Intel Core i7-4950HQ vs Intel Core i7-4810MQ

The Intel Core i7-4950HQ is a high-end quad-core processor for laptops launched in Q2 2013. It is based on the Haswell architecture and manufactured in 22nm. Due to Hyperthreading, the four cores can handle up to eight threads in parallel, leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 2.4 GHz, but can dynamically increase clock rates with Turbo Boost up to 3.4 GHz (for 4 active cores), 3.5 GHz (for 2 active cores) and 3.6 GHz (for 1 active core). A noteworthy feature is the fast integrated graphics unit (GT3e) with eDRAM memory (128 MB, 77 mm², on-package, 102 GB/s).

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports, improving especially the Hyper-Threading performance. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

Due to these changes, the performance per clock has been improved by about 10 percent compared to Ivy Bridge. Therefore, the performance of the i7-4950HQ is similar to the slightly faster clocked i7-3840QM (Ivy Bridge based).

The integrated Iris Pro Graphics 5200 GPU offers 40 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 200 - 1300 MHz (with Turbo Boost), making it significantly faster than the HD 4000 or HD 4600. The additional eDRAM memory further improves performance. As a result, the HD 5200 competes with dedicated mid-range graphics cards.

The i7-4950HQ is rated at a TDP of 47 W including the integrated graphics card, memory controller and VRMs.  Therefore, the CPU is best suited for laptops 15-inches or greater.

The Intel Core i7-4810MQ is a high-end quad-core processor for laptops which has been launched in Q1/2014. It is based on the Haswell architecture and manufactured in 22nm. Due to Hyperthreading, the four cores can handle up to eight threads in parallel leading to better utilization of the CPU. Each core offers a base speed of 2.8 GHz but can dynamically increase clock rates with Turbo Boost up to 3.6 GHz (for 4 active cores), 3.7 GHz (for 2 active cores) and 3.8 GHz (for 1 active core).

Architecture

Haswell is the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture with improvements on both GPU and CPU performance. The CPUs are produced in 22nm and offer an optimized branch prediction as well as additional execution ports, improving the performance per clock by 5 - 10 percent. Furthermore, new features like AVX2 and FMA should increase the performance in future applications.

Performance

Compared to the Core i7-4800MQ, the 4810MQ is clocked just 100 MHz higher and therefore only slightly faster. Overall, the performance is almost similar to the Core i7-4900MQ. Even extremly demanding software or multitasking will be handled easily.

Graphics

The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 offers 20 Execution Units (EUs) clocked at 400 MHz up to 1300 MHz with Turbo Boost, making it about 30 % faster than the HD 4000. This is slightly slower than the AMD Radeon HD 8650G, but similar to a dedicated GeForce GT 720M.

Power Consumption

The i7-4810MQ is rated at a TDP of 47 W including graphics card, memory controller and VRMs.  Therefore, the CPU is only suited for laptops 15-inches or greater.