2019-06-01_PC_Gamer

Core i5-8400

INTEL £170

Best mainstream CPU: great performance and price

Intel’s8thgenCoffee
Lakeprocessorshave
pushedthedesktop
Corei5from4-coreto6-core
territory,andtheresultis thatthe
Corei5-8400is anawesomeCPU
forgamingandothertasks.It has
higherclockspeedsthanthe
previousgeneration,and
generallymatchestheprevious
generationi7-7700Kin
performance.Asa bonus,youget
anappropriatecoolerinthebox,
somethingI’dliketoseeasan
optionwitheveryCPU.
Theonly9thGenCorei5for
thetimebeingis thei5-9600K,
whichis inmostrespectsthe
sameasthei5-8600K.It clocks

higherandhasanunlocked

multiplier,butdoesn’tincludea

cooler.Giventhepriceofthe

i5-8400,it’sa faircompromiseto

skipoverclockingandget

everythingyouneedinone

inexpensivebox.

Intesting,evenwitha GTX

1080 Ti,thei9-9900Kis only

aboutsixpercentfasteringames

at1080p.Thei5-8400is alsostill

fasterthaneveryRyzen

processorforgamingpurposes.

FastenoughforsingleGPU

Noaftermarketcoolerrequired

Nooverclocking

MinorbottleneckforRTX 2080 Ti

VERDICT

SPECSCORES: 6 /THREADS: 6 /BASECLOCK:3.8GHZ/TURBOCLOCK:4.0GHZ/OVERCLOCKING:NO/L3CACHE:
9MB/TDP:65W/PCIE3.0LANES: 16

3

Ryzen 5 2600X

AMD £180

Our favorite AMD CPU has six cores and a good price

If you’re after good

gaming performance

with an eye toward

streaming and other multi-

threaded uses, but you’re working

withina budget, AMD’s Ryzen 5

2600Xis an excellent choice. It

deliversnearly the same gaming

performance as the more

expensive 2700X, thanks to

similarstock clocks.

Aswith the Ryzen 7 2700 to

theright, consider this a

recommendation for either the

Ryzen5 2600X or the Ryzen 5

2600.Both are very similar,

especially when overclocked – I

measured only a small 50MHz

difference in maximum stable OC

during testing between the two. If

you want to run stock, I

recommend the 2600X and its

higher clocks, but for

overclocking the 2600 is the

better value.

I’ve found that the Spectre

and Meltdown patches have

reduced random IO SSD

performance quite a bit on Intel

platforms, and AMD is largely

unaffected. If you’re looking at a

fast M.2 drive keepthatinmind.

Awesomepricefor6-core/12-thread

Nearlyasfastingamesas2700X

StillslowerthanIntelingames

Modestoverclockingpotential

VERDICT

SPECSCORES: 6 / THREADS: 12 / BASE CLOCK: 3.6GHZ / TURBO CLOCK: 4.2GHZ / OVERCLOCKING: YES, 4.1GHZ

TYPICAL/L3CACHE: 16MB / TDP: 65W / PCIE 3.0 LANES: 20

4

GGROUP TEST