I'm comparing an Intel Core 5 120F with an i5-14400F for a gaming build using 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory and an Nvidia RTX 5060. I found the Core 5 120F at a very low price, but there are hardly any benchmarks available. The i5-14400F would cost about $150 more. How noticeable would the difference be in actual games, and would paying extra for the 14400F be worthwhile?
3 Answers
I’d use the cheaper CPU and put the savings toward a stronger graphics card or more storage. A GPU upgrade, such as moving to a higher-tier 5060 model with more VRAM, is much more likely to improve gaming performance than replacing the 120F with the 14400F.
The Core 5 120F is essentially a rebranded or lightly adjusted i5-12400F. The i5-14400F is faster overall because it has higher clocks, more cache, and four additional efficiency cores, but the gap is not huge for a typical gaming system.
With an RTX 5060, spending $150 more on the processor probably won’t produce a noticeable improvement in most games. At 1440p especially, you’ll usually be limited by the graphics card first. The Core 5 120F should be perfectly adequate if it’s priced very low.
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