Intel Core 7 240H performs almost identically to the Core i7-12800H in our first benchmarks

Laptops with the Core 7 240H are now becoming widely available to be the go-to processor option for midrange multimedia and gaming machines. It's expected to slowly replace models running on the Core i7-12800H or Core i7-13700H. Unfortunately, users hoping for a noticeable performance boost may be disappointed based on our time with the new Asus V16.

According to our benchmarks below, the Core 7 240H performs within 5 percent of the average Core i7-12800H or Core i7-13700H laptop in our database even though the i7-12800H is now over three years old. The new Core 7 240H is still based on the aging Raptor Lake-H architecture which is also just as old as the i7-12800H.

If performance is flat, are power consumption levels any better? This question is more difficult to answer by example as our first Core 7 240H retail sample would exhibit throttling issues when running Prime95 stress and so its consumption levels are unsteady as shown by the graph below. The processor nonetheless carries an identical number of performance cores as the i7-12800H but with half the efficiency cores (4 vs. 8) while still providing roughly the same performance. Any differences between them under load should therefore be minimal all things considered while the Core 7 240H should be slightly more efficient when running more undemanding apps. It's different enough to not be considered a simple rebrand, but the Core 7 240H still feels too similar to its immediate Core i7 predecessors for most existing owners to upgrade especially since it lacks the integrated AI features of the Core Ultra series.