Intel Core i3-10110Y vs Intel Core i5-9400H

Intel Core i3-10110Y

The Intel Core i3-10110Y is an extremely power efficient dual-core SoC for small laptops and tablets that was announced in August 2019. The faster models, like the Core i5-10310Y offer two additional cores however.

Performance

While we have not tested a single system built around the 10110Y as of August 2023, we have tested at least one laptop utilizing the 10100Y, an insignificantly slower chip (Amber Lake, 2 cores, 4 threads, up to 3.9 GHz.) Based on that, expect the 10110Y to be noticeably faster than the AMD 3050e. Performance of this kind is totally sufficient for basic day-to-day activities, as of late 2022.

Your mileage may vary depending on how high the CPU power limits are.

The integrated graphics adapter however is still the same as in the previous generations. It should be still called Intel UHD Graphics 615 and runs at 300 - 1000 MHz in the i3. Furthermore, the SoC integrates a VP9 and H.265 de- and encoder.

The TDP is specified at 7 Watts but can be varied from 5.5 to 9 Watt from the manufacturer (cTDP up/down) resulting in different performance (especially Turbo durations). Interestingly, the faster Core i5-10210Y with two more cores can be configured to lower 4.5 Watt.

Intel Core i5-9400H

The Intel Core i5-9400H is a high-end processor for laptops with four cores based on the Coffee Lake architecture (2019 refresh, CFL-HR). The processor clocks at between 2.5 and 4.3 GHz (4.1 with 4 cores) and can execute up to eight threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper-Threading. According to Intel, the CPU is manufactured in an improved 14nm (14nm++) process. Compared to the predecessor, the Core i5-8400H from 2018, the 9300H is only clocked slightly higher (+100 MHz CPU Turbo, +50 MHz GPU).

The Coffee Lake architecture is similar to Kaby Lake and differs only in the amount of cores (now six cores for the high end versions) and the improved 14nm process (14nm++ according to Intel).

Performance

The Intel Core i5-9400H should perform similar as the older Core i7-7920HQ (3.1 - 4.1 GHz). The faster Coffee Lake CPUs, like the Core i7-9750H offers two additional cores and is therefore up to 50% faster in multithreaded benchmarks. Still, the performance of the i5-9400H should be sufficient for even demanding applications and games.

Graphics

The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 iGPU is supposed to offer a slightly higher performance as its clock rate has been increased by 50 MHz. The architecture is identical to that of the Intel HD Graphics 630. We do expect a performance improvement, but as a low-end solution it will probably only display current games smoothly at reduced details - if at all.

Power Consumption

Intel specifies the TDP with 45 watts and therefore the i5 is only suited for big laptops with good cooling solutions. Using cTDP-down, the CPU can also be configured to 35 Watt resulting in a reduced performance.

Beware, the CPU was not yet released at the time of writing and the information is based on leaks and early price list information (e.g. by Intel or on Baidu).