@momomo_us has fished out pre-launch retail listings for Intel’s upcoming Core i5-13400 and 13400F that indicate the chips could cost less than $250 at launch, which would definitely make them a contender for our list of best CPUs for gaming. This pricing would make the i5-13400 a very competitive offering in the mid-range market, with rumored performance matching the Core i5-12600K. The i5-13400 will reportedly cost $243.68, while the F model will cost noticeably less at $216.16.

This new chip is reported to have a 10-core hybrid configuration consisting of six P-cores and four E-cores. For clock speeds, the 13400 and F models are reported to feature a 4.1GHz base clock for the P-cores and a 3.3GHz boost clock for the E-cores. We suspect the 13400 could be a recycled Alder Lake chip with Golden Cove cores instead of Intel’s faster Raptor Cove cores, but this has not been confirmed. The 13400 series will be competitive either way, offering four more cores over the 12400 — which did not feature E-cores and match the 12600K’s core count.