Intel
Intel Core i5-11400F
The graphics-free i5-11400: identical six Cypress Cove cores, PCIe 4.0 and a boxed cooler for about $25 less. It is the one LGA1200 chip still worth buying outright in 2026 — new stock and used units both sell cheap, and it pairs with an inexpensive B560 board and a discrete GPU.
Pros
- Cheapest route to 6 cores / 12 threads with CPU-provided PCIe 4.0
- Single-thread performance close to an i7-10700K for a fraction of the price
- Boxed cooler included, and 65 W stock behaviour keeps it quiet
- Official DDR4-3200 with memory overclocking allowed on B560
- Power limits can be raised on B560/Z590 for a large multi-thread gain
Cons
- No integrated graphics — a failed GPU leaves you with no display for troubleshooting
- Locked multiplier; tuning is limited to power limits and memory
- 2.6 GHz base means multi-thread results swing widely with the motherboard's power settings
- Six cores is the floor for modern multi-threaded workloads
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the Intel Core i5-11400F
General
- Announced
- 2021
- Socket
- LGA1200
- Process
- 14 nm
- Base TDP
- 65 W
- Max turbo power
- 154 W
- Unlocked multiplier
- No
- Cooler included
- Yes
Cores & Clocks
- Cores
- 6
- Performance cores
- 6
- Efficiency cores
- 0
- Threads
- 12
- Base clock
- 2.6 GHz
- Boost clock
- 4.4 GHz
- L2 cache
- 3 MB
- L3 cache
- 12 MB
Memory
- Memory support
- DDR4-3200
- Max memory
- 128 GB
- Memory channels
- 2
Platform
- PCIe version
- 4
- CPU PCIe lanes
- 20
Benchmarks
- Geekbench 6 (single)
- 1,560
- Geekbench 6 (multi)
- 6,300
- Cinebench R23 (single)
- 1,330
- Cinebench R23 (multi)
- 10,200
- PassMark
- 17,000
Quick answers
Is the Intel Core i5-11400F good in 2026?
The Intel Core i5-11400F earns an Inno Score of 37.2/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. The graphics-free i5-11400: identical six Cypress Cove cores, PCIe 4.0 and a boxed cooler for about $25 less. It is the one LGA1200 chip still worth buying outright in 2026 — new stock and used units both sell cheap, and it pairs with an inexpensive B560 board and a discrete GPU.
What are the key specs of the Intel Core i5-11400F?
Cores: 6 · Threads: 12 · Boost clock: 4.4 GHz · Socket: LGA1200
What are the closest alternatives to the Intel Core i5-11400F?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Core i5-11400, Intel Core i7-9700K, Intel Core i7-8700K — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.