Ryzen 5 1400 vs Core i5-6500

Gaming speed, cores and clocks

On our gaming index the Ryzen 5 1400 scores 22 and the Core i5-6500 scores 21, about 5% faster for gaming. That gap is small and mostly shows up at 1080p with a very fast graphics card.

The Ryzen 5 1400 has 4 cores and 8 threads, and the Core i5-6500 has 4 cores and 4 threads. Core counts are the same, so cache size and clock speed decide the difference. Boost clocks are 3.4 GHz and 3.6 GHz.

Platform, power and price

The Ryzen 5 1400 uses the AM4 socket and the Core i5-6500 uses LGA1151, 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 65 W for the second. That is close enough that cooling needs will be similar.

At launch the Ryzen 5 1400 cost $169 and the Core i5-6500 $192, which gives 13.0 and 10.9 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 Ryzen 5 1400 can feed a card up to the Arc A580 before it holds the card back by more than 10 percent. The Core i5-6500 reaches the Radeon RX 5600 XT. Both chips are in the same range for graphics card pairing.

Choose the Ryzen 5 1400 if you want the faster gaming chip and the same or more cores. Choose the Core i5-6500 if you would rather spend the difference on a graphics card, which does more for frame rates in most games.