AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and 3600X Series Unlocked vs Intel Core i5 8400

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is one of the very best CPUs that one can get for around $120. The Intel Core i5-8400, however, while a very good choice at its $280 price point, falls just short of being remarkable.

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 has done great in various roundups conducted by reliable and unbiased sources that do their own testing, like creativebloq.com, Techradar, Expert Reviews, and technoburst.com - it earned the "The best budget processor" title from creativebloq.com, "Possibly the best "cheap" processors for gaming, period" from Techradar, and "Ranked 2 out of 6" from Expert Reviews.

As for our analysis of the Intel Core i5-8400 - it has done great in a number of roundups done by unbiased sources that conduct their own testing, like Windows Central, PC Gamer, and TechSpot - it was named "Excellent middle ground" by Windows Central, "Ranked 1 out of 3" by PC Gamer, and "Ranked 2 out of 5" by TechSpot.

To get a better idea of how they fare when compared directly to each other, we analyzed review scores of sources that tested both. PCGamesN, TechSpot, and Tom's Hardware, for example, preferred the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, while PCmag rated both of them the same.

We also took a look at which sources had the best things to say about them. We learned that the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 got reviewed the highest by Windows Central - it gave it a rating of 10, while the Intel Core i5-8400 most impressed reviewers at PCGamesN, which gave it a score of 9.