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Intel announced this CPU only a couple of weeks ago about Tiger Lake H45 laptop processors and how they perform with a comprehensive benchmark analysis of the Core i7-11800H. 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 8-core designs are new and specially designed for higher performance systems, bringing Intel’s 10nm SuperFin technology to a higher power class.
Along with new CPU cores and twice the amount of cores that are available in ultraportables, 11th-gen H-series CPUs also bring new Xe integrated graphics, 20 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, integrated Thunderbolt 4, and a whole range of other stuff.
The Core i7-11800H we’re reviewing today is Intel’s primary mainstream offering that will be used in the majority of mid-range to high-end laptops. This is the lone Core i7 model in the series, flanked by the six-core Core i5 models below, and higher clocked Core i9 chips above. The 11800H brings 8 cores and 16 threads with 24 MB of L3 cache, a 2.3 GHz base clock at 45W, plus turbo frequencies that range from 4.6 GHz on up to 2 cores, to 4.2 GHz all-core. Then we get 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 just an eight-core processor, whereas previously both six and eight core models fell under this brand. So this is a big update on a chip like the Core i7-10750H as it packs two extra cores. However maximum clock speeds have regressed, from as high as 5.1 GHz on the Core i7-10875H to just 4.6 GHz, a deficit Intel is hoping to make up with higher IPC.
The test system 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 system than Gigabyte’s Aorus line-up, so the Aero features a gorgeous 15.6-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.
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’s Studio drivers. There’s 32GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 out of the box, although we used 16GB for our testing which is standardized across all test laptops. 1TB of storage inside as well.
This includes a PL2 state of 109W for boost applications, much higher than the ~65W or so we typically see on equivalent AMD machines, however this has always been the case for Intel. In contrast, AMD boosts for a lot longer than Intel; the boost period on this 11800H unit is quite short.
lot of laptops have the capability to run H-series processors above 45W, so while the majority of our testing will be done at 45W across all laptops, we'll also include some power scaling figures, so we can see how the 11800H compares to other processors up in the higher power ranges.
