Core i5-10400 vs Core i3-10100F
Compare the Core i5-10400 and Core i3-10100F on real gaming and productivity benchmarks, full specifications, live retailer prices and performance-per-dollar, then jump straight to the cheapest in-stock option.
The short answer
The Core i3-10100F is the better value, though the Core i5-10400 is the faster gaming chip.
- Core i5-10400 is about 11% faster for gaming at 1080p (gaming index 37.5 vs 33.9).
- Core i5-10400 is roughly 34% faster in multi-core work, an edge in rendering, encoding and compiling.
- Core i3-10100F is the cheaper chip right now, by roughly 125%.
- Core i3-10100F delivers about 103% more gaming performance per dollar.
- Core i5-10400 has more cores (6C/12T vs 4C/8T), which helps in heavily threaded workloads.
Gaming performance
CPU-bound gaming score: a geometric mean of in-game frame rates at 1080p, normalized so the fastest gaming CPU we track = 100.
Does the CPU matter at 1440p or 4K? Much less. At higher resolutions the graphics card sets the frame rate, so the gap between two CPUs shrinks — often to nothing. The 1080p figure above is the demanding case, where the CPU is stressed and the difference actually shows.
Performance per dollar
Gaming index divided by the current lowest price — higher is better value. This moves with the market as prices change day to day.
The Core i3-10100F gives about 103% more gaming performance per dollar at today’s prices.
Full platform cost
A complete-platform price needs a live CPU price and an in-stock compatible motherboard on both sides. We can’t build one for Core i5-10400 and Core i3-10100F right now, which is common for older sockets like AM4 where we don’t track current boards. The gaming, value and specs comparisons still apply.
Specs head-to-head
Productivity & compute
Efficiency
Gaming performance per watt (gaming index per 100W of TDP) — higher means more frames for the heat and power.
Where to buy
Core i3-10100Ffrom $79.99
| Retailer | Availability | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newegg | In stock | $79.99 |  |
| Amazon | In stock | $79.99 |  |
Core i5-10400from $179.95
| Retailer | Availability | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | In stock | $179.95 | |
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