The cheapest AM5 six-core processor. AMD Ryzen 5 8400F Review – Chapter 1

In this review, we will focus on another affordable processor. We will follow up on the previous reviews of the models Intel Pentium G7400 a Intel Core i3-14100F and we will compare the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F using the same test methodology. We will also look at the possibilities of overclocking it. Let’s summarize the main advantages and disadvantages of this architecture and briefly introduce the AM5 socket and chipsets.

Socket AM5

AM5 is the latest platform for AMD Ryzen processors, it was introduced in 2022. It replaced the previous AM4 socket, which was with us since 2016. AM5 brings several significant improvements:

• Support for new processors: The AM5 platform is compatible with the latest AMD Ryzen processors. These processors feature higher processing power, improved energy efficiency, and bring new instruction sets and features.
• DDR5 memories: The AM5 socket enables the installation of fast DDR5 memories, which, compared to the previous generation of DDR4, offer significantly higher transfer speeds and enable the use of modules with a larger capacity.
• PCIe 5.0: Selected AM5 motherboards support the PCIe 5.0 interface, which doubles the data throughput compared to the previous PCIe 4.0 generation. This brings a significant increase in speed for modern graphics cards and NVMe SSDs.

AM5 chipsets

New chipsets for the AM5 platform were presented at CES. To test the processor, I immediately tried the new B840 chipset, which, in my opinion, more closely matches the characteristics of the A620 chipset than the B650. Therefore, I somewhat do not understand AMD’s new marking starting with the letter “B”, which I find misleading. From the chipset table, it can be seen that the main differences between individual chipsets lie in the number of processor PCIe lines and the number of native USB and SATA ports. Furthermore, all chipsets except A620 and B840 allow overclocking of the processor.