Core i5-12400F vs Ryzen 5 5500
Compare the Core i5-12400F and Ryzen 5 5500 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 Ryzen 5 5500 is the better value, though the Core i5-12400F is the faster gaming chip.
- Core i5-12400F is about 37% faster for gaming at 1080p (gaming index 53.0 vs 38.7).
- Core i5-12400F is roughly 9% faster in multi-core work, an edge in rendering, encoding and compiling.
- Ryzen 5 5500 is the cheaper chip right now, by roughly 82%.
- Ryzen 5 5500 delivers about 33% more gaming performance per dollar.
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 Ryzen 5 5500 gives about 33% more gaming performance per dollar at today’s prices.
Full platform cost
A CPU’s real cost includes the cheapest in-stock motherboard that can run it and, when the chip doesn’t bundle one, a cooler that can handle it. Here is the lowest-priced complete platform for each, and the gaming performance you get per platform dollar.
- Platform total
- $235.57
- Platform total
- $168.52
Cheapest complete platform (lower is better)
Gaming performance per platform dollar (higher is better)
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
Ryzen 5 5500from $84.93
| Retailer | Availability | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | In stock | $84.93 |  |
| Newegg | In stock | $93.95 |  |
Core i5-12400Ffrom $154.99 (OEM / tray)
| Retailer | Availability | Price | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| NeweggOEM / tray | In stock | $154.99 | |
| Newegg | In stock | $159.05 | |
| memoryCOEM / tray | In stock | $164.80 |  |
OEM / tray is the bare processor: no retail box and no cooler in the package, and the warranty is handled by the seller. The chip itself is the same.
More comparisons
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