i3-1400F: A Budget Gaming Option for 2025?
The budget processors market seems stale. AMD’s last truly new 3-series CPU, the Ryzen 3 3300X, launched back in 2023. Intel's most recent major 3-series release is the i3-1200F, which three years old. There have been some new processors of this flavor popping up like the i3-1300F and i3-1400F, however, they feel more like incremental upgrades on the 1200F rather than new advancements.
But acquiring a cheap i3-1400F recently posed a critical question: Are these quad-core “refreshed” processors, which ultimately deliver comparable performance, even suitable for gaming in 2025? With no sign of any true-blue modern budget CPUs from either Intel or AMD, it's a question a lot of low-cost PC gamers find themselves asking.
Rather than simply relying on a benchmark comparison, we did gameplay testing. The goal was to see if the i3-1400F could reliably hit a whole 60 frames per second (FPS) in single-player titles, and a smoother 100 FPS in competitive online gaming.
Test System Configuration
To show a realistic budget gaming environment, the i3-1400F was paired with components typically found in mid-range builds:
- CPU: Intel Core i3-1400F
- Motherboard: ASRock H610M-HVS-M.2
- RAM: 16GB T-FORCE DDR4 3200MHz CL16
- Storage: 1TB NVMe NV2 SSD + 4TB NVMe P3PLUS SSD
- Power Supply: UD850GM PSU
- Graphics Card: RTX 4060 EAGLE OC (a popular selection for budget gamers)
- CPU Cooler: THERMALRIGHT ASSASSIN SPIRIT
- Case: Open Air Test Bench
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro
Note: Resizable BAR (ReBAR) was enabled in the BIOS for optimal performance.
In-Game Performance Tests
Fortnite
With the first and lighter title, Fortnite, expectations were high. Performance in-play averaged around ~270 FPS with occasional 300-400 FPS peaks. Frame rates were great and no major or noticeable frame drops were seen. DirectX 12 offered profitable imperviousness to cracks. In competitive games, frame stability will tend to be more important than simply raw frame count. Lobby performance sometimes saw CPU usage spike to 100%, leading to micro stutters. In-game stability settled down at 190 FPS with DirectX 12 and showed no significant potential for drops. Limiting the frame rate to 144 FPS dropped the CPU load considerably, possibly solidifying performance even more.
Summary Value conclusion on Fortnite: The game runs on i3-1400F excellently: Capable of rendering at stable framerates and in high settings comfortably, even in DX12. For its title, it's more than up to the task.
Valorant
Valorant is another interesting competitive title that is less graphically intensive. Performance averaged 270 to 300 FPS easily. The framerate drops were minimal, and the overall experience was fluid and responsive.
Conclusion (Valorant): The i3-1400F has an impeccable high-refresh-rate gameplay experience in Valorant, far beyond the target reach of 100 FPS for quick online games.
Warzone
Warzone is a more demanding title infamous for its optimization issues. In "Easy Shin" mode, it gave FPS well between 90 and 100, but there were some drops. The game put heavy demands on the CPU, and CPU usage frequently reached 100 percent. Even on high-end CPUs, Warzone is poorly optimized and struggles to maintain 100 FPS in a consistent manner.
Verdict (Warzone): Warzone is playable, but the i3-1400F is being pushed to its limits. Expect some frame drops, and lower settings for a smoother experience. Given Warzone's notoriously high demand, performance can still be described as "more than acceptable."
Counter-Strike 2 (CS2)
Then it was time to test a competitive FPS, Counter-Strike 2. CS2 was a surprisingly strong competitive experience. Frame rates were high across the board, and the gameplay was responsive. No major problems were reported.
Conclusion (CS2): The i3-1400F can more than provide a high-quality, competitive CS2 experience.
Cyberpunk 2077
The notoriously resource-hogging single-player game Cyberpunk 2077 proved quite the task. Cyberpunk 2077 managed to perform in the range of 80-100 FPS, even during the most CPU intensive scenes. Frame rates had little to no drop, especially with settings of Ultra and High-K. Enabling DSS +108 FPS and less GPU bottleneck, let the CPU's take the lead in terms of performance.
Conclusion (Cyberpunk 2077): The i3-1400F performed well above our expectations in Cyberpunk 2077. Getting 80-100 FPS in this title at stable performance for a budget quad-core CPU is impressive. Even better performance likely at lower settings.
Dying Light 2
Another demanding single-player game, Dying Light 2, was tested. Dying Light 2 ran smoothly, it maintained around 70 FPS in fights and zombie encounters and experienced no major frame drops. Higher frame rates were around 90 FPS on average.
Conclusion (Dying Light 2): Despite having only 4 threads, the i3-1400F has a playable experience in Dying Light 2 (70fps average even in the middle of combat). Well above the 60 FPS target.
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V)
To test performance in a popular, well-established game, the older GTA V was then tested. GTA V was running extraordinarily well, peaks over 180 FPS, so much that we were hitting the engine wall and that caused frame drops. Locking the frame rate to 144 FPS stabilized the performance, with no drops.
Game Conclusion (GTA V): The i3-1400F is more than you need for GTA V, you will want to cap frames to avoid engine related issues. This is a serious beast when it comes to its performance and this title is no issue at high frame rates for the processor.
Starfield
Starfield, a new and demanding open-world RPG was something of a challenge. Starfield exposed longer shader compilation times (855). At 25 minutes, the initial shader load time was a long time to wait. Despite being challenging areas to run, Starfield rarely dipped below 60 FPS. Some minor drops to the 40s were measured in places. Enabling V-Sync and locking to 60 FPS cut CPU use significantly, and further stabilized frame rates.
Conclusion (Starfield): Starfield can be played surprisingly smoothly on the i3-1400F if you can put up with the constant hitching, rarely dropping below 60 FPS in most situations. V-Sync enabled helps ensure stability. Not bad for a budget quad-core CPU in this title.
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
Other demanding titles tested included Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. Spider-Man Remastered ran great, averaging around 80 FPS and staying comfortably above 100 FPS while swinging around the city. Frame rates were stable and the experience smooth even in this graphically rich and CPU intensive title.
Conclusion (Spider-Man Remastered): The i3-1400F holds up excellently, and is surprisingly smooth in our experience especially when graphical compromises aren't being taken. Praise for a budget CPU in this demanding game.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl
The last and most grueling test was Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, infamous for its awful optimization. Shader compilation takes a long time, with times over 20 minutes in the first test and 10 minutes in the second. In-game performance in Stalker 2 was 40-50 FPS in demanding areas early in the game. In less demanding areas frame rates push closer to 60 FPS. There were some dropped frames here and there, but otherwise it was surprisingly playable. 8GB graphics cards in Stalker 2 note VRAM usage limitations causing heavy frame drops when textures are run in "Ultra."
Final Conclusion (Stalker 2): Many people were surprised to learn that Stalker 2 was actually playable, most notably on the i3-1400F, which yielded nearly 60 FPS throughout during less taxing scenarios, and 40-50 FPS during heavy action. You will probably need to lower settings if you want a consistently smoother experience.
Final Words: i3-1400F - Still a 2025 Budget Gaming Option?
And there we have it, the i3-1400F emerges as an unexpectedly decent 2025 budget gaming CPU. In most of the single-player titles we tested, it comfortably bettered the 60 FPS target and even provided smooth high-refresh-rate gaming in competitive online titles.
Key Findings:
- Single Player Gaming: Nearly all of the single-player titles we tested managed 60 FPS comfortably. Stalker 2 dropped some steps below 60 FPS, but the game's commonly bad optimization was mostly to blame for this.
- Competitive Online Gaming: Get high and stable frame rates in competitive titles over 100 FPS comfortably.
- Warzone Performance: Warzone was a more demanding test as it managed to stress the CPU more causing frame drops, but it was still playable.
- Optimization Matters: Gapey games highlight that no matter how high-end the hardware you have, they are all potential victims to heavy optimization shortcomings and will make budget CPUs suffer more disproportionately.
- Conclusion: Frame Capping & V-Sync: Frame capping in the V-Sync is another way to help reduce the CPU load for older, weaker processors in frame-legging games.
- Shader Compilation: Budget CPUs are known to have a longer shader compilation time when playing modern titles.
Recommendation:
Overall though, if you're looking at a $70 price point or thereabouts when you spot the i3-1400F, this is still a solid option for budget gaming come 2025. It also plays modern games, including demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and even Stalker 2 (with caveats). But remember its limitations:
- Demanding Games & Optimization: With poorly optimized or excessively demanding games, reducing settings or implementing methods such as frame capping might be necessary to maintain smooth gameplay.
- Shader compilation times: Some modern titles may require a longer loading time for the shaders.
- Avoiding the 3250G: With a slight budget increase, you can get a 6-core processor; Ryzen 5 5600/i5 in the high configuration are the better options for the great price, I will recommend these instead of an entry-level CPU. More cores help in taxing games, background processes, and shader compilation.
In 2025, the i3-1400F remains an acceptable entry into pc gaming for micro budgets. Just something to keep in mind in terms of expectations, and the price/performance trade-offs of a budget quad-core CPU in a more demanding gaming environment.
Thank you for reading
