Intel Core i5-10400 vs Intel Core i7-9700

The Intel Core i7-9700 (Coffee Lake S Refresh, 9th Generation, Q3 2019) was developed for demanding desktop applications.

The Intel Core i5-10400 (Comet Lake S, 10th Generation, Q2 2020) targets the mainstream market with balanced performance.

Both are manufactured using the 14 nm process and integrate Intel UHD Graphics 630, support PCIe 3.0, and offer 43 GB/s memory bandwidth.The Intel Core i7-9700 features 8 cores and 8 threads with 12 MB L3 cache. The Intel Core i5-10400 offers 6 cores and 12 threads (Hyper-Threading) also with 12 MB L3 cache.

Single-core performance is very similar for both, with a slight advantage for the Intel Core i7-9700. In multi-core scenarios, such as in Cinebench R23 and Geekbench 6, the Intel Core i7-9700 significantly outperforms the Intel Core i5-10400 by over 10 percent, due to its physical cores.For gaming, both processors deliver good performance.

The Intel Core i7-9700 can achieve a slight advantage thanks to higher clock speeds and more physical cores. Both have a TDP of 65 watts, which means comparable power consumption. As older models, their prices are primarily evaluated on the used market.The Intel Core i7-9700 is ideal for users who need high multi-core performance in compute-intensive applications.

The Intel Core i5-10400 is a good choice for a balanced system that offers solid all-round performance for gaming and multitasking at an often lower price.