Question Will i3 and i5 give the same performance if they have the same clock speed and cores?

[Mr.snobdam]

Im asking because i3 seems to be a lot cheaper than i5.

 

[sizzling]

Which exact i3 and i5?

 

[Mr.snobdam]

i was thinking of getting
Intel Core i5-10400F

or the
Intel Core i3-10100F
i know the i3 only has 4 cores but im only gonna use it for small games so i care mostly about single core performance
and the i3 is a lot cheaper.

 

[KyaraM]

Which i3 and i5 are we talking, exactly? Clock speed isn't everything, if, for example, the i5 is a 10400 and the i3 a 12100, the 12100 would be massively faster single- and slightly faster in multi-core. Also, what do you mean by same cores? Same generation? Then the i5 is alwaysbetter since it got more cores and higher clocks anyways. We need a bit more info on what you want to know.

 

[Mr.snobdam]

Which i3 and i5 are we talking, exactly? Clock speed isn't everything, if, for example, the i5 is a 10400 and the i3 a 12100, the 12100 would be massively faster single- and slightly faster in multi-core. Also, what do you mean by same cores? Same generation? Then the i5 is alwaysbetter since it got more cores and higher clocks anyways. We need a bit more info on what you want to know.

Intel Core i3-10100F seems to be a good i3 that i could find for a low price.
Intel Core i5-10400F woud be my pick for the i5 which is a lot more expensive.
i know the i5 has more cores but im mainly going for single core performance and they have pretty much the same clock speed.

 

[KyaraM]

Intel Core i3-10100F seems to be a good i3 that i could find for a low price.
Intel Core i5-10400F woud be my pick for the i5 which is a lot more expensive.
i know the i5 has more cores but im mainly going for single core performance and they have pretty much the same clock speed.

The 12100F I mentioned above would sit between both in price and stop both in performance. I think by around 40% compaired to the 10400 and more for the i3. If you have a GPU, you could get the 12100F plus board for around 200 bucks. If you need the integrated graphics, I would probably go with the 10400. Games (if that's what you aim at) scale better with more cores, too, so cheapening out on that only makes sense when the difference is as big as between the 12100 and 10400. It's not between the 10100 and 10400.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I agree on a budget get the i3 12100. Never owned one but the reviews I’ve seen it looks like a decent cpu for it’s price.

 

[Math Geek]

i was thinking of getting
Intel Core i5-10400F

or the
Intel Core i3-10100F
i know the i3 only has 4 cores but im only gonna use it for small games so i care mostly about single core performance
and the i3 is a lot cheaper.

these 2 are the same generation chips. which means single core performance is pretty much the same at the same clock speed. so if the one with less cores is enough cores for you, then it would be ok for your purpose.

others are pointing out that the newer 12000 series chip is a decent step up in single core performance vs the 10000 series.

do you already have the mobo and such for this or is it a new build? with a budget in mind we can offer some options so you can get the most bang for the buck. there are some solid choices out there in the budget realm with amd having some great choices as well. total platform cost is more important than the cpu itself if you have to also buy the mobo, ram, cooling etc etc