i3-1215U vs i5-9400F

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Aggregate performance score

Core i5-9400F
2019
6 cores / 6 threads, 65 Watt
5.96
Core i3-1215U
2022
6 cores / 8 threads, 15 Watt
6.82
+14.4%

Core i3-1215U outperforms Core i5-9400F by a moderate 14% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

Comparing Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking11081029
Place by popularity2417
Cost-effectiveness evaluation9.41no data
Market segmentDesktop processorLaptop
SeriesIntel Core i5Intel Alder Lake-M
Power efficiency8.6843.03
Architecture codenameCoffee Lake-R (2018−2019)Alder Lake-U (2022)
Release date7 January 2019 (5 years ago)23 February 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$182no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

no data

Detailed specifications

Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores6 (Hexa-Core)6 (Hexa-Core)
Threads68
Base clock speed2.9 GHz1.2 GHz
Boost clock speed4.1 GHz4.4 GHz
Bus typeDMI 3.0no data
Bus rate4 × 8 GT/sno data
Multiplier29no data
L1 cache385 KB80K (per core)
L2 cache1.5 MB1.25 MB (per core)
L3 cache9 MB (shared)10 MB (shared)
Chip lithography14 nmIntel 7 nm
Die size149 mm2no data
Maximum core temperature100 °C100 °C
Maximum case temperature (TCase)72 °Cno data
64 bit support++
Windows 11 compatibility++

Compatibility

Information on Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration1 (Uniprocessor)1
SocketFCLGA1151FCBGA1744
Power consumption (TDP)65 Watt15 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensionsIntel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2Intel® SSE4.1, Intel® SSE4.2, Intel® AVX2
AES-NI++
FMA-+
AVX++
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)++
Speed Shiftno data+
Turbo Boost Technology2.0no data
Hyper-Threading Technology-+
TSX-+
Idle States+no data
Thermal Monitoring++
Flex Memory Accessno data+
Deep Learning Boost-+

Security technologies

Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT-+
EDB++
Secure Key++
MPX+-
Identity Protection+-
SGXYes with Intel® MEno data
OS Guard++

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U are enumerated here.

VT-d++
VT-x++
EPT++

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory typesDDR4-2666DDR4, DDR5
Maximum memory size128 GB64 GB
Max memory channels22
Maximum memory bandwidth42.671 GB/sno data

Graphics specifications

General parameters of integrated GPUs, if any.

Integrated graphics cardno dataIntel UHD Graphics for 12th Gen Intel Processors
Quick Sync Video-+
Graphics max frequencyno data1.1 GHz
Execution Unitsno data64

Graphics interfaces

Available interfaces and connections of Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U integrated GPUs.

Number of displays supportedno data4

Graphics image quality

Maximum display resolutions supported by Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U integrated GPUs, including resolutions over different interfaces.

Max resolution over HDMI 1.4no data4096 x 2304 @ 60Hz
Max resolution over eDPno data4096 x 2304 @ 120Hz
Max resolution over DisplayPortno data7680 x 4320 @ 60Hz

Graphics API support

APIs supported by Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U integrated GPUs, sometimes API versions are included.

DirectXno data12.1
OpenGLno data4.6

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U.

PCIe version3.04.0
PCI Express lanes1620

Synthetic benchmark performance

Various benchmark results of the processors in comparison. Overall score is measured in points in 0-100 range, higher is better.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

i5-9400F 5.96
i3-1215U 6.82
+14.4%

Passmark

Passmark CPU Mark is a widespread benchmark, consisting of 8 different types of workload, including integer and floating point math, extended instructions, compression, encryption and physics calculation. There is also one separate single-threaded scenario measuring single-core performance.

i5-9400F 9468
i3-1215U 10830
+14.4%

GeekBench 5 Single-Core

GeekBench 5 Single-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses only a single CPU core.

i5-9400F 1404
i3-1215U 1844
+31.3%

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core

GeekBench 5 Multi-Core is a cross-platform application developed in the form of CPU tests that independently recreate certain real-world tasks with which to accurately measure performance. This version uses all available CPU cores.

i5-9400F 4908
+0.5%
i3-1215U 4884

Cinebench 10 32-bit single-core

Cinebench R10 is an ancient ray tracing benchmark for processors by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. Its single core version uses just one CPU thread to render a futuristic looking motorcycle.

i5-9400F 6490
i3-1215U 7879
+21.4%

Cinebench 10 32-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 10 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R10 using all the processor threads. Possible number of threads is limited by 16 in this version.

i5-9400F 31523
+62.2%
i3-1215U 19430

wPrime 32

wPrime 32M is a math multi-thread processor test, which calculates square roots of first 32 million integer numbers. Its result is measured in seconds, so that the less is benchmark result, the faster the processor.

i5-9400F 6.76
i3-1215U 3.41
+98.2%

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 11.5 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R11.5 which uses all the processor threads. A maximum of 64 threads is supported in this version.

i5-9400F 11
+2.5%
i3-1215U 11

Cinebench 15 64-bit multi-core

Cinebench Release 15 Multi Core is a variant of Cinebench R15 which uses all the processor threads.

i5-9400F 984
+21.6%
i3-1215U 809

Cinebench 15 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R15 (standing for Release 15) is a benchmark made by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version (sometimes called Single-Thread) only uses a single processor thread to render a room full of reflective spheres and light sources.

i5-9400F 173
i3-1215U 218
+25.7%

Cinebench 11.5 64-bit single-core

Cinebench R11.5 is an old benchmark by Maxon, authors of Cinema 4D. It was superseded by later versions of Cinebench, which use more modern variants of Cinema 4D engine. The Single Core version loads a single thread with ray tracing to render a glossy room full of crystal spheres and light sources.

i5-9400F 1.95
i3-1215U 2.79
+43.1%

TrueCrypt AES

TrueCrypt is a discontinued piece of software that was widely used for on-the-fly-encryption of disk partitions, now superseded by VeraCrypt. It contains several embedded performance tests, one of them being TrueCrypt AES, which measures data encryption speed using AES algorithm. Result is encryption speed in gigabytes per second.

i5-9400F 5.2
i3-1215U 11.6
+123%

WinRAR 4.0

WinRAR 4.0 is an outdated version of a popular file archiver. It contains an internal speed test, using 'Best' setting of RAR compression on large chunks of randomly generated data. Its results are measured in kilobytes per second.

i5-9400F 5794
i3-1215U 7944
+37.1%

x264 encoding pass 2

x264 Pass 2 is a slower variant of x264 video compression that produces a variable bit rate output file, which results in better quality since the higher bit rate is used when it is needed more. Benchmark result is still measured in frames per second.  

i5-9400F 64
+27.9%
i3-1215U 50

x264 encoding pass 1

x264 version 4.0 is a video encoding benchmark uses MPEG 4 x264 compression method to compress a sample HD (720p) video. Pass 1 is a faster variant that produces a constant bit rate output file. Its result is measured in frames per second, which means how many frames of the source video file were encoded per second.  

i5-9400F 234
+17.4%
i3-1215U 199

Geekbench 5.5 Multi-Core

i5-9400F 5715
+8.7%
i3-1215U 5259

Blender(-)

i5-9400F 469
i3-1215U 665
+41.8%

Geekbench 5.5 Single-Core

i5-9400F 1139
i3-1215U 1539
+35.1%

7-Zip Single

i5-9400F 4678
i3-1215U 5032
+7.6%

7-Zip

i5-9400F 25639
+12%
i3-1215U 22883

WebXPRT 3

i5-9400F 211
i3-1215U 312
+47.9%

Gaming performance

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 5.96 6.82
Recency 7 January 2019 23 February 2022
Threads 6 8
Power consumption (TDP) 65 Watt 15 Watt

i3-1215U has a 14.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 3 years, 33.3% more threads, and 333.3% lower power consumption.

The Core i3-1215U is our recommended choice as it beats the Core i5-9400F in performance tests.

Note that Core i5-9400F is a desktop processor while Core i3-1215U is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions on choice between Core i5-9400F and Core i3-1215U, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite CPU.


Intel Core i5-9400F
Core i5-9400F
Intel Core i3-1215U
Core i3-1215U

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Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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