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Intel Core i5 13400F vs Intel Core i5 13600K

In October 2022, Intel released the 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs. While the high-end CPUs i.e., the Core i9 13900K and Core i7 13700K will offer excellent all-around performance (single core, gaming and multi-threaded), the mid-tier Core i5 13600K will get the most traction from gamers. A couple of months later, Intel released the Core i5 13400 and Core i5 13400F CPUs. If you already own a decent graphics card and don’t need the integrated graphics at all or not interested in overclocking, then the Intel Core i5 13400F seem like a decent purchase. But how does it compare with the “go to gaming CPU”, the Intel Core i5 13600K? Which is the better CPU? We will try to find answers to all these question in this Intel Core i5 13400F vs Intel Core i5 13600K comparison guide.

In the process, we will take a look at their basic specifications, compare their application and gaming performance. We will also take a look at their clock speeds, power consumption, and CPU temperatures. If you are looking to purchase a new CPU and confused between the Intel Core i5 13600K and Intel Core i5 13400F, then we hope that this guide could help you make a better buying decision.

A Brief Note on Intel Core i5 13400F

After successfully launching the regular 13th Gen CPUs, Intel recently launched a couple of non-overclockable CPUs. In that, the Intel Core i5 13400F is even special as the “F” in the name indicates that it doesn’t have any integrated graphics.

So, without overclocking feature and no integrated graphics, the cost of this CPU should be very low, right? Yes. The launch price of the Intel Core i5 13400F is just $196.

The Intel Core i5 13400F has a combination of Performance or P Cores and Efficiency or E Cores. To be specific, it has 6 P Cores with support for multithreading and 4 E Cores without multithreading.

So, the Intel Core i5 13400F has a total of 10 Cores and 16 Threads. The base clock speed of the P and E Cores of 13400F are 2.5 GHz and 1.8 GHz respectively while the turbo clocks of P and E Cores are 4.6 GHz and 3.3 GHz respectively.

It also uses the same LGA 1700 Socket as the other 12th gen and 13th processors. The Intel Core i5 13400F CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM types in dual channel mode with frequencies as DDR4-3200 and DDR5-4800.

Coming to the cache layout, each P core of the 13400F Processor gets 1.25 MB L2 Cache and one module of E cores gets 2 MB L2 Cache.

Speaking of E Core modules, Intel grouped four E Cores into a cluster that share the L2 cache. So, in 13400F, you get 2 MB for four E Cores. This makes the total L2 Cache of 12900K at 9.5 MB. It also has 20 MB L3 Cache, which is common for all the cores.

The Intel Core i5 13400F processor has 20 PCIe lanes from the CPU. Of these, 16 are PCIe Gen 5 while the remaining 4 are Gen 4. The 13th Gen Alder Lake processors are fabricated using the “Intel 7”. Even though Intel calls it “Intel 7”, it is technically a 10 nm node.

The base processor power of Intel Core i5 13400F CPU is 65W while the maximum turbo power is 148W.

Important Specifications of Intel Core i5 13400F

  • 6 P Cores, 4 E Cores and total 16 Threads
  • LGA 1700 Socket
  • Supports both DDR4 and DDR5
  • Cache: Total L2 Cache is 9.5 MB [1.25 MB per P Core (6 * 1.25 MB = 7.5 MB) 2 MB per E Core Module (1 * 2 MB = 2 MB)], Total L3 Cache is 20 MB
  • Total 20 PCIe Lanes (16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes and 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes)
  • No Integrated Graphics
  • No support for overclocking
  • Base Power is 65 Watts and Turbo Power is 148 Watts
  • Manufacturing Node is Intel 7 (based on 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin)

A Brief Note on Intel Core i5 13600K

In October 2022, Intel launched the 13th Gen processors with code name Raptor Lake. While the Core i9 13900K is an expensive, top-of-the-line processor of this generation (subsequently dethroned by Intel Core i9 13900KS), the Core i5 13600K is a relatively low-cost option with a launch price of $319.

Continuing the Hybrid Architecture from the 12th Gen Alder Lake processors, the Intel Core i5 13600K consists of 6 Performance (P) Cores and 8 Efficiency (E) Cores.

The performance cores support hyper threading but the efficiency cores don’t. So, the 6P + 8E Core 13600K supports 20 threads.

The base clock speed of the P and E Cores of 13600K are 3.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz respectively. The turbo clocks of P and E Cores are 5.1 GHz and 3.9 GHz respectively.

Intel made the 13th gen Raptor Lake processors using the same LGA 1700 Socket as the 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. So, if you have a decent motherboard, then the upgrade cost will be less.

The Intel Core i5 13600K CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM types in dual channel mode. While the DDR4 frequency is only DDR4-3200, DDR5 saw a huge improvement with support for DDR5-5600.

Coming to the cache layout, each P core of the 13600K Processor gets 2 MB L2 Cache and one module of E cores gets 4 MB L2 Cache.

If you aren’t familiar with the E Core modules, Intel grouped four E Cores into a cluster that share the L2 cache. So, in 13600K, you get 4 MB for four E Cores. This makes the total L2 Cache of 13600K at 20 MB. It also has 24 MB L3 Cache, which is common for all the cores.

The Intel Core i5 13600K processor has 20 PCIe lanes from the CPU. Of these, 16 are PCIe Gen 5 while the remaining 4 are Gen 4. Similar to the Alder Lake processors, even the 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors are fabricated using the “Intel 7”. Even though Intel calls it “Intel 7”, it is technically a 10 nm node.

The base processor power of Intel Core i5 13600K CPU is 125W while the maximum turbo power is 181W.

Important Specifications of Intel Core i5 13600K

  • 6 P Cores, 8 E Cores and total 20 Threads
  • LGA 1700 Socket
  • Supports both DDR4 and DDR5
  • Cache: Total L2 is 20 MB [2 MB per P Core (6 * 2 MB = 12 MB) 4 MB per E Core Module (2 * 4MB = 8 MB)] and Total L3 is 24 MB
  • Total 20 PCIe Lanes (16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes and 4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes)
  • Intel UHD 770 Integrated Graphics
  • Base Power is 125 Watts and Turbo Power is 181 Watts
  • Manufacturing Node is Intel 7 (based on 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin)

Specifications: Intel Core i5 13400F vs Intel Core i5 13600K

In the following table, we made a side-by-side list of all the essential specifications of the Intel Core i5 13400F and the Intel Core i5 13600K.

Intel Core i5 13400F Intel Core i5 13600K
Cores (Threads) Performance (P) 6 (12) 6 (12)
Efficient (E) 4 (4) 8 (8)
Base Clock Rate Performance (P) 2.5 GHz 3.5 GHz
Efficient (E) 1.8 GHz 2.6 GHz
Turbo Clock Rate Performance (P) 4.6 GHz 5.1 GHz
Efficient (E) 3.3 GHz 3.9 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency (Max Single Core Frequency) 4.6 GHz 5.1 GHz
Cache L2 Total 9.5 MB

1.25 MB per P Core

(6 * 1.25 MB = 7.5 MB)

2 MB per E Core Module (1 * 2 MB = 2 MB)

Total 20 MB

2 MB per P Core

(6 * 2 MB = 12 MB)

4 MB per E Core Module (2 * 4 MB = 8 MB)

L3 20 MB 24 MB
Power Base Processor Power 65 Watts 125 Watts
Max Turbo Power 148 Watts 181 Watts
Process Intel 7 (10 nm) Intel 7 (10 nm)
Socket LGA 1700 LGA 1700
Code Name (Architecture) Raptor Lake Raptor Lake
Microarchitecture Performance (P) Raptor Cove Raptor Cove
Efficient (E) Gracemont Gracemont
PCIe Lanes Total 20

16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes

4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes

Total 20

16 PCIe 5.0 Lanes

4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes

Memory Support DDR4 Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s Up to DDR4 3200 MT/s
DDR5 Up to DDR5 4800 MT/s Up to DDR5 5600 MT/s
Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 770
Price $196 $319

Comparison of Intel Core i5 13400F and Core i5 13600K

Let us now compare the performance of the Intel Core i5 13400F CPU against the Intel Core i5 13600K.

Test System

Before we begin, here is a quick look at our Intel and AMD test systems.

Intel Test System
CPUs Intel Core i7 13700K
Intel Core i5 13600K
Intel Core i5 13400F
Motherboard MSI PRO Z790-A Wi-Fi
Memory G.Skill Trident Z5 (Intel XMP) 32GB (2 × 16GB) DDR5 6000 CL30
AMD DDR5 Test System
CPUs AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
Motherboard GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master
Memory G.Skill Trident Z5 (AMD EXPO) 32GB (2 × 16GB) DDR5 6000 CL30
AMD DDR4 Test System
CPUs AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero
Memory G.Skill Trident Z 32GB (2 × 16GB) DDR4 3600 CL16
Common to All Test Systems
SSD SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe
CPU Cooler Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler
Power Supply Seasonic PRIME 1300 Platinum
Graphic Card MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti 24GB
Software Windows 11 21H2
Nvidia 526.47

Application Benchmarks

Cinebench R23 Multi-Core (Higher is Better)

Let us start with the most popular benchmark tool, the Cinebench R23. After the 10-minute multicore loop test, the Intel Core i5 13600K got a score of just over 24000 points while the Intel Core i5 13400F could only manage just over 16200 points.

If you compare the performance difference of Intel Core i5 13600K and Intel Core i5 13400F, then the former boasts a 48% performance advantage.

Intel Core i7 13700K 29973
Intel Core i5 13600K 24001
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 20072
Intel Core i5 13400F 16223
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 14983
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 14443
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 11569

Cinebench R23 Single-Core (Higher is Better)

Coming to the single core performance in the Cinebench R23, the story is the same. The single-core performance of the Intel Core i5 13600K is roughly 15% better than the Intel Core i5 13400F.

Intel Core i7 13700K 2045
Intel Core i5 13600K 1993
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 1980
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 1920
Intel Core i5 13400F 1736
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 1594
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 1477
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 1453

PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Multi-Threaded/Overall (Higher is Better)

Next, we have another popular benchmark tool from PassMark, the CPU Mark. The following results show the overall or multi-threaded CPU Mark Score of all the processors in this test.

The story is similar to the Cinebench Multi-threading test. Here the Intel Core i5 13600K scores just over 40000 points while the Intel Core i5 13400F scores just over 34500 points.

The performance gap between the Intel Core i5 13600K and the Intel Core i5 13400F is roughly 16% in favor of the former.

Intel Core i7 13700K 49443
Intel Core i5 13600K 40175
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 37548
Intel Core i5 13400F 34587
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 30005
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 29776
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 25993

PassMark’s CPUMARK 10.2 Single-Threaded (Higher is Better)

Coming to the single threaded performance in CPU Mark, the results are once again similar the previous single thread test. The Intel Core i5 13600K could score just over 4200 points while the Intel Core i5 13400F score under 3800 points.

Intel Core i7 13700K 4443
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4301
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4249
Intel Core i5 13600K 4237
Intel Core i5 13400F 3769
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3480
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3402

Blender Open Data Render Time (Lower is Better)

Another popular open-source tool is Blender. For the next couple of tests, we will see the render times and number of samples per minute in Blender version 3.4. The Intel Core i5 13600K took 40 seconds over 9 minutes while Intel Core i5 13400F 30 seconds over 14 minutes.

Intel Core i7 13700K 8 min 10 sec
Intel Core i5 13600K 9 min 40 sec
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 11 min 5 sec
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 14 min 10 sec
Intel Core i5 13400F 14 min 32 sec
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 14 min 50 sec
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 19 min 59 sec

Blender Samples Per Minute (Higher is Better)

The results for number of samples in a minute for Blender Render is also very similar to the render time results. Here you can see the samples per minute score across the three test scenes: monster, junkshop, and classroom.

Intel Core i7 13700K 450.2
Intel Core i5 13600K 347.8
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 310.5
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 232.8
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 225.9
Intel Core i5 13400F 199.7
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 178.6

Adobe Photoshop 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)

The Adobe suite has a couple of important tools that many creators and artists use. We will start with the Adobe Photoshop 2022. It has a built-in Puget System Standard Benchmark.

If you look at the overall scores, the Intel Core i5 13400F falls short in front of the Intel Core i5 13600K by about 10%.

Intel Core i7 13700K 1546
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 1460
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 1430
Intel Core i5 13600K 1356
Intel Core i5 13400F 1242
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 1199
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 970

Adobe Premier Pro 2022 Puget System Benchmark (Higher is Better)

Next application in the Adobe suite is the Premier Pro 2022. In this test, the Intel Core i5 13600K scores just shy of 1100 points. This is 160 points more than the Intel Core i5 13400F.

Intel Core i7 13700K 1189
Intel Core i5 13600K 1089
Intel Core i7 12700K 1013
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 999
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 948
Intel Core i5 13400F 923
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 902
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 755

7-Zip File Manager Compression (Higher is Better)

One of the popular and widely used open-source applications is the 7-Zip File Manager. It helps in archiving files. For this test, we are performing the built-in benchmark feature. Here is the result in million instructions per second (MIPS) for compressing using a standards 32 MB dictionary size and 10 passes.

Intel Core i7 13700K 144443
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 115469
Intel Core i5 13600K 123983
Intel Core i5 13400F 100251
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 90058
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 88658
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 72006

7-Zip File Manager Decompression (Higher is Better)

In decompression, which usually favors AMD Ryzen CPUs, the Intel Core i5 13600K finishes with over 127K MIPS. But the Intel Core i5 13400F couldn’t get past 86K MIPS.

Intel Core i7 13700K 159468
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 135879
Intel Core i5 13600K 127863
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 111026
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 103958
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 88969
Intel Core i5 13400F 86214

Chromium Code Compilation Time (Lower is Better)

Developers working on large projects need a stable multi-threaded system with a powerful CPU. So, we tested the code compilation performance by taking the open-source Chromium project code.

The performance of Intel Core i5 13600K is not that great as it could finish the compilation in just over 69 minutes. Even worse, the Intel Core i5 13400F finished the compilation in over 87 minutes.

Intel Core i7 13700K 54 min 29 sec
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 62 min 32 sec
Intel Core i5 13600K 69 min 19 sec
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 82 min 43 sec
Intel Core i5 13400F 87 min 22 sec
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 92 min 43 sec
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 124 min 55 sec

Corona 1.3 Render Time (Lower is Better)

The last “application” benchmark is the Corona 1.3, which is a high-quality shading engine for production rendering. Let us now see the rendering time of different Intel and AMD CPUs.

Intel Core i7 13700K 50 sec
Intel Core i5 13600K 65 sec
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 75 sec
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 88 sec
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 96 sec
Intel Core i5 13400F 100 sec
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 115 sec

Gaming Benchmarks

Let us move to some gaming performance. We tested some popular titles at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 (1080p) as anything beyond, the GPU will dominate the performance. We are running all the games in DirectX 12 with Ray Tracing and DLSS off.

Far Cry 6

  • Resolution: 1920 × 1080
  • DirectX 12
  • Game Setting: Ultra
  • DirectX Raytracing: Off

The first game is Far Cry 6. Here, the Intel Core i5 13600K shows its dominance over Intel Core i5 13400F as the former got shy of 150 fps while the latter could only push 135 fps. Here are the rounded off average frames and also 1% low fps.

CPU Average FPS 1% Low FPS (Min FPS)
Intel Core i7 13700K 163 118
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 156 104
Intel Core i5 13600K 148 105
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 147 101
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 146 100
Intel Core i5 13400F 136 100
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 116 74

Cyberpunk 2077

  • Resolution: 1920 × 1080
  • DirectX 12
  • Game Setting: Ultra
  • Texture: High
  • Ray Tracing: Off
  • DLSS: Off

Next, we have another popular title, Cyberpunk 2077. The story is the same, where the Intel Core i5 13600K can pump over 140 fps on average while the Intel Core i5 13400F struggle to push past 130 fps.

CPU Average FPS 1% Low FPS (Min FPS)
Intel Core i7 13700K 148 123
Intel Core i5 13600K 143 121
Intel Core i5 13400F 133 113
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 127 109
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 126 110
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 125 109
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 123 108

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

  • Resolution: 1920 × 1080
  • DirectX 12
  • Game Setting: High
  • DLSS: Off

Last but not least, we tested the Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Unsurprisingly, the results are once again similar. The Intel Core i5 13600K could easily push over 230 fps while the Intel Core i5 13400F could only get over 190 fps.

What surprised in this game is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D beating all the current gen Intel and AMD flagships. Based on this result, we are very excited to get our hands on the upcoming Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs with 3D V-Cache.

CPU Average FPS 1% Low FPS (Min FPS)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 280 178
Intel Core i7 13700K 254 161
Intel Core i5 13600K 233 152
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 233 145
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 230 139
Intel Core i5 13400F 192 134
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 184 110

Clock Speed

We ran the AIDA64 Stress Test for 10 minutes and here are the maximum frequency and average frequency of all cores.

CPU Maximum Frequency All-Core Average Frequency
Intel
Intel Core i7 13700K 5.4 GHz 5.3 GHz
Intel Core i5 13600K 5.1 GHz 5 GHz
Intel Core i5 13400F 4.6 GHz 4.4 GHz
AMD
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 5.5 GHz 5.3 GHz
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 5.4 GHz 5.3 GHz
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 4.5 GHz 4.3 GHz
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 4.6 GHz 4.6 GHz

CPU Temperature

During the same AIDA64 Stress Test, we monitored the CPU Temperatures with Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Liquid CPU Cooler. Here are the CPU temps for your reference.

CPU Max Temp Average Temp
Intel
Intel Core i7 13700K 92°C 69°C
Intel Core i5 13600K 98°C 73°C
Intel Core i5 13400F 58°C 51°C
AMD
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 87°C 84°C
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 83°C 80°C
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 78°C 75°C
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 80°C 68°C

Power Consumption

During the Blender render, we measured the CPU Package Power Draw using the HWiNFO tool. The following table consists of the peak CPU Package Power Draw as reported by HWiNFO.

Intel
Intel Core i7 13700K 245 Watts
Intel Core i5 13600K 220 Watts
Intel Core i5 13400F 92 Watts
AMD
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 143 Watts
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 120 Watts
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 116 Watts
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 78 Watts

Which is Better, Intel Core i5 13400F or Intel Core i5 13600K?

The retail price of both the Intel Core i5 13600K is $319 while it is $196 for the Intel Core i5 13400F. A clear $120 difference. We can see this difference even in performance.

From the above tests, it is clear that the Intel Core i5 13600K is worth spending the extra $100 odd bucks as you can easily get extra performance both in gaming as well as productivity applications.

The advantage of the Intel Core i5 13400F is it draws less power and runs way coolers than the Intel Core i5 13600K. For gaming or mild multi-threaded workloads, the Intel Core i5 13600K is a much better choice than the Intel Core i5 13400F.

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