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

Intel Core i5 9400F vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600

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

We compared two 6-core desktop CPUs: the 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 9400F 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.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
35.3
(Mediocre)
Value Index
104.9
(Excellent)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 3600 and 9400F
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 – 7 versus 14 nanometers
  • Unlocked multiplier
  • Newer PCI Express version – 4.0
  • Newer - released 6 months later
  • Around 6.08 GB/s (15%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • 13% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 1662 vs 1474 points
  • 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 9400F
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 9400F
1474
Ryzen 5 3600 +13%
1662
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Core i5 9400F
5302
Ryzen 5 3600 +37%
7249
File compression 449.4 MB/sec 660.6 MB/sec
Clang compilation 34.8 Klines/sec 59 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 127.6 pages/sec 146 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 141.6 Mpixels/sec 207.8 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 142.6 pages/sec 143.3 pages/sec
Background blur 31.4 images/sec 37 images/sec
Photo processing 63.4 images/sec 54.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 6.9 Mpixels/sec 12.9 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1011 & 1134 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Core i5 9400F
2422
Ryzen 5 3600 +6%
2559
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Core i5 9400F
9463
Ryzen 5 3600 +87%
17667
Integer math 26.1 GOps/sec 48.5 GOps/sec
Floating point math 22.5 GOps/sec 28.6 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 38M Primes/sec 109M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 16.2M Strings/sec 23.6M Strings/sec
Data encryption 2.9 GBytes/sec 13.9 GBytes/sec
Data compression 132.5 MBytes/sec 219.6 MBytes/sec
Physics 653 Frames/sec 1146 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 11.7B Matrices/sec 14.4B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 8779 & 37442 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
Core i5 9400F
77.22
Ryzen 5 3600 +76%
135.61

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 5.5 PPW 7.9 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 81.6 PPW 111.5 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 145.6 PPW 271.8 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.19 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 9400F
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-23 (Will)Cinebench 202467 / 356
πŸ“˜ 2024-07-15 (SherifMagdy)Cinebench 202465 / 378
Add View all (2)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-16 (abdou)Cinebench 2026388 / 2039
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-31 (Ike)Cinebench 202470 / 517
πŸ“˜ 2025-12-16 -> JeromeneilCinebench 202471 / 511
πŸ“˜ 2025-11-02 (BeastAsLow)Cinebench 202464 / 479
πŸ“˜ 2025-10-17 (RandomStorm)Cinebench 202472 / 419
Add View all (15)

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i5 9400F 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 i5-9400F -
Integrated GPU No No
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 5 3600 -
Successor - - 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 100Β°C 95Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (175th and 152nd place)

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 9400F 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
59 (23.2%)
195 (76.8%)
Total votes: 254

Competitors

1. AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs AMD Ryzen 5 7600
2. AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs Apple M1
3. AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs Apple M3
4. AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600
5. AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500 (5)
6. AMD Ryzen 5 3600 vs Intel Core i3 12100F (1)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5 9400F?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
EnglishРусский