Core i5-8400T vs Core i5-9300H

The Core i5-8400T packs 6 cores / 6 threads, while the Core i5-9300H offers 4 cores / 8 threads — the Core i5-8400T has 2 more cores. Boost clocks reach 3.3 GHz on the Core i5-8400T versus 4.1 GHz on the Core i5-9300H — a 21.6% clock advantage for the Core i5-9300H (base: 1.7 GHz vs 2.4 GHz). The Core i5-8400T uses the Coffee Lake (2017−2019) architecture (14 nm), while the Core i5-9300H uses Coffee Lake-H (2018−2019) (14 nm). In PassMark, the Core i5-8400T scores 7,426 against the Core i5-9300H's 7,438 — a 0.2% lead for the Core i5-9300H. Cinebench R23 multi-core: 3,737 vs 4,729 (23.4% advantage for the Core i5-9300H). Geekbench 6 single-core — the metric most relevant to gaming — records 1,092 vs 1,050, a 3.9% lead for the Core i5-8400T that directly translates to higher frame rates. Multi-core Geekbench: 3,816 vs 3,700 (3.1% advantage for the Core i5-8400T). L3 cache: 9 MB (total) on the Core i5-8400T vs 8 MB on the Core i5-9300H.

The Core i5-8400T uses the LGA1151 socket (PCIe 3.0), while the Core i5-9300H uses BGA1440 (PCIe 3.0) — making them incompatible on the same motherboard. Both support up to DDR4-2666 memory speed. Both support up to 128 GB of RAM. Both feature 2-channel memory with ECC support. Both provide 16 PCIe lanes. Chipset compatibility: H310,B360,H370,Q370,Z370,Z390 (Core i5-8400T) and HM370 (Core i5-9300H).

Virtualization support: Yes (Core i5-8400T) vs VT-x, VT-d (Core i5-9300H). Both include integrated graphics — UHD Graphics 630 (Core i5-8400T) and Intel UHD Graphics 630 (Core i5-9300H) — useful as a fallback for troubleshooting or display output without a dedicated GPU. Primary use case: Core i5-9300H targets Gaming Laptop.