Intel's i5-11400 6-core Rocket Lake-S CPU appears on Geekbench, lags behind similar AMD Ryzen 3000 / 5000 models

A new Rocket Lake-S CPU engineering sample has been spotted on Geekbench, and this time it is the mid-range hexa-core i5-11400 model. Intel is hoping that the Rocket Lake-S models will be a solid alternative to AMD’s Ryzen 5000 desktop processors, but the latest Geekbench results suggest that Intel might be too optimistic in this case.

The Geekbench database entry reveals that the i5-11400 CPU has the base core frequencies set at 2.6 GHz, while the boost frequencies can go up to 4.4 GHz. The RocketLake-S processors will integrate the new Cypress Cove cores, but Intel decided to backport this design to 14 nm again, which obviously hinders performance gains. The good news is that the upcoming CPUs are compatible with existing 400-series motherboards, which are going to get even more affordable when the newly-introduced 500-series see increased availability.

As far as performance is concerned, the i5-11400 manages to score 1247 points in the single-core tests and 6197 in the multi-core tests. The Rocket Lake-S CPU is clearly faster than its i5-10400 Comet Lake-S predecessor by about 10% and it even manages to outperform the i5-10500 that features higher base and boosts clocks. It also comes very close to matching the i7-8700K that has superior base and boost clocks, but the situation is not encouraging when compared to the competition. Now, admittedly, the AMD base frequencies are considerably higher, but the boost clocks are comparable. Versus the Ryzen 5 3600X, single-core scores are a tie, yet the multi-core scores lag by 11%. The Ryzen 5 5600X model is already out of reach, as it is 29% faster in single-core tests, and up to 31% faster in multi-core tests.

From what we hear, the Rocket Lake-S CPUs scheduled to release this March are supposed to cost less compared to the Comet Lake-S models, so at least Intel could combat AMD on the pricing side.

Buy the Intel Core i5-10400 on Amazon