Today we are taking our first look at Intel's Tiger Lake H45 laptop processors and how they perform with a comprehensive criterion analysis of the Core i7-11800H. Intel announced this CPU only a couple of weeks agone and now nosotros've had enough time to prepare our usual exhaustive review, and then hither nosotros are today with all of the details.

Tiger Lake H45 brings to the table 8 Willow Cove CPU cores, a massive overhaul from the previous Skylake derivatives Intel has been using for years now in laptops. While Willow Cove and Tiger Lake has been around for a little while now in ultraportable systems, these viii-core designs are new and especially designed for higher functioning systems, bringing Intel's 10nm SuperFin engineering to a higher power class.

Forth with new CPU cores and twice the corporeality of cores that are bachelor in ultraportables, 11th-gen H-series CPUs too bring new Xe integrated graphics, xx lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, integrated Thunderbolt 4, and a whole range of other stuff.

The Cadre i7-11800H nosotros're reviewing today is Intel's primary mainstream offering that will be used in the bulk of mid-range to loftier-stop laptops. This is the lone Cadre i7 model in the serial, flanked by the 6-cadre Core i5 models below, and higher clocked Core i9 chips above. The 11800H brings 8 cores and 16 threads with 24 MB of L3 enshroud, a 2.iii GHz base of operations clock at 45W, plus turbo frequencies that range from iv.6 GHz on up to 2 cores, to 4.2 GHz all-core. So we become an Xe integrated GPU design with 32 execution units and clock speeds up to 1450 MHz.

Compared to Core i7 models in the prior generation, this is a substantial update, not just in terms of architecture. Intel has consolidated the line-up to include simply an eight-cadre processor, whereas previously both vi and 8 core models fell nether this brand. So this is a big update on a chip like the Core i7-10750H as it packs 2 extra cores. However maximum clock speeds have regressed, from as high every bit 5.1 GHz on the Core i7-10875H to simply 4.six GHz, a arrears Intel is hoping to brand up with higher IPC.

The exam organisation for today's review is not an Intel reference platform but a production laptop from Gigabyte, the new Aero 15 OLED. This is more of a creator/productivity focused organisation than Gigabyte's Aorus line-up, so the Aero features a gorgeous 15.vi-inch 4K OLED panel which is amazing for content creation and viewing. A similar design that Gigabyte has been using for a few generations now with the slim display bezels, full sized RGB-backlit keyboard and a great selection of ports. Also did I mention the OLED display?

But more importantly, it's powerful on the inside. Along with the Core i7-11800H we have a GeForce RTX 3070 GPU running at 90-105W using Nvidia'south Studio drivers. There's 32GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 out of the box, although we used 16GB for our testing which is standardized beyond all test laptops. 1TB of storage inside besides.

We're running the Cadre i7-11800H in its standard 45W configuration which is accessible through the "gaming" mode in Gigabyte's Control Centre software. This includes a PL2 state of 109W for boost applications, much college than the ~65W or then we typically see on equivalent AMD machines, yet this has always been the example for Intel. In dissimilarity, AMD boosts for a lot longer than Intel; the boost period on this 11800H unit of measurement is quite short.

We understand that a lot of laptops have the capability to run H-serial processors to a higher place 45W, so while the majority of our testing will be done at 45W across all laptops, we'll besides include some power scaling figures, so we can encounter how the 11800H compares to other processors up in the college power ranges. 45W is the default though, and as well what the CPU by and large falls dorsum to under heavy GPU load which is why nosotros use it.

Today'south benchmarks volition primarily focus on productivity testing. There volition be a small-scale section on gaming towards the end, but as this laptop uses a GPU configuration that nosotros haven't tested before, we can't do as much apples-to-apples testing. Hopefully in the coming weeks nosotros'll have the ability to practise a large benchmark comparison with Intel and AMD in gaming using the aforementioned GPU.

Benchmarks

We'll boot off benchmarking every bit usual with a await at Cinebench R20 multi-threading. The Core i7-11800H is significantly faster than any previous Intel mobile CPU, coming in a massive 35% faster than the Core i7-10870H it's replacing, and about 60% alee of the i7-10750H.

This allows Intel's Tiger Lake CPU to close the substantial gap between Ryzen and tenth-gen that was established with Ryzen 4000 at the beginning of last yr. Withal, despite huge gains over the prior generation, the functioning Intel's been able to reach is only sufficient for matching the Ryzen 7 4800H; the 11800H is still 9% slower than the 5800H. That'south competitive but the margin isn't close enough to say they are equals as the 11800H falls between the 5800H and 5600H.

While Intel is unable to friction match AMD in multi-threading, unmarried-thread performance is stiff with Tiger Lake designs as we've seen before. Even clocked at just 4.6 GHz instead of the 5.0 GHz nosotros know Willow Cove tin can do, the 11800H beats the 5800H by four%, which gives it performance around the mark of AMD's higher-tier Ryzen 9 5900HX. The 5900HX as well clocks up to 4.6 GHz, indicating that Willow Cove and Zen 3 take similar IPC in this workload.

You'll see like margins in Cinebench R23, though this doesn't change much from our Cinebench R20 conclusion.

Handbrake is less favorable for Intel compared to Cinebench. In our benchmark run, the 11800H concluded up 14% slower than the Ryzen seven 5800H, more effectually the marking of the 35W Ryzen 7 5800HS, suggesting Tiger Lake is less efficient in this power class than Ryzen 5000. Still, Intel have beaten their previous Cadre i7 parts by at least twenty percent core-for-cadre. This new design is also outperforming the Cadre i9-10980HK.

In CPU-based rendering with Blender, the 11800H is a fleck slower than Ryzen, xv% slower in this particular workload comparing Cadre i7 to Ryzen 7. We see a xix% performance comeback over the previous generation of H-serial processors, but this isn't enough to close the gap to fifty-fifty the Ryzen vii 4800H at 45W.

One of the largest outliers in our test suite was code compilation in Cygwin, where gen-on-gen performance only improved by 9% when comparison the 11800H to the 10870H, which led to a significant performance arrears in comparison to Ryzen.

However that doesn't tell the full story for lawmaking compilation, as in our Chromium compile benchmark the 11800H is much more competitive, simply a 3% behind the 5800H so effectively delivering the same sort of performance. This presented a 21% functioning uplift over the 10870H and 41% over the 10750H, which is what you want to see from an architectural overhaul.

At this point in the review, we'd usually talk about Office performance as measured in PCMark 10, notwithstanding we had a few issues running this awarding on the test organisation, resulting in scores lower than what we'd already seen from 4-core Tiger Lake systems. We assume this is some sort of problems, then nosotros'll move on for at present.

Our custom Microsoft Excel exam ran fine, so nosotros got a expert look at number crunching. In this test the 11800H is only marginally faster than previous-gen chips similar the 10870H, and coming together the performance of the 10980HK, possibly due to clock speed deficits. Still that'due south yet enough to outperform the Ryzen 7 5800H past a slim iii pct.

In seven-Cipher compression information technology's another stiff showing from the Core i7-11800H, matching the performance of the Ryzen 7 5800H and Core i9-10980HK, and beating the Core i7-10870H by a 13 per centum margin. These sorts of benchmarks are always complicated by boost periods, all-core turbos and those sorts of things where the 10980HK is a bit of a brute, just this is still a solid result.

In decompression, Intel gets beaten equally Ryzen 5000 processors are particularly potent in this workload. The 11800H is fifteen% slower than the 5800H here despite a 20% performance comeback over the 10870H, which highlights merely how large the delta was in prior generations.

On the other manus, in MATLAB the Core i7-11800H is the clear pick, with 15% higher performance on offer than the Ryzen 7 5800H, the largest margin in favor of Intel that we've seen then far. The margins to other Intel processors are similar to previous benchmarks, 27% faster than the Core i7-10870H, merely with Intel's larger L3 cache and college boost power limits it does end up with the winning combination in this examination.

For AES-256 cryptography operation every bit measured by SiSoftware Sandra, Intel benefits hugely from their new architecture, seeing functioning more double thank you to improved AES dispatch. Intel also ends up faster than AMD, near 13% ahead, which is a strong showing.

In Acrobat PDF exporting, performance is similar to the unmarried-threaded workloads that we've looked at. Performance is 9% higher than the Core i7-10870H, which pushes the 11800H to a higher place the Ryzen vii 5800H, ending upward 5% ahead. It's really slower than the 11370H here equally the 11370H tops out at four.8 GHz not 4.6 GHz, but still a good result for Intel.

Adjacent upwardly nosotros have Adobe Photoshop using the Puget Systems criterion. Another modest performance uplift in this lightly threaded application gen-on-gen, with the 11800H coming in eleven% faster than the 10870H. This puts the 11800H slightly behind the Ryzen 7 5800H but ultimately both processors are going to deliver a very like experience.

For interest's sake I'g including DaVinci Resolve Studio results even though this application is by and large GPU spring when rendering, just to meet how the 11800H might stack up in a reasonable laptop configuration... and information technology performs equally expected. We see more performance than a 10870H laptop with a slower GPU as whenever the benchmark is slamming the CPU, the new Tiger Lake design is much faster.

When comparing Intel and AMD, our 11800H system includes an RTX 3070 at 90W compared to our 5800H system with an RTX 3060 at 115W. Based on other testing the 3070 at 90W is nearly half-dozen% faster and in this benchmark the Intel system is most 3% faster. We'll larn more than with equivalent GPU configurations in futurity reviews but the main takeaway hither is that either CPU choice is suitable for DaVinci.

In the Puget Systems export test for Premiere, the 11800H is slightly slower than the 5800H configuration despite having a slightly faster GPU, just outside of that in that location don't appear to be significant differences in this workload. However, the 11800H does provide a performance gain over the 10870H, which lagged behind Ryzen despite featuring decent GPUs in some of the configurations we tested. The Puget benchmark also reported higher live playback performance and similar effects performance compared to Ryzen.

We're also seeing about a 10% performance improvement in Adobe Afterwards Effects when comparing the 11800H to the 10870H, which like many of the other CPU + GPU workloads puts usa in the ballpark of AMD'due south new processors. A lot of these applications rely heavily on GPU dispatch, and so again, whether you lot go Ryzen or Intel this generation when you lot're GPU bound.

Functioning Comparisons

Now for some head-to-head comparisons. The Core i7-11800H is a much faster processor than the Core i7-10750H for productivity thanks to those two extra cores, higher IPC, and better efficiency.

Single-thread performance improvements range from 15 to 30%, while multi-threaded gains are as high as 50% in some workloads. Anyone that has been using a prior six-core laptop including CPUs as far back as the Core i7-8750H should be considering an upgrade to a more modern 8-core model.

Core for core, the Core i7-11800H is likewise faster than prior tenth-gen designs. Unmarried-threaded gains are large, merely even outside of that y'all can expect a twenty-30 percent functioning improvement over the Cadre i7-10870H at the same power level.

In comparison to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, the battle is much closer. The 11800H is a tad faster for lightly-threaded workloads, but the performance difference is in the low single digits. Meanwhile, multi-thread performance ranges from well-nigh even, to up to 15 per centum slower in the worst cases.

Ability Scaling

Adjacent up we have power scaling, with a expect at how a selection of Intel and AMD parts fare when running above their stock 45W power limits. We used Cinebench R23 multi-threading with boost disabled for benchmarking, and so we're running exclusively at the long term power limits every bit shown.

With Ryzen 5000 and Intel's 10th-generation, power scaling behavior was like, tapering off subsequently about 60W only continuing to rise with a similar margin between the CPUs. While we weren't able to run our AMD systems higher up 75W in the entry-level laptop we used for testing, generally speaking, a Ryzen 5000 laptop will have a similar performance gap on a tenth-gen laptop at whatever given power level.

But that's not the case with 11th-gen Tiger Lake. The Core i7-11800H displays notably dissimilar ability scaling beliefs, with a much more linear increase equally power increases. Intel's new Tiger Lake design built on 10nm SuperFin is much more efficient at utilizing high levels of power relative to 10th-gen, non tapering off until we become into the 90W range. While their Comet Lake design tended to need a lot of power to increase the all-core frequency by a pocket-sized amount, Tiger Lake has far better scaling thanks to a better balance of frequency vs performance (thanks to higher IPC overall).

Where does this leave the 11800H vs AMD'south 5800H?

Well, in the lower ability range, approximately 35-60W, AMD'due south design is more than efficient, and keeps a similar distance away from Intel. In this range, Intel tends to demand nigh 20W more power to match the performance AMD provides in this benchmark. Merely in the higher power range, the functioning gap shrinks equally the 11800H is more efficient in this class. Upwards effectually 80W, the 11800H but needs 10W more ability to lucifer AMD, and I suspect somewhere around xc-95W the ii parts would perform equally.

What this means for laptop buyers is that in slimmer, lighter systems with less cooling, a Ryzen 7 5800H volition evangelize better functioning at the lower wattage levels the design is capable of. In larger, beefier, college-end machines that can sustain upwards of 80W on the CPU, the performance gap between Intel and AMD would shut a lot. Generally, these sort of systems are your 17-inch RTX 3080 blazon machines.

Preliminary Gaming Benchmarks

The last set of testing nosotros accept is a brief wait at gaming. As I said earlier, we need to get an equivalent GPU in an Intel laptop to the Ryzen systems we've already tested so we can properly measure gaming performance, but the results we already have in a minor selection of CPU limited titles are however worth looking at as a functioning preview.

Resident Evil ii is fairly CPU limited when gaming at 1080p. In this title, the Core i7-11800H and Ryzen 7 5800H deliver well-nigh the same level of performance, which is an improvement over tenth-gen laptops.

Hitman 3's Dartmoor criterion is some other CPU intensive game and it's a ameliorate result for the 11800H here. Functioning is in line with the Ryzen 9 5900HX in this game, slightly outperforming the Cadre i9-10980HK, though please exist aware of the GPU differences.

Death Stranding is another championship where the Core i7-11800H delivers about the aforementioned operation as the Ryzen 9 5900HX in a benchmark pass that is largely CPU limited at 1080p using the Very High preset

CS GO was the most favorable result for Intel that I've benchmarked so far, hands beating the Ryzen 9 5900HX by 15% in boilerplate frame rate which matches the upper cease of the productivity results nosotros've seen.

In Thou Theft Auto V, the 11800H matches the performance of the Ryzen 9 5900HX in boilerplate frame rates simply is slightly behind in 1% lows using 1080p low settings, which is fully CPU limited.

In Civilization VI, performance is very similar between the Ryzen 9 5900HX and Core i7-11800H again when testing at 1080p using depression settings, giving united states of america a CPU limited experience that we can compare. Both configurations are faster than a concluding gen Cadre i7-10870H laptop in this game.

What We Learned

Overall, the Core i7-11800H is a substantial update for Intel in the performance laptop segment where the H-series operates. Intel had been lagging backside AMD for the past yr since the debut of Ryzen 4000 and then 5000, merely with Intel finally able to transition away from 14nm to a new process and a new architecture, they've managed to close the performance gap and exist far more than competitive as a result.

The Core i7-11800H delivers 30 percent more functioning than an equivalent tenth-gen part with eight cores, and around 50 per centum more functioning than the six-core Core i7-10750H, which is a massive bound for productivity.

While Intel is delivering some of the largest gen-on-gen gains they've provided in recent retentivity, the battle betwixt the Core i7-11800H and a competing AMD part like the Ryzen 7 5800H is somewhat more than complicated.

That is to say, it's not a slam dunk for either side and really AMD offers a small functioning advantage with the 5800H in productivity performance. This isn't the case in every application, and there are times where the 11800H is either slightly ahead, slightly behind, or equal – plus a few outliers of grade – just when you combine these cases with slower heavy multi-threading, the overall balance for productivity lies with AMD.

For Intel to match AMD in cadre-heavy productivity, information technology either needs to swallow 20W more power, or be competing in a much higher power course where Intel can leverage their superior power scaling.

On the other hand, the Core i7-11800H appears to be great for gaming, matching the operation of AMD i tier above with the Ryzen 9 5900HX, at least from what nosotros could test in a few CPU limited titles. This volition crave further investigation with properly equivalent GPUs, but the signs are there that Intel will be extremely competitive for gaming.

Intel's advantage of a superior platform in laptops remains too. AMD is struggling with supply, so you'll probably find it much easier to buy an 11th-gen laptop than a Ryzen 5000 laptop in the next few months. On meridian of this, there are more Intel laptop designs to cull from, increasing your chances of finding a suitable laptop that uses an Intel Cadre CPU. One final technical reward lies with PCIe 4.0 and Thunderbolt iv support that is absent on AMD's Ryzen platform.

The terminal of import piece of the puzzle nosotros haven't talked near is pricing. Though this will vary by manufacturer and modify over time, based on what nosotros've observed in the market and learned from discussions with OEMs, Intel'southward platform is more than expensive to implement. Nosotros're already seeing in the entry to mid-range market place that a Ryzen 7 5800H organization with the aforementioned specs as an Intel Core i7-11800H system is retailing for several hundred dollars less, and at times even Ryzen ix 5900HX builds are cheaper. So that's something to keep in mind when shopping for the perfect laptop for your needs.

And that's the tale of today'due south review: Intel is now much more than competitive with the Core i7-11800H and other Tiger Lake H45 processors, and that'southward only a practiced thing for the overall market and your prospects of buying a new laptop in the coming weeks and months.

Shopping Shortcuts
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