Intel Core i3-7100 vs Intel Core i5-10400

Core i3-7100 vs Core i5-10400 specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i5-10400 beats the Core i3-7100 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-7100 in all gaming tests too.

When comparing core counts for these CPUs, we notice that the Core i5-10400 has significantly more cores with 6 cores compared to the Core i3-7100 that has 2 cores. It also has more threads than the Core i3-7100. These CPUs have different clock speeds. Indeed, the Core i3-7100 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i5-10400. A Core i3-7100 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i5-10400 CPU because of its slightly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. In terms of cache, the Core i5-10400 has significantly more L2 cache when compared to the Core i3-7100. The Core i5-10400 also has significantly more L3 cache.

Most CPUs have more threads than cores. This technology, colloquially called hyperthreading, improves performance by splitting a core into multiple virtual ones. This provides more efficient utilisation of a core. Indeed, the Core i3-7100 has more threads than cores. Each physical core is split into multiple threads.