Home > CPU Comparison > Core i5 9400 or Ryzen 5 3600: what's better?

Intel Core i5 9400 vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600

31 out of 100
Intel Core i5 9400
VS
39 out of 100
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Intel Core i5 9400
AMD Ryzen 5 3600

We compared two 6-core desktop CPUs: the 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 9400 against the 3.6 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 3600. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
๐Ÿ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click โ€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
29.1
(Mediocre)
Value Index
104.9
(Excellent)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3600 and 9400
Advantages of Intel Core i5 9400
  • Includes an integrated GPU Intel UHD Graphics 630
Advantages of AMD Ryzen 5 3600
  • Has 23 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process โ€“ 7 versus 14 nanometers
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Newer PCI Express version โ€“ 4.0
  • 22% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 1662 vs 1363 points
  • Newer - released 6 months later
  • Around 6.08 GB/s (15%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 2% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.2 GHz vs 4.1 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Core i5 9400
vs
Ryzen 5 3600

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 388
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 2039
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Core i5 9400
1363
Ryzen 5 3600 +22%
1662
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 9400
5314
Ryzen 5 3600 +36%
7249
File compression 423.9 MB/sec 660.6 MB/sec
Clang compilation 38.7 Klines/sec 59 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 114.6 pages/sec 146 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 167 Mpixels/sec 207.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 141.1 pages/sec 143.3 pages/sec
Background blur 35.1 images/sec 37 images/sec
Photo processing 49.1 images/sec 54.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 7.01 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] โ€“ 1057 & 1134 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 9400
2419
Ryzen 5 3600 +6%
2559
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 9400
9368
Ryzen 5 3600 +89%
17667
Integer math 26.3 GOps/sec 48.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 22.7 GOps/sec 28.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 36M Primes/sec 109M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 16.3M Strings/sec 23.6M Strings/sec
Data encryption 2.9 GBytes/sec 13.9 GBytes/sec
Data compression 132 MBytes/sec 219.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 620 Frames/sec 1146 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 11.7B Matrices/sec 14.4B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] โ€“ 3036 & 37442 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 9400
80.24
Ryzen 5 3600 +69%
135.61

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt - 7.9 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 81.8 PPW 111.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 144.1 PPW 271.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.23 PPW 2.09 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i5 9400
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-16 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU1452 / 4659
Add View all (1)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-16 (abdou)Cinebench 2026388 / 2039
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-03-31 (Ike)Cinebench 202470 / 517
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-12-16 -> JeromeneilCinebench 202471 / 511
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-11-02 (BeastAsLow)Cinebench 202464 / 479
๐Ÿ“˜ 2025-10-17 (RandomStorm)Cinebench 202472 / 419
Add View all (15)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 9400 and AMD Ryzen 5 3600

General

Vendor Intel Amd
Released January 7, 2019 July 7, 2019
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Coffee Lake Zen 2 (Matisse)
Model number i5-9400 -
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 630 No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 5 3600 -
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 5 225 - AMD Ryzen 5 7600
AMD Ryzen CPU ranking (#163rd place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 6 6
P-Threads 6 12
Base Frequency (P) 2.9 GHz 3.6 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 4.1 GHz 4.2 GHz
Total
Total Cores 6 6
Total Threads 6 12
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 29x 36x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 64K (per core)
L2 Cache 256K (per core) 512K (per core)
L3 Cache 9MB (shared) 32MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No Yes

Package

Transistors - 3.8 billions
Fabrication Process 14 nm 7 nm
TDP (PL1) 65 W 65 W
Socket LGA-1151 AM4
Peak Temperature 100ยฐC 95ยฐC
Desktop CPU ranking (#152nd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 -
GPU Base Clock 350 MHz -
GPU Boost Clock 1050 MHz -
Shading Units 192 -
TMUs 24 -
ROPs 3 -
Execution Units 24 -
TGP 15 W -
iGPU FLOPS
Core i5 9400
0.4 TFLOPS
Ryzen 5 3600
n/a
See: Intel UHD Graphics 630 benchmarks

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-2666 - DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 41.6 GB/s 47.68 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i5 9400 official page AMD Ryzen 5 3600 official page
PCI Express Version 3.0 4.0
PCI Express Lanes 16 16

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
6 (11.8%)
45 (88.2%)
Total votes: 51

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6. AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs Intel Core i3 12100F (1)
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Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5 9400?
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