When we reviewed the new Ryzen five 3600 nosotros had plenty of positive things to say most it, and note that in our review nosotros compared information technology to the more expensive Core i5-9600K. Regardless, that was a battle that AMD largely won. Even so, we've seen many requests of a direct comparison to the Core i5-9400F which is at present more than affordable than ever at simply $150.

The 9400F is the cheapest 9th generation Cadre i5 processor y'all can buy. For the by two months it's been offered at the $150 toll indicate which is roughly a fifteen% discount since launch. That also makes it 25% cheaper than the R5 3600, so budget-minded builders may be because going Intel later on all. Does it make sense?

To answer that we'll compare both CPUs in a range of games and applications. Both have been tested using their included box cooler -- yep, Intel'southward lousy box cooler works but fine with the 9400F and information technology's not even loud, equally the locked part is very ability efficient.

We're using 16GB of DDR4-3200 CL14 memory for both CPUs, meaning the 9400F was tested on a Z390 motherboard. Given you can snag one of these for as little equally $120-130 these days, we didn't encounter the issue. You'll be paying like coin for a good B450 board.

The graphics card of choice was the powerful RTX 2080 Ti to reduce any potential GPU bottlenecks. The latest Windows updates and drivers available at the time of testing were installed. Let's become into the results...

Productivity Benchmarks

As usual we'll start with Cinebench and hither nosotros see simply what the 9400F is up against in cadre heavy workloads equally the R5 3600 was 52% faster, that's more than an entire tier about the Core i5 processor.

Even so, perhaps a more than ominous sign for the Intel 6-core processor is the single core test, here the R5 3600 was however 14% faster, and so it's rare that you'll find a productivity workload where the 9400F can match the 3600, let alone beat it.

Speaking of which, nosotros have WinRAR, a traditionally strong showing for Intel processors. That'due south no longer the instance though with the arrival of third-gen Ryzen. Here the R5 3600 was 84% faster, so quite the shellacking there.

Moving on to 7-zip, the R5 3600 was 57% faster when comparing compression performance and information technology's remarkable that the margin widens further when comparing decompression performance where the 3600 was 66% faster.

Adobe Premiere shows the Cadre i5's all-time showing yet as the R5 3600 was 26% faster. Withal a big win for AMD but at to the lowest degree the margin is somewhat competitive this fourth dimension.

The R5 3600 quickly gets dorsum to crushing it though with a 49% win in the Five-Ray benchmark. Let's come across what'due south in store for our last two productivity tests.

When testing with Corona, the R5 3600 was 58% faster than the 9400F taking just 146 seconds to complete the examination confronting the Cadre i5's 230 seconds.

And finally when running the Blender Open Data benchmark, the Ryzen is 53% faster.

Power Consumption

The Intel Core i5 9400F gets its showtime win. It consumed 22% less power than the R5 3600 in the Blender benchmark though yous must accept in consideration that it was besides 35% slower, and so performance per watt still favors the Ryzen processor.

Gaming Benchmarks

Moving on to gaming testing, outset up nosotros have Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Here the R5 3600 additional frame rates past virtually 30% over the 9400F and I expect we'll run across more results like this in core heavy games.

The Ryzen processor was only 6% faster in Battleground V when looking at the average frame rate, only 34% faster when measuring 1% low performance, The R5 3600 did provide a noticeably smoother gaming experience in this title.

The gaming experience when testing with Shadow of the Tomb Raider was like with both CPUs, though the average frame rate was 4% college with the R5 3600, while the one% low performance was improved by 10%.

We also meet a solid functioning uplift in The Partitioning 2, the R5 3600 provided an eighteen% performance uplift for the boilerplate frame charge per unit and a 29% heave for the i% low.

As is often the instance, Far Cry New Dawn does trip upward the Ryzen processors and here the 9400F managed to have the pb, chirapsia the R5 3600 by upward to 19%, and then a very disarming win for the Core i5 processor.

Frame rates in Rage 2 were quite close with an edge to the Ryzen processor in the 1% low outcome, merely overall both felt very similar in bodily gameplay.

Nosotros see something similar thing in Hitman 2, average frame rates were a lucifer merely the R5 3600 was slightly stronger when information technology came to the ane% depression performance.

And finally we have Full War: Three Kingdoms and as was the instance with Rage two and Hitman 2, nosotros find shut average frame rate results, merely an advantage to AMD when looking at ane% low functioning. In this case the difference was more substantial with Ryzen offering 12% better minimum frame rates.

Toll per Frame and Wrap Up

That was interesting and fifty-fifty a bit fell. We have to admit at times nosotros felt we were feeding the 9400F to a woodchipper. Gaming was definitely closer than productivity but even then the Ryzen shined more than its predecessors ever could.

Looking exclusively at gaming, on average the Ryzen 5 3600 was merely 11% faster than the 9400F. Some of this is due to CPU limited titles such every bit Hitman 2 and Rage 2, but we don't feel it's a misleading margin given the Intel CPU will exist equally fast or faster in older titles. Nosotros got a glimpse of that with Far Cry which is congenital on a dated game engine.

Overall the R5 3600 was 20% more than costly per frame when using average frame rates for the calculation but we feel that this doesn't paint the whole picture for gaming because at times the 9400F wasn't nearly as smooth as the Ryzen processor, so let's bank check the 1% low results.

Here the R5 3600 was 12% more costly per frame. The margin is smaller simply you should too accept into consideration CPU heavy titles where the 9400F was stuttering a bit (Battlefield 5 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, for example). It should be noted also that as long equally AMD keeps offering the Ryzen 2600, information technology provides roughly the same price to performance ratio, but on AMD's more attractive platform and with an reward in productivity tasks.

Ever since AMD launched the AM4 platform consummate with a slew of Ryzen processors non only have they supported 2, 4, six, 8 and now 12-core processors, all on the aforementioned socket, but they've managed to do so across iii CPU generations. This makes recommending Intel'due south 8th and ninth generation LGA1151 platform hard in 2019. Brusk of edifice a high-end Core i7-9700K or i9-9900K rig, we tin can't think of a scenario where it makes full sense.

The Cadre i5-9400F is a good processor today, but when y'all consider the platform, future upgrade options are slim. In ii years you'll ideally want more than half dozen threads and yous will be stuck to 2nd mitt 8700K, 9700K or 9900K processors for a more powerful drop-in replacement. Unfortunately we don't believe the prospects volition be great and so either. Hoping over to eBay we establish the price of Core i7-7700K completed listings -- that is 7th-gen Cadre i5 owners looking to upgrade -- spending Ryzen 5 3600 coin on the 36 month quondam quad-core.

But dorsum to today'due south comparison, the Ryzen v 3600 destroys the Core i5-9400F in cadre-heavy games and applications. It currently costs 33% more, only information technology was ofttimes 50% faster in applications and provided roughly 30% gains in modernistic games.

If y'all only have $150 to spend on a CPU, then the R5 2600 may exist i of your best bets as that grants you the ability to upgrade to the 3700X, 3900X or 3950X a few years later and those CPUs will most certainly exist affordable on the second hand market in a few years fourth dimension.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • AMD Ryzen five 3600 on Amazon, Google Express
  • Intel Core i5-9400F on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen v 2600 on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen vii 3700X on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen 9 3900X on Amazon, Google Express
  • Intel Cadre i5-9600K on Amazon, Google Express
  • GeForce RTX 2070 Super on Amazon, Google Express
  • GeForce RTX 2060 Super on Amazon, Google Express
  • GeForce GTX 1660 Ti on Amazon, Google Express