Intel Core i5-4350U

The Intel Core i5-4350U is a mobile processor from Intel's Haswell generation, fabricated on a 22 nm process with 1,400 million transistors on a 118 mm² die. It combines 2 cores and 4 threads with a 1400 MHz base clock and a 2.9 GHz boost clock, all within a 15 W TDP. Its average benchmark score of 709 places it in the 18th percentile of all CPUs in the database, and its four nearest rivals are all within 0.6% of that score, making this one of the tightest competitive clusters in the dataset. The processor carries the part number SR16L and was released on 2013-06-03.

How It Compares

AMD Phenom II X4 B95. The i5-4350U trails the Phenom II X4 B95 by 0.1%, with the rival averaging 710 points against the i5's 709. The B95 is a quad-core desktop part with a substantially higher power envelope, yet the 2-core mobile chip lands within a rounding error of it. This comparison is striking because it shows that a 15 W ultra-low-power processor can match an older desktop quad-core in aggregate benchmark performance, even with half the physical cores.

Intel Core i5-660. The i5-4350U leads the Core i5-660 by 0.2%, with the rival averaging 708 points. The i5-660 is a desktop part from the Lynnfield generation, running at higher clocks and drawing more power. The Haswell architecture's efficiency and IPC improvements allow the mobile chip to edge past it despite the clock disadvantage. The 0.2% delta is negligible in real-world terms, but it positions the i5-4350U as the slightly faster of the two in this benchmark suite.

Intel Xeon X5450. The i5-4350U is 0.3% ahead of the Xeon X5450, which averages 707 points. The X5450 is a server-class quad-core processor with a much larger thermal and power budget. That a mobile U-series chip can outscore a Xeon part, even by a fraction of a percent, highlights how far low-power silicon had advanced by the Haswell era. The delta is within noise, but the direction favors the i5.

AMD Phenom II X4 840. The i5-4350U trails the Phenom II X4 840 by 0.6%, the largest gap in this group, with the rival averaging 713 points. This is still a sub-1% difference, which means the two processors are effectively interchangeable in benchmark terms. The Phenom II X4 840 is a quad-core desktop chip, and the i5-4350U's ability to stay within 0.6% of it reinforces the conclusion that the Haswell mobile architecture delivers desktop-class aggregate performance.

Power and Thermals

The 15 W TDP classifies the i5-4350U as an ultra-low-power mobile part. This is the defining characteristic of the U-series segment, and it drives every design decision around this chip. The Haswell architecture on a 22 nm process with 1,400 million transistors in a 118 mm² die is what makes this efficiency possible. The socket is Intel BGA 1168, which indicates a soldered connection to the motherboard, meaning the processor is not upgradeable or replaceable. Cooling requirements are correspondingly modest: a low-profile fan or passive heatsink is sufficient for a 15 W part, which is why the chip appears in thin mobile devices. The integrated Intel HD 5000 graphics shares the 15 W thermal budget with the CPU cores, so sustained multi-threaded loads will also stress the graphics portion of the die. The multiplier is locked, eliminating overclocking as an option. Memory support is DDR3 without ECC, consistent with a mainstream mobile platform. The 22 nm process node, while advanced for the 2013 release date, means the transistor density of 1,400 million in 118 mm² is modest by modern standards, but it was sufficient to deliver the efficiency this chip is known for.

Benchmark Performance

The Cinebench R15 multicore test returns a score of 207. The Cinebench R20 suite shows a multi-core score of 865 and a single-core score of 122. The Cinebench R23 suite shows a multi-core score of 2061 and a single-core score of 291. The average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 709, which places the processor in the 18th percentile of all CPUs in the database. This means it outperforms only 18% of the processors tracked, putting it firmly in the lower range of the performance distribution.

The nearest-rival deltas are all minimal. The i5-4350U is 0.1% behind the AMD Phenom II X4 B95 (710 average), 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-660 (708 average), 0.3% ahead of the Intel Xeon X5450 (707 average), and 0.6% behind the AMD Phenom II X4 840 (713 average). These four rivals span desktop and server segments, yet the mobile chip's average score of 709 sits almost exactly in the middle of their range. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 2061 is the strongest multi-threaded result in the suite, while the single-core score of 291 is comparatively modest. The R20 multi-core score of 865 and single-core score of 122 follow the same pattern. Across all three Cinebench versions, the multi-core result is roughly 7 times the single-core result, indicating that the processor extracts substantial parallelism from its 4 threads.

FAQ

Q: What socket does the Intel Core i5-4350U use?

A: It uses the Intel BGA 1168 socket, which means the processor is soldered to the motherboard.

Q: How many cores and threads does the i5-4350U have?

A: It has 2 cores and 4 threads.

Q: What integrated graphics does the i5-4350U include?

A: It includes Intel HD 5000 integrated graphics.

Q: What type of memory does the i5-4350U support?

A: It supports DDR3 memory and does not support ECC.

Q: Is the i5-4350U multiplier unlocked?

A: No, the multiplier is locked, so overclocking is not possible.

Q: When was the i5-4350U released?

A: It was released on 2013-06-03, with the part number SR16L.

Single-Thread vs Multi-Thread Behavior

The Cinebench R20 results show a single-core score of 122 and a multi-core score of 865, a ratio of approximately 7 to 1. The Cinebench R23 results show a single-core score of 291 and a multi-core score of 2061, also approximately 7 to 1. This consistent ratio across two different Cinebench versions indicates that the processor scales efficiently across its 2 cores and 4 threads. The single-thread scores are low in absolute terms — a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 291 is far below modern desktop parts — so single-thread-bound workloads will be the processor's weak point. Applications that rely on one or two threads, such as older games, spreadsheet recalculation, or lightweight scripting, will not see the benefit of the 4-thread design. Conversely, parallelizable workloads like video encoding, batch image processing, or multi-threaded compilation will approach the 7x scaling the data shows. The Haswell architecture's thread scheduling appears to handle the 2-core/4-thread configuration well, as the near-linear scaling suggests minimal contention between threads. For real-world use, this means the chip is best deployed in scenarios where background tasks and parallel workloads dominate, rather than interactive single-thread-heavy applications.

Who Should Consider It

The 18th percentile ranking makes it clear that the i5-4350U is not a high-performance part by modern standards. It is, however, a capable processor for basic mobile computing. Office productivity — word processing, spreadsheets, email, and web browsing — will run comfortably on the 2 cores and 4 threads, and the 15 W TDP means it fits in low-profile, low-noise designs. For content creation, the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 2061 indicates that light photo editing and casual video transcoding are feasible, though heavy rendering will be slow. The integrated Intel HD 5000 graphics limits gaming to older or low-demand titles; the single-core score of 291 in R23 suggests that even CPU-bound games will struggle. The processor's ability to match older quad-core desktop parts like the AMD Phenom II X4 B95 and Intel Core i5-660 within 0.6% means that legacy software written for those platforms will run at comparable speeds. Users with workloads that can leverage 4 threads — batch processing, light compilation, or multitasking with many small applications — will find the i5-4350U adequate. Users who need high single-thread performance or modern gaming capability should look elsewhere in the database.