Intel Core i7-10875H Review: 8 Cores, 16 Threads for Laptops

Intel officially launched the tenth-gen Core Comet Lake H-serial CPUs for loftier-performance laptops recently, but it'due south not until this week that we tin discuss operation. Aimed at high-cease productivity and gaming laptops, this review will comprehensively analyze the Core i7-10875H, which is the well-nigh interesting flake in the new series.

We'll compare it to previous products like the Core i9-9880H, Cadre i7-9750H and AMD'southward new Ryzen 9 4900HS to run across how it stacks upward for loftier-performance mobile productivity. Over the next few weeks and months we'll hopefully check out a range of other 10th-gen CPUs and doing all sorts of comparisons, including deeper dives into the new six-core office and how these chips fare for gaming.

This has been an interesting generation for Intel. The offset 10th-gen laptop parts launched many months ago in August 2019. Nosotros saw a split into the confusing Comet Lake and Ice Lake U series, one on 14nm and one on 10nm. At that place's no such separate for these college-power 45W chips in the H-series: Intel is merely offer Comet Lake, which is their 14nm Skylake derivative. Indeed, v years after Skylake first launched, Intel is still pushing out "new" CPUs with the aforementioned base architecture.

H-series parts offer viii cores are non new, but with the ninth-gen family they were restricted to the Core i9 series which was merely seen in very expensive notebooks. The inclusion of a new viii-core SKU in the Core i7 range ways the Core i7-10875H brings an eight-core, 16-thread processor to a somewhat more mainstream market place. The rest of the Cadre i7 range offers six cores and twelve threads like with the previous generation. Intel has too reduced the Core i9 range down to just one eight cadre chip with higher clocks than the i7 CPU. Finally, the Cadre i5 range remains as quad cores.

The listed specifications for the Core i7-10875H are very similar to the last-gen Core i9-9880H: we take a base clock of 2.3 GHz, 16 MB of L3 cache and a 45W TDP. The just changes accept occurred in the heave specs. Intel is now touting the scrap'south ability to push up to five.1 GHz on a single-core (up from 4.eight GHz). Yet this is but doable with what Intel calls 'Thermal Velocity Heave'. Essentially this gives the processor 200 MHz of extra frequency when running below 65C, and 100 MHz when running below 85C. If the CPU isn't running nice and absurd, the actual maximum turbo frequency tops out at 4.9 GHz.

Thermal Velocity Boost debuted in 9th-gen Core i9 processors including the 9880H, simply Intel has tweaked the temperature thresholds and added it to the Core i7 line in this generation.

As for all-core turbo frequencies, Intel lists this as 4.iii GHz for the 10875H, up from iv.i GHz with the 9880H. In a nutshell, we're getting 200 to 300 MHz clock speed increases under turbo conditions with the 10875H compared to 9880H. Withal with base of operations clocks and power limits remaining the same, nosotros'd expect long term clock speeds to be similar betwixt processors, which we'll explore a bit afterward.

Earlier getting into the benchmarks, permit's talk about the exam conditions...

In for review we have the Gigabyte Aorus 15G XB, which packs the Cadre i7-10875H in multiple power configurations alongside Nvidia's new RTX 2070 Super Max-Q. We'll be roofing the GPU in a separate review, and then make sure yous cheque that out. The Aorus came equipped with a 1080p 240Hz brandish and 16GB of DDR4-2933, the new maximum RAM speed supported by 10th-gen parts.

This isn't a laptop review just we must mention the new Omron mechanical key switches on this laptop, they're really practiced. In making thin and calorie-free gaming laptops, one of the areas that tend to suffer is the keyboard, a lot of them are really junk, but this is a clicky, surprisingly satisfying switch for such a low profile pattern. The typing experience is nicer than we expected, so kudos to Gigabyte for choosing this.

Testing laptop hardware in an apples-to-apples configuration is challenging as each organisation is slightly different. For all the results you'll encounter today, nosotros've tried to remove equally many variables as possible. This ways all systems have dual-channel retentiveness, and all are configured to employ the Intel default processor ability configuration and settings unless otherwise noted. We then boilerplate together results from equivalent laptop configurations (non just 1 model) to provide a generalized look at performance from a given CPU.

Oft laptops come a little overclocked out of the box and have utilities that permit you to change various power targets and PL1 or PL2 limits. For testing we're setting each laptop to Intel's default 45W PL1 limit. The Aorus 15G, for example, uses a 52W limit by default, and allows you to choose betwixt five different limits from 38W through to 62W. We have also tested the 62W configuration today. The short outburst power limit, PL2, is 80W with all setups.

The reason why nosotros do this is and then we tin can compare processor performance at a given power level. Unlike with desktops, ability consumption is crucial in laptops: more power hungry parts require larger coolers and therefore larger laptops. Comparing chips on an equivalent power level allows u.s.a. to run across how they would perform in an equivalent type of blueprint (cheque out the full list of laptops tested for this review). After all, but comparing an 80W CPU to a 35W CPU in laptops wouldn't make much sense, as you only couldn't put the 80W fleck in a design that only has 35W of cooling capacity.

Another thing people might ask of u.s.a. is undervolting performance, given it's quite popular with enthusiast laptop buyers. Unfortunately, undervolting is disabled with the 10875H on the Aorus 15G and possibly other models as well. Nosotros doubtable this is in response to the Plundervolt security vulnerability with Intel CPUs, though we didn't receive an official statement on the matter.

Benchmarks

Let'southward start the run of benchmarks with everyone's favorite Cinebench R20. This rendering workload benefits nicely from the extra ii cores added into the mix: the viii-core 10875H ends upward 12 percent faster than the terminal-gen Cadre i7-9750H with six cores in the multi-thread examination. Yet in what is maybe a chip of a surprise, functioning doesn't match up with the i9-9880H: this new 8-cadre part is six percent slower than Intel's prior Cadre i9 processor with the aforementioned core count. This suggests that the 10875H isn't clocking quite every bit loftier as the 9880H.

The 10875H also gets dominated by AMD's Ryzen 9 4900HS despite consuming more power, falling 30% behind the new Zen 2 competitor in this workload. Fifty-fifty when we raise the power limit upward to the maximum Gigabyte supports with the Aorus 15G, at 62W, information technology all the same falls 18 percent behind the stunning multi-core functioning AMD is providing here.

However the story is different with the single-thread workload. Cheers to higher clock speeds, the 10875H is 8 percent faster than the 9880H in this reasonably long single-thread test, besides as 1% alee of the 4900HS. Previously, the 9880H could quite comfortably run a unmarried cadre at ~4.half-dozen GHz long term within the 45W power limit, so raising the frequency cap upward to 4.nine GHz which is what we typically run across in the unmarried-thread workload, does allow for faster performance than previous-gen CPUs hither.

We see very similar performance in Cinebench R15, although the 10875H is a bit slower in the multi-threaded test relative to other CPUs compared to the R20 workload. Compensating for this is a meliorate single-thread score, the 10875H is upwardly to 10% faster than the 4900HS.

Handbrake is some other long-term multi-threaded workload and we exercise see a moderate performance boost for this Core i7 CPU compared to the i7-9750H, pulling eleven percent ahead. However, like with Cinebench, the 10875H can't friction match the 9880H, and falls backside the Ryzen 9 4900HS, even when pushing up to 62W of power consumption. If you plan on using your laptop for x265 video encoding, an viii-core Ryzen APU would be a better choice given its stiff performance lead.

Blender follows the tendency we have seen beyond the last couple of benchmarks: the 10875H is decently faster than the 9750H, in this instance 19% faster, but can't keep up to the 9880H, ending up three% behind. The 10875H is besides substantially slower than the Ryzen 9 4900HS. Similar with the previous two examples, Intel doesn't have the performance to match AMD in long term multithreaded tasks and doesn't come close in terms of efficiency.

vii-Zip compression is a great example of a short term multi-thread workload that runs entirely in the CPU's boost state. Thanks to a generous 80W PL2 power limit, the 10875H has enough ability to feed all viii cores and pull substantially ahead of the 9750H, coming in 26% faster in decompression and 34% faster in pinch. It also manages to match the operation of the 9880H.

Comparing Intel and AMD in this test does show AMD pulling well alee in decompression, which is likely going to be the more used workload of the two. However, Intel is ten% faster for pinch, we suspect helped out significantly by its larger cache, at 16MB versus just 8MB on the AMD side.

Excel with large calculations is another benchmark that is favorable to the new Cadre i7-10875H. While nevertheless a fleck slower than the i9-9880H, it does come in 18% faster than the 9750H, and 9% faster than the Ryzen 9 4900HS. This is a short multi-threaded test and with Intel blasting abroad nicely in its boost state taking the win.

For lighter productivity and full general app usage, Intel's Core i7-10875H does well but isn't the runaway winner. In PCMark'due south Productivity workload, the 10875H is around 6% slower than the 4900HS, while handily beating the 9750H, while in the Essentials test which includes app loading and light web browsing, the 4900HS and 10875H offer equivalent performance. Both eight core offerings here are a step above previous H-series CPUs, and so you can expect around a 10 percentage improvement.

One particularly interesting instance for the 10875H is MATLAB R2020a using the built-in benchmark. Previously we constitute that the Core i9-9880H was able to accept the crown over the Ryzen nine 4900HS in this engineering tool. However, the 10875H tin can't go along up with the 9880H falling about eight percentage behind.

Acrobat PDF exporting is an easy win for the Core i7-10875H, blasting through this unmarried-core test in tape time thanks to a combination of a large cache size and loftier frequencies. This is one of the worst results for Ryzen, it just can't match the burst speed Intel is offering for this export-to-image workload.

However this flips for AES-256 cryptography. SiSoft Sandra does testify the 10875H slotting in betwixt the 9880H and 9750H for cryptography bandwidth, just well behind the Ryzen 9 4900HS. This ways that for encryption or decryption tasks, Ryzen CPUs should be able to finish ahead.

Now we get into some more compute-heavy workloads, so there's a flake going on here that needs to be discussed. Nosotros'll beginning here with Adobe Photoshop's Iris Blur test, which is by and large CPU limited when yous have a one-half-decent discrete GPU, similar is the case with most H-serial laptops. It'southward a tight battle at the elevation between the eight-core options, the 10875H is v% behind the 9880H but 6% alee of the Ryzen ix 4900HS.

And we see similar margins in Puget's Photoshop workload. The 10875H isn't the outright fastest CPU for Photoshop, only information technology's a very capable chip in this app and notably alee of the Ryzen 9 4900HS. It's as well a decent 16% faster than the 9750H, Photoshop likes frequency just it also likes cores depending on the task you are performing, and the 10875H is faster in both regards.

Time for some Adobe Premiere results. Intel benefits in this application from hardware accelerated encoding via QuickSync, any configuration that doesn't support this which includes all AMD processors and our i9-9880H test laptop falls a bit behind in this test.

For example, in the Puget Export Test, the Ryzen 9 4900HS is equivalent to a QuickSync enabled i7-9750H, while the 10875H comes in 11% faster, admitting with a faster GPU as well. However in this particular workload we aren't often GPU limited, Intel does run into better functioning here by virtue of supporting QuickSync and in many cases this makes information technology a better choice for those that like to export videos in Premiere.

While Intel configurations tin can exist upwardly to 25% faster in specific QuickSync accelerated tests, Ryzen is faster for software encoding, for example when performing a ii pass H.264 encode using the settings we use for rendering YouTube videos.

Intel besides falls behind in Puget's Live Playback examination: while the 10875H is 2% faster than the 9880H, information technology's ix% behind the Ryzen 9 4900HS for viewing footage in the timeline. It'southward also significantly slower for running lightly-threaded furnishings like the Warp Stabilizer: the 10875H is 3% faster than a 9750H for stabilizing footage, merely 15% slower than AMD's Zen ii CPU. This isn't a full single-threaded test, information technology uses 1-2 cores with a single instance, and it seems that Intel is simply seeing gains here when 100% unmarried-threaded.

Here'due south a await at how the Core i7-10875H stacks upward against the Core i9-9880H in clock speeds across the first 10 minutes of our Handbrake x265 test. Both CPUs fluctuate betwixt 2.7 GHz and 2.viii GHz all-core for the nearly office, which of course is well below the rated four.3 GHz all-core turbo for this processor. But mobile processors generally don't get anywhere near those all-core numbers long term, due to their power limits.

With clock speeds so close between these two processors, this suggests Intel accept made no improvements to 14nm efficiency between the ninth and 10th generations. In this exam the 9880H is faster, nigh 1.five% faster, and that seems downward to very slightly higher clock speeds on boilerplate with the 9880H, in the first 10 minutes the 9880H was clocked 1% higher on average.

Functioning Comparisons

Before wrapping this one upwardly, allow's take a expect at some performance comparisons. We'll start here with the i7-10875H versus the i9-9880H, a battle of two very similar CPUs. The 10875H has a articulate reward in unmarried-threaded workloads, but outside of this, the 9880H is faster.

Cadre i7-10875H vs. Core i9-9880H

Slightly faster in long term multi-threaded tasks, and moderately faster in shorter term tasks where the higher PL2 limit for our 9880H system leads to an advantage. From an efficiency standpoint, both CPUs seem identical, and that'due south basically because they are.

Cadre i7-10875H vs. Core i7-9750H

The Core i7-10875H brings a performance proceeds to the table in this comparison. In single-thread workloads this could be a 15-20 per centum gain, while for multi-thread nosotros're looking at 10 to xx percent depending on the test. The 10875H is universally faster as it has both more cores and higher single-core turbo frequencies inside the same power limit. Equally information technology tin run more than cores at a relatively minor decrease to frequency, information technology ends up sitting in a more than efficient signal on the voltage frequency curve which is why nosotros run across higher functioning despite the same 45W power limit.

As for increasing the TDP of this processor from its default 45W up to the maximum 62W supported by our Gigabyte Aorus 15 (outside of using XTU), you can await to see up to an 18 pct performance improvement in long term multi-thread workloads. All the same, gains for about other workloads are limited as they're either single-core or merely apply the boost menses, which remain unchanged.

Cadre i7-10875H vs. Ryzen 9 4900HS

The Core i7-10875H is generally slower than the Ryzen ix 4900HS while consuming more power. This is especially true for whatever long-term multi-thread workloads, where the 10875H is 25 to 30 percent slower. In lightly threaded tests, the 10875H tends to be equivalent to AMD's efficient Zen ii design or marginally slower. Withal, the 10875H takes the atomic number 82 in pure single-thread tests, as well equally annihilation cache express, like Excel or Photoshop. Workloads that brand employ of QuickSync like Adobe Premiere exports are also faster on the Intel CPU.

Despite being able to hands increase the power limit on the 10875H, which is something our Ryzen 9 4900HS test organization in the Asus Zephyrus G14 did non, the 10875H is still generally slower in most workloads at 62W, peculiarly anything long term or multi-threaded. Unless you lot can find a 10875H organization that really ups that power budget to in a higher place 90W, we expect most 10875H configurations to come in behind a similar Ryzen arrangement in these sorts of tests.

What We Learned

This is the first 10th-gen Comet Lake H processor we've tested and arguably the near interesting of the bunch. Some may look at the Cadre i7-10875H with skepticism with Intel keeping the 14nm process and Skylake architecture. This is a valid outlook, but nosotros practice recollect in that location are some positives, then we'll talk about those first.

The biggest one is Intel bringing 8 cores down into the Cadre i7 space for the offset time. Spending quite a lot of money to go a Core i9 organization if you wanted an 8-core processor was non worth it most of the fourth dimension, just at present thanks to contest, Intel's hand was forced into offering sometime Core i9 operation at a lower price point. In practise we are getting ten to xx per centum more than operation than a 9750H CPU.

Intel besides holds the single-thread operation crown. It'south not because they're hitting 5 GHz -- because in almost circumstances they aren't -- but even at a reasonably high 4.8 GHz, they take the best single-thread performance. Combined with a larger cache and some niche advantages like QuickSync support in applications, in that location are some workloads where Intel's 8-cadre CPU is the fastest.

Now, have into consideration that the 8-core 10875H is not a drop-in replacement for the Core i7-9750H, which was used across a wide range of systems. At least in the short term, expect to see those more affordable 9750H laptops go an upgrade to the six-cadre 10750H, non the 10875H.

We've been able to assemble some pricing information from manufacturers like MSI and Gigabyte, and the Core i7-10875H will nevertheless sit down a grade above the 10750H. Non quite up there with Core i9s of one-time, just still reasonably expensive. MSI's cheapest 10875H laptop, for example, starts at $1,800 with an RTX 2060 GPU, while the 10750H is available in $1,200 systems. Directly comparing their Creator 17 systems shows the 10875H laptop is a $300 add together-in selection. Also, near of the laptops that use the 10875H are your premium RTX 2070-class units.

What has changed from years prior is that AMD is joining the party and they are doing so with a more than aggressive pricing scheme. Right now you can get an Asus TUF Gaming A15 with the Ryzen 7 4800H and RTX 2060 for just $1,200. Intel laptops that likewise feature the RTX 2060 and compete on cost are using a vi-core CPU, not this new eight-core.

It's possible the Core i7-10875H volition see direct contest from the Ryzen 9 4900HS which is significantly faster in anything long term and multi-threaded. They are about a match in lighter productivity and burst type applications, while Intel does take the lead in pure single-thread workloads. In this regard, what remains to exist seen is how well AMD tin can cater to laptop makers, after all it'due south a newcomer to this segment where Intel has ruled lone for a long fourth dimension. A majority of OEMs have opted to launch high-cease H-serial laptops with tenth-gen Intel parts and only a few offer the option to swap to Ryzen.

The next pace is testing which CPU is faster for loftier-finish discrete GPU gaming. That's something we'll have to explore when we get the correct laptops on mitt. We anticipate this volition exist a shut battle, but we're not wiling to phone call it either fashion until we run the benchmarks. Expect out for that over the coming weeks.