Update | Hexa-core i7-10710U sample underachieves in Cinebench R15 and R20 benchmarks; trails behind AMD's quad-core Ryzen 7 3700U

Update September 16: As pointed out by one of our readers in the comments and now further confirmed by MSI, it seems the device in this particular test was likely running in balanced mode ("Comfort") and better results would have been produced by operating the Prestige 15 laptop in "Sport" mode. As can be seen in the new images at the bottom of this article, a score of 1100 can be achieved by the i7-10710U in the Cinebench R15 multi test. Performance mode would allow 25 W to 45 W TDP.

Thanks to Eseka, who originally tested an MSI Prestige 15 laptop with Intel Core i7-10710U and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q, we now have a couple more benchmarks for the Comet Lake chip to go along with the Geekbench and UserBenchmark ones we have already reported on. This time, the new processor has been put through its paces on Cinebench R15 and R20 and has seemingly come up wanting.

Although the i7-10710U already demonstrated its potential as a single-core meteor with this particular tested laptop, things have been different when it came down to multi-core benchmarking (as was pointed out with the Geekbench scores). The CML-U SoC managed to rack up scores of 644 on Cinebench R15 and 1,515 to 1,531 on Cinebench R20. In comparison, AMD’s fellow power-efficient Ryzen 7 3700U chip that also has a TDP of 15 W amassed a recorded score of 701 on Cinebench R15, even though it has two less cores to utilize than the rival from Intel.

Obviously, there is a horde of caveats to be added to this comparison, including the systems involved in the testing and the thermal restrictions in place. For instance, in a recent Notebookcheck review for the MSI Prestige 14 the i7-10710U scored a much more vigorous 1,043 points in the Cinebench R15 benchmark thanks to MSI’s optimization work, with the processor being able to operate briefly at 50 W and at an average of 30 W.

It’s arguable that the pre-production MSI Prestige 15 model that Eseka has used in his testing is offering suboptimal performance, and we have reached out to MSI in regard to the multi-core scores achieved by this laptop. As can be seen in the Cinebench R15 table below, the i7-10710U we have tested soundly surpassed devices with the quad-core Whiskey Lake i7-8665U, as it should.