Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

If you’rebuying or build a unexampled computer in 2024 , your two main CPU choices areAMD ’s Ryzen 7000 seriesor Intel ’s 13th and14th generations . Two of the upright budget mainframe from those two lines are the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and Intel ’s Core i5 - 14400 . Both are work up on the latest appendage and architectures from each society , and come with plenty of cores and gamey clock speeds . They ’re also far more power efficient than the top chips .

To aid you adjudicate which is the best CPU for you , countenance ’s take a look at how the 7600 and 14400 .

Pads on the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

Pricing and availability

The AMD Ryzen 7600 was initially launched in January 2023 alongside the other non - 10 C.P.U. from its contemporaries . It debut with a price rag of $ 229 , which it has mostly maintained to this day . However , the eminent - end 7600X has occur down in price and can often be come up for a comparable investiture , so it ’s always deserving check that Leontyne Price before grease one’s palms a 7600 .

The Intel Core i5 - 14400 set in motion in January 2024 , alongside the other non - K variants of the fourteenth generation with a recommended retail price of $ 221 . Most retailers at the fourth dimension of written material have it lean at $ 270 , though many are discounting it to $ 240 . The 14400F is available at a slight discount — typically cheeseparing to $ 210 — but it does n’t have onboard computer graphic .

Both the 7600 and 14400 are widely available at a chain of mountains of retail merchant .

Specs

Since these chips are from two unlike manufacturers with different design ideas , their specs are quite distinct . The Ryzen 7600 uses a traditional single - inwardness architecture , Zen 4 , for all six of its cores , with 12 - thread documentation thanks to simultaneous multithreading . The Intel CPU , on the other helping hand , has six performance cores , with an additional four efficiency gist , giving it a total of 10 , plus a thread support of 16 . That may give it a pegleg up in some multi - threaded scenario , but is unconvincing to have much impact in play , where the E cores are seldom employ .

Clock amphetamine are pretty corresponding at boost , but it ’s notable that the Intel CPU ’s base clock is far lower . Cache is high on the AMD CPU , while preserve a significantly low TDP . That AMD CPU will expend more business leader than that when boost , but it is unlikely to die 90 W .

Performance

The performance numbers for Intel ’s Core i5 14400 are quite limited at the fourth dimension of writing , as it ’s a relatively young chip and not one of the iconic super acid - serial CPUs that draw all the limelight that hail with a new generation of Intel CPUs . Still , we do have some provisionary result , and though they ’re not on the button tough , they are n’t that telling , either .

HWCoolingfound it put up Cinebench R23 single- and multi - weave grudge of 1,772 and 15,848 , respectively . The Ryzen 5 7600 managed 1,833 and 14,639 , respectively . That ’s about what we ’d await the disparity to be , considering the extra core in the 14400 giving it a leg up in multi - threading . The 14400 was around 10 % quicker in productiveness software like Blender , but in all shell was only a few percentage sound than the last - generation 13400 .

In play , however , the 7600 really seems to ramp before . InCounter - bang : Global Offensiveit handle over 653 frame per second ( fps ) in HWCooling ’s testing , where the 14400 wangle just 442 fps . That ’s also actually less than the 13400 managed , with 446 fps . In a more demanding , modernistic game likeTotal War Saga : Troy , the , Core i5 14400 managed a 199 fps norm at 1080p , where the 7600 achieved a more - telling 229 fps

We ’ll add more result here from a wider array of sources when we have them , but it seems fair to say that in heavy multi - threaded workload , the 14400 has an advantage , but in single - threaded and gaming scenario , the Ryzen 5 7600 throw a slight lead , and even the last - genesis 13400 is relatively competitive with its newfangled counterpart .

How’s the upgrade path?

Whenever you grease one’s palms a novel processor or build a new personal computer , it ’s always important to view what you might kick upstairs it with in the hereafter . That ’s not to say you should always be reckon to the next matter , but upgradability is a agent in any PC build , so ensure yours has somewhere to go without needing a Brobdingnagian overhaul is a wise move .

In the case of the Ryzen 5 7600 , the world is your oyster . With this central processor , you ’re sit at the basement of a fresh socket generation ( AM5 ) , which AMD has pledged to support for several more generations from now . That intend not only do you have the intact Ryzen 7000 range to elevate to — let in the excellent7800X3Dgaming CPU — but anything from the next few generations that comes along . You probably wo n’t even have to elevate your motherboard beyond a BIOS update , andyour DDR5 memoryshould be serious for years to come .

The Core i5 - 14400 is a different story . Intel is switching to a fresh socket design for its 15th propagation , so you’re able to only advance this flake to higher - end 14000 - series processor . While the14600 K and high - end modelswill give a large bump in performance , they are not very efficient and will speedily lessen behind future generations of CPUs from either camp . Zen 5andArrow Lakeare already looking very impressive .

If you purchase the 14400 , plan to snap up a 14600 K at some point in the hereafter , but the high - end options are a heavy sell unless you get them at a usurious discount .

14400 vs 7600: Which CPU is the best?

The Core i5 - 14400 might be the best Intel CPU of its generation in term of its bang - for - the - buck performance , but when it ’s sit down alongside power - thirsty hogg like the 14900 K and 14700 K , that ’s not say much . It still draws right smart too much power , is n’t that much in effect than the last - multiplication 13400 , and has very fiddling in the way of upgrade prospects .

It is the faster CPU in terms of productivity , though , so if you contrive to work and play with your PC , then a Core i5 14400 might be worth your while . However , everywhere else , the Ryzen 5 7600 hold a real advantage . It ’s comparably priced , offers private-enterprise performance in multi - threaded workloads , and storms ahead in most games , with a pregnant lead in frame rate — which at this price is even more important .

It ’s also more power effective , and has all the upgrade potential in the populace . If you ’re looking to play biz with your new microcomputer , it ’s the better CPU — especially since you’re able to buy the Ryzen 5 7600X for a similar cost , and that micro chip is a little spot quicker , as our examination record .