9 W Core i7-1180G7 vs. 28 W Core i7-1185G7: What's The Performance Deficit?

The Tiger Lake-U family has expanded from the original Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1135G7, and Core i7-1165G7 triplet to include many more like the i5-1145G7 and i7-1185G7 each with vPro features. The latest set of SKUs to join the family is the i3-1110G4, i5-1130G7, and i7-1180G7 also with vPro features. Their performance levels, however, leave a lot to be desired.

Our example focuses on the new Core i7-1180G7 and older Core i7-1185G7. Although their names are almost exactly the same, the i7-1180G7 will perform much slower than the i7-1185G7 in multi-threaded loads. Its base clock rate of just 2.2 GHz pales in comparison to the 3.0 GHz i7-1185G7 leading to 40 percent slower performance in multi-thread heavy workloads. The performance delta is wide enough that a standard i5-1135G7 can handily beat the i7-1180G7 even though their nomenclature may suggest otherwise.

Fortunately, the performance deficit appears to be limited only to multi-threaded loads. Single-thread and integrated Iris Xe graphics performance on the i7-1180G7 are both very close to the i7-1185G7. It's still a lot of graphics power when you consider that the i7-1180G7 is just a 9 W TDP part.

We suspect that Intel introduced these very low-power CPU SKUs specifically for small form factors like tablets or mini PCs. Our first i7-1180G7 test sample, for example, happens to be Dell Latitude 7320 Windows 10 tablet. It'll be interesting to see how many OEMs will even utilize these 9 W solutions as Microsoft has proven that tablets like the Surface Pro can run just fine on 15 W to 28 W Tiger Lake-U CPUs.