AMD Ryzen 5 1600 vs Intel Core i5-8400
The AMD Ryzen 5 1600 and Intel Core i5-8400 sit within a few percent of each other on our index. Treat them as equivalent in raw performance and decide on price, power draw and — for graphics cards — video memory instead.
| Specification | AMD Ryzen 5 1600 | Intel Core i5-8400 |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | AMD | Intel |
| Generation | Zen | 8th Gen (Coffee Lake) |
| Multi-thread index | 60 | 60 |
| Single-thread index | 72 | 81 (better) |
| Cores | 6 | 6 |
| Threads | 12 (better) | 6 |
| Base clock | 3.2 GHz (better) | 2.8 GHz |
| Boost clock | 3.6 GHz | 4.0 GHz (better) |
| Socket | AM4 | LGA1151 |
| TDP | 65 W | 65 W |
| Release year | 2017 | 2017 |
| Integrated graphics | No | Yes |
Green marks the stronger figure for that row only — for power draw and PSU requirement, lower is treated as better. Performance indexes are CanMyPcPlay estimates; read how they are derived.
Which should you pick?
- Games follow single-thread. For gaming, the single-thread index matters more than core count.
- Creative work follows multi-thread. Rendering, compiling and encoding scale with cores.
- Sockets differ. Moving between platforms usually means a new motherboard and often new memory.