Intel's Core i5-8300H is proving to be a decent upgrade over last year's Core i5-7300HQ

Gamers in the market for a new gaming laptop can purchase a budget Intel 8th gen system with the Core i5-8300H and get nearly the same CPU performance as a pricier Intel 7th gen system with the Core i7-7700HQ. The i5-8300H introduces Hyper-Threading to the series whereas the older i5-7300HQ was limited to only half the threads for measurably slower CPU performance.

by Allen Ngo, 2018/05/30

Nearly all gaming laptops in the past two years have been shipping with either quad-core Core i5-7300HQ or quad-core Core i7-7700HQ options. While clock rates are not very different between these two CPUs, the i7-7700HQ is significantly faster since it incorporates Hyper-Threading for a performance boost of about 40 percent over the i5-7300HQ in multi-threaded workloads.

Fast forward to 2018 and the proper successor to the Kaby Lake i5-7300HQ is now available as the Coffee Lake-H i5-8300H. While it doesn't have the additional two cores a la the hexa-core i7-8750H, the quad-core i5-8300H is still notable for finally introducing Hyper-Threading to the Core i5 HQ series. This alone allows the i5-8300H to run 30 to 40 percent faster than the outgoing i5-7300HQ even though the i5-8300H has a slightly lower base clock rate than the i5-7300HQ (2.3 GHz vs. 2.5 GHz).

The results are significant for anyone in the market for a gaming laptop. Most budget laptops of yesteryear were distinguished by their i5-7300HQ CPU while mainstream and higher-end enthusiast laptops would have the faster i7-7700HQ. This distinction is continuing with newer gaming laptops equipped with i5-8300H or i7-8750H options. Since the i5-8300H is significantly faster than the i5-7300HQ, however, users can buy budget Intel 8th gen laptops equipped with the i5-8300H and expect CPU performance to be very close to the pricier i7-7700HQ. In contrast, the i5-7300HQ offers only a marginal 10 percent boost over the Skylake i5-6300HQ.

The Asus TUF FX504 was our first laptop to arrive with the i5-8300H and we are expecting more to come throughout the year as additional Coffee Lake-H laptops become available.

CPU	Cores/Threads	Base Clock	Turbo Boost Clock	Cache	TDP
Core i5-7300HQ	4/4	2.5 GHz	3.5 GHz	6 MB	35 to 45 W
Core i7-7700HQ	4/8	2.8 GHz	3.8 GHz	6 MB	35 to 45 W
Core i5-8300H	4/8	2.3 GHz	4.0 GHz	8 MB	35 to 45 W

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Cinebench R15 | Cinebench R11.5

Cinebench R15
CPU Single 64Bit
Asus FX504GD Intel Core i5-8300H	170 Points ∼78%
Average Intel Core i5-8300H (151 - 174, n=17)	169 Points ∼78%
Asus GL703GE-ES73 Intel Core i7-8750H	163 Points ∼75%
Asus FX503VM-EH73 Intel Core i7-7700HQ	156 Points ∼72%
Dell Inspiron 15 7000 7577 Intel Core i5-7300HQ	131 Points ∼60%
Dell XPS 15 2016 9550 Intel Core i5-6300HQ	118 Points ∼54%
CPU Multi 64Bit
Asus GL703GE-ES73 Intel Core i7-8750H	1005 Points ∼23%
Average Intel Core i5-8300H (604 - 850, n=17)	785 Points ∼18%
Asus FX503VM-EH73 Intel Core i7-7700HQ	733 Points ∼17%
Asus FX504GD Intel Core i5-8300H	604 Points ∼14%
Dell Inspiron 15 7000 7577 Intel Core i5-7300HQ	514 Points ∼12%
Dell XPS 15 2016 9550 Intel Core i5-6300HQ	461 Points ∼11%

Cinebench R11.5
CPU Single 64Bit
Asus GL703GE-ES73 Intel Core i7-8750H	1.92 Points ∼78%
Average Intel Core i5-8300H (1.72 - 1.96, n=7)	1.87 Points ∼76%
Asus FX503VM-EH73 Intel Core i7-7700HQ	1.83 Points ∼74%
Asus FX504GD Intel Core i5-8300H	1.72 Points ∼70%
Dell Inspiron 15 7000 7577 Intel Core i5-7300HQ	1.52 Points ∼62%
Dell XPS 15 2016 9550 Intel Core i5-6300HQ	1.47 Points ∼60%
CPU Multi 64Bit
Asus GL703GE-ES73 Intel Core i7-8750H	11.15 Points ∼25%
Asus FX503VM-EH73 Intel Core i7-7700HQ	8.17 Points ∼19%
Average Intel Core i5-8300H (6.2 - 8.79, n=7)	7.93 Points ∼18%
Asus FX504GD Intel Core i5-8300H	6.2 Points ∼14%
Dell Inspiron 15 7000 7577 Intel Core i5-7300HQ	5.92 Points ∼13%
Dell XPS 15 2016 9550 Intel Core i5-6300HQ	5.28 Points ∼12%