Core i5-11400F vs Ryzen 5 3600X

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

The Core i5-11400F and the Ryzen 5 3600X are within a few percent of each other for gaming. In a game, you will not see the difference.

The Core i5-11400F has 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Ryzen 5 3600X has 6 cores and 12 threads. Core counts are the same, so cache size and clock speed decide the difference. Boost clocks are 4.4 GHz and 4.4 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Core i5-11400F uses the LGA1200 socket and the Ryzen 5 3600X uses AM4, so they need different motherboards, and often different memory. When you compare prices, count the board as well as the chip.

Rated power is 65 W for the first and 95 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Core i5-11400F cost $157 and the Ryzen 5 3600X $249, which gives 30.6 and 18.9 points of gaming performance per $100. Today's prices will differ.

Which graphics cards each one can feed, and which to buy

At 1080p the Core i5-11400F can feed a card up to the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Ryzen 5 3600X reaches the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Core i5-11400F if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Ryzen 5 3600X if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.