a cheaper chip. But times are strange, and the Core i5 11400 is the exact same CPU, but with an integrated GPU core enabled. Although supposedly more expensive, the Core i5 11400 is actually available for less.

Performance should be virtually the same between the two, so you can be happy with the cheapest of the two versions of 11400 silicon. This is because the Core i5 11400/F is a great budget gaming CPU.

However, as a CPU generation itself, Rocket Lake falls short. The top-of-the-line Core i9 11900K is a chip that only its parents could love. This chip has fewer cores than its former Core i9 brethren and uses the Cypress Cove Core architecture, a 10nm Sunny Cove core pulled back to 14nm manufacturing.

This backporting resulted in larger slices of silicon, making it impossible to fit the previous generation's maximum of 10 cores into the top Rocket Lake chip.

However, what Cypress Cove has achieved is a higher IPC, which leads to higher overall gaming performance compared to previous Intel desktop chips. However, when compared to the Core i9 10900K and Ryzen 9 5900X, the increased gaming performance does not make up for the lack of multi-threaded performance.

At the bottom of the stack, however, things are different: the Core i5 11600K is a great little chip, much cheaper than the popular Ryzen 5 5600X, and at least as effective as a gaming chip. If we forget that we are putting the planet in dire straits and remove the power shackles in the BIOS, we can get even more performance out of this chip.

Even if it cost the same as a 6-core Ryzen, the Core i5 11600K still looks good.

The Core i5 11400F takes it a bit further. Thanks to Intel finally lifting the embargo on artificial hyperthreading, the same 6-core, 12-thread design still has a healthy 4.2 GHz all-core turbo clock, which only lasts a few seconds if you adhere to Intel's recommended limits, but most motherboards have the silicon option to run the silicon to its limits.

However, if you leave the power limit to the Asus test board, it will always maintain 4.2 GHz at full load. This blows away the multi-threaded performance of the older Core i5 10400F and means it is not far behind the 11600K and 5600X.

But if serious multicore rendering performance is important to you, you'll want to splurge on something with a bit more power. i5 11400/F chips feature budget gaming performance with sufficient thread count, and will not be abandoned down the road.

I'm not saying that cramming six-core CPUs into a rig is necessarily future-proof, but since Intel allowed Hyper-Threading in all its series, even its budget chips have not only provided excellent gaming frame rates, but also moderate computing power enough processing power to provide.

System Performance

In basic testing using Intel's recommended power consumption limits, the i5 11400F completely dominates the equivalent Comet Lake i5 10400F when it comes to single-threaded performance. This highlights where the Cypress Cove core has an advantage over the Skylake core at the heart of Intel's other 14nm chips.

However, the lower base clock speeds can be a drag when it comes to multi-threaded benchmarks.

But turn on the theoretical BIOS switch and remove any power limits, and it goes right out the window: the multithreaded score on Cinebench R20 jumps from a base score of 2,741 to 3,869, just shy of the 5600X and 11600K The R20's multi-threaded score jumped from 2,741 to 3,869, just behind the 5600X and 11600K.

Gaming Performance

As for gaming performance, even with the original power limitations, Rocket Lake's high IPC allows it to outperform Comet Lake chips in CPU-intensive games and compete with the big boys in other games.

What you are looking at is a budget chip that can deliver game frames to graphics cards just as competently as the most powerful processors on the market. If you want to save money on a dedicated gaming PC, you should consider this: why pay more for another CPU?

However, the pricing of the Intel Core i5 11400F is a bit frustrating, but this is probably due to the current scarcity of the chip: at $279 on Amazon, it's too close to the 11600K for comfort, but with a tray price of $157, it should be less than $200. A straight Core i5 11400 (same chip but with Xe graphics enabled) currently sells for $210, cheaper than the F-series chips.

Realistically, however, a budget gaming processor like the Core i5 11400/F is at least $100 cheaper than the best gaming chips from competitors and can deliver essentially equivalent performance.

Sure, the high-end Rocket Lake is a bit of a no-no, and the Cypress Cove cores are a bit thirsty for power at best, but with or without the F suffix, you won't care if you game like a hero with the i5 11400. Especially if you can use the extra $100 to fund a new GPU. Whenever such a thing shows up, that is.