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One of Intel’s best budget gaming CPUs, the Core i5 13400F, is down to £189 at Tech Next Day in the UK – compared to £238 for the cheapest 12400/12400F model on Amazon UK. This is a great price for this level of performance, with a 10-core and 16-thread design, max turbo frequency of 4.6GHz and of course the same socket 1700 compatibility as other 12th and 13th-gen Intel CPUs.
Note that to get this price, you’ll need to use code TND-10 at the checkout – a long-running code that seems to apply to other products as well, FYI.
It’s important to note that Intel is a better value option than AMD in some respects, at least when it comes down to each firm’s latest CPUs. Ryzen 7000 requires DDR5 RAM and more expensive motherboards, so you end up paying a bit more for a complete system than you do for an equivalent Intel CPU, which supports cheaper DDR4 in addition to DDR5 – and seems to have more affordable motherboards as a result. That doesn’t matter as much at the top end, where the likes of the 7950X or 13900K are likely to be more expensive than your motherboard, but for a more budget-oriented to mid-range spec, higher motherboard and RAM prices can eat into your budget substantially.
In terms of performance, I’ve actually got a 13400F here but haven’t put it through the ringer yet. Reports elsewhere suggest that it is significantly faster than the outgoing 12400F, thanks to its extra E cores, a 200MHz higher turbo speed, 2MB extra cache and 31W higher turbo power limit, but not quite on par with the 13600K and above that use the new Raptor Lake architecture compared to the older Alder Lake. However, most of this stuff only matters if you’re gaming at 1080p and/or at a high refresh rate, so for 1440p or 4K gaming the 13400F is more than enough – and so is the 12400F, for that matter.
As usual, it’s important to note that the -F suffix means that the 13400F doesn’t have integrated graphics, so you’ll need to be using a discrete graphics card in your system. If you do need the iGPU, then the 13400 (no suffix) is what you want!
I hope this deals post was helpful, and stay tuned for many more posts this week!