Core i5-11400H: CPU benchmarks and laptop guide

The Intel Core i5-11400H was the volume gaming CPU of the 2021 season — 29 catalog models carry it. A 6-core, 12-thread Tiger Lake-H design rated at 35 W, it meets the recommended CPU requirement in 52 of the 69 games the catalog tracks. This guide covers where the chip sits among laptop CPUs, what it brings, and which laptops ship with it.

Where the Core i5-11400H sits in 2026

A catalog score of 68.7 places the chip 92nd of 741 scored laptop CPUs — the top eighth of a table spanning two decades of silicon. The neighborhood is eclectic: the Core i9-13980HX (69.2), Ryzen 3 7440U (69) and desktop-class Core i7-9700K (68.9) just above, the Ryzen 5 5560U (68.6), Core i5-11260H (68.4) and Ryzen 9 4900H (68.4) just below. Keeping company with a 24-core i9 flagships list on the catalog's composite scale shows how much weight efficiency and single-core snap carry — the 11400H was built for consistent, cool gaming duty rather than benchmark records.

What the chip brings

Tiger Lake-H is a 6-core, 12-thread design on a 10 nm-class process rated at 35 W: 2.7 GHz base and up to 4.5 GHz boost. Basic UHD graphics handles display duty while the discrete GPU plays. The catalog holds a full benchmark card: GeekBench 1,826 single / 6,428 multi and a PassMark overall score of 15,167 — modest absolute numbers from a design that prioritized sustained clocks over peak scores.

Games: CPU-side readiness

Measured purely as a processor, the chip clears the recommended CPU tier for 52 of 69 cataloged games — Forza Horizon 5, Battlefield 5, Alan Wake 2, Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, Metro Exodus, The Last of Us Part 1, Ghost of Tsushima and Dying Light 2 among them. Fifteen more sit at the minimum tier: Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Fortnite and Hogwarts Legacy all list the chip above their minimum but below their recommended CPU requirement. Only Starfield and Helldivers 2 ask for more processor. These verdicts are CPU-only — the 11400H's laptops pair it with real discrete GPUs, which decide the actual experience.

Laptops that carry it

The 29-model roster is the classic 2021 gaming-and-work crowd. Dell's G15 5511 ($750) and XPS 15 9510 ($652) anchor the consumer end, with the Latitude 5421 ($422) and 5521 ($438) plus Precision 3561 workstation ($405) covering business. Lenovo's Legion 5 17ITH6H tops the sheet at $870, ASUS's TUF Gaming F15 and F17 trade at $590, and Acer's Nitro 5 AN515-57 and AN517-54 are the budget-gaming staples at the same $590. Roster medians describe the fleet: gaming index 68.5, best-GPU median 74.2, games-at-recommended median 57, photo/design 89 — against portability 31.45, the gaming-laptop trade.

Bottom line

The Core i5-11400H is one of the best value propositions in the used gaming market: a top-eighth catalog rank, recommended-CPU clearance for three-quarters of the game list, and a roster of $590–750 TUF and Nitro machines that were built to play. Five years on, it still covers everything except the two hardest CPU asks in the catalog. For a first gaming laptop at used prices, it remains a safe heart.