Not worth your time: The average Intel Core i7-9750H is just 6 percent faster than the Core i7-8750H

The jump from 7th gen Kaby Lake-H Core i7 to 8th gen Coffee Lake-H Core i7 was quite significant. Intel increased the physical core count from 4 to 6 for a 40 to 50 percent boost in multi-threaded performance to be a "true" gen-to-gen leap.

Unfortunately, we can't say the same about the jump from 8th gen Coffee Lake-H Core i7 to 9th gen Coffee Lake-H Core i7. After testing over 25 different laptops equipped with the Core i7-9750H, we've discovered performance to be only 6 percent faster than the last generation Core i7-8750H on average according to CineBench benchmarks. The gap is so narrow that even some select Core i7-8750H laptops can consistently outperform a newer and more expensive Core i7-9750H laptop.

Users who have been following the Intel roadmap will not likely be surprised by this data. The 9th gen Coffee Lake-H series was designed to be a minor refresh of 8th gen at the silicon level. In fact, the most important distinction between 8th gen and 9th gen isn't performance but security; Intel finally patched up the Meltdown vulnerability via hardware on its 9th gen SKUs.

Users who are looking for a larger performance leap will have to jump from 8th gen Core i7 to 9th gen Core i9 as the latest Core i9 series adds an additional two physical cores for a total of 8.

Most laptops with the Core i7-9750H tend to be high-performance business laptops or gaming laptops. In general, we recommend sticking to Core i7-8750H models as they tend to be less expensive while offering essentially the same performance as the i7-9750H. Gamers in particular should invest the money saved on a higher GPU option instead where the gains in performance are actually tangible.

See our dedicated pages on the Core i7-8750H and Core i7-9750H below for more benchmark comparisons between the processors.