Intel Core i5-9500 vs Intel Core i3-540

Core i5-9500 vs Core i3-540 specs and performance

In our benchmarks, the Core i5-9500 beats the Core i3-540 in overall performance. Furthermore, our gaming benchmark shows that it also outperforms the Core i3-540 in all gaming tests too.

In terms of the number of cores of each of these CPUs, the Core i5-9500 has significantly more cores than the Core i3-540. Indeed, the Core i5-9500 has 6 cores compared to 2 cores found in the Core i3-540. It also has more threads than the Core i3-540. With our hardware info, we find that the Core i3-540 has a slightly higher clock speed than the Core i5-9500. A Core i5-9500 CPU outputs less heat than a Core i3-540 CPU because of its slightly lower TDP. This measures the amount of heat they output and can be used to estimate power consumption.

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 i5-9500 has the same number of threads as cores. This means the the CPU does not support hyperthreading.