Intel Core i5-8400 vs Intel Core i9-9980HK

Core i5-8400 vs Core i9-9980HK comparison

Our benchmark analysis concludes that the Core i5-8400 performs better than the Core i9-9980HK. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i9-9980HK in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i9-9980HK has slightly more cores than the Core i5-8400. Indeed, the Core i9-9980HK has 8 cores compared to 6 cores found in the Core i5-8400. It also has more threads than the Core i5-8400. Our comparison shows that the Core i5-8400 has a slightly higher clock speed compared to the Core i9-9980HK. Despite this, the Core i9-9980HK has a slightly higher turbo speed. The Core i9-9980HK outputs less heat than Core i5-8400 thanks to a significantly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption. In terms of cache, the Core i9-9980HK has slightly more L2 cache when compared to the Core i5-8400. The Core i9-9980HK 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. For instance, the Core i5-8400 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.