Core i5-4210U: CPU benchmarks and laptop guide

The Intel Core i5-4210U is a Haswell dual-core from Intel's 4th Core generation, released in 2014 — the workhorse ultrabook processor of its year, shipped in everything from workhorse Latitudes to premium EliteBooks. The catalog matches it to 19 models. It meets the recommended CPU requirement in 0 of the 69 games the site tracks, clearing only minimum tiers. This guide covers where the chip sits among laptop CPUs, what it brings to a portable, and which laptops carry it.

Where the Core i5-4210U sits in 2026

A catalog score of 22.4 places the chip 437th of 672 scored laptop CPUs — below the midpoint of a table that spans two decades of silicon. The neighborhood is a cross-section of eras: the Core i3-4000M (22.8), Pentium G4560 (22.6) and Athlon Silver 3050U (22.6) just above, the Core i7-3635QM (22.4) alongside at the same score, and the Core i7-6600U (22.2) and Core i7-2670QM (22) just below. Edging older i7-branded parts on this scale while being a 15-watt ultrabook design is the honest framing: efficient for its day, modest in absolute terms.

What the chip brings

Haswell-U is a 2-core, 4-thread design on a 22 nm process, rated at 15 W in its U-series configuration: a 1.7 GHz base clock and up to 2.7 GHz boost. Memory support runs to DDR3 in dual-channel, up to 16 GB at 25 GB/s of bandwidth, and the integrated HD 4400 handles display duties. Public benchmarks read 763 single-core and 1,458 multi-core in Geekbench, with a PassMark score of 2,314 — figures that place it entry-level today.

Games: CPU-side readiness

Measured purely as a processor, the chip meets the recommended CPU tier for 0 of 69 cataloged games. It clears the minimum CPU tier for 22 of them: Minecraft, Valorant, Dota 2, League of Legends and Sims 4 at the light end, with Grand Theft Auto V, Civilization 6, Rainbow Six Siege, Hitman 3, God of War and Diablo 4 also listing it above their minimum. The rest — including Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Fortnite and Counter-Strike 2 — sits below its minimum CPU tier. These verdicts are CPU-only: whether a game actually plays well depends on the laptop's GPU and RAM, and the integrated HD 4400 will hit its limit long before the processor does.

Laptops that carry it

The 19-model roster spans 2013 to 2015 and is dominated by business portables: Latitude E5450 at $136, Latitude E5550 at $245, ProBook 430 G2 at $132, Latitude E7440 at $147, Dell Latitude 3440 at $174, EliteBook 840 G1 at $120, EliteBook Folio 1040 G1 at $167, EliteBook Revolve 810 G2 at $162, ProBook 450 G2 at $127 and Latitude E5540 at $227, plus an Envy 15-U081NA ultrabook at $227 and an IdeaPad Flex 2-14 convertible at $132 — used-market listing prices throughout. Roster medians describe the fleet, not the chip: office comfort at 30, energy efficiency 52.4, portability 53.3 and mobility 39 fit the thin-and-light brief, while a gaming index of 71 and a best GPU score of 45.85 reflect the laptops' graphics options rather than the processor.

Bottom line

The Core i5-4210U suits a buyer who wants a cheap, quiet typing and browsing machine: $120 to $245 buys a well-built business portable that still handles documents, web and video comfortably. As a gaming CPU it has fallen off the catalog — recommended tier for none of the 69 tracked games — so treat any gaming ambition as capped at the minimum-tier list above, GPU permitting. For anything heavier, a newer generation at a similar used price is the better spend.