Intel Core i5-1035G1 vs Intel Core i7-7700HQ vs Intel Core i7-7660U

Intel Core i5-1035G1

The Intel Core i5-1035G1 is a low-power, Ice Lake family processor (SoC) featuring 4 cores, 8 threads, 6 MB of L3 cache and the UHD G1 (32 EUs) iGPU. It saw the light of day in H2 2019. The chip is designed for use in highly portable laptops; its CPU cores run at 1.0 GHz to 3.6 GHz, with only 3.2 GHz achievable if all the cores are loaded.

Unlike the costlier Core i5-1035G4, the 1035G1 has the 32 EU UHD Graphics G1 iGPU at its disposal as opposed to the more powerful 48 EU Iris Plus G4; CPU cores run at a slightly lower clock rate in the case of the 1035G1, too.

Architecture & Features

Ice Lake family chips are powered by Sunny Cove CPU cores.The latter aim to do what Palm Cove cores (that we never really got a chance to get a taste of) were expected to do, delivering a double-digit IPC uplift over the venerable Skylake architecture thanks to a range of small improvements across the board including scheduler improvements, larger caches and buffers, and support for new instruction sets.

Thunderbolt 3 support is built right into the Core i5 (meaning the latter has several PCIe 3 lanes exclusive to Thunderbolt devices, reducing the number of additional components required for Thunderbolt to work) and so is Intel CNVi Wi-Fi 6 support (making it easier for Intel to sell its proprietary WLAN cards to laptop makers). The Core i5-1035G1 also has the DL Boost and GNA features for applications centered around machine learning.

The 4 GT/s bus is indicative of a consumer-grade chip, since CPUs for gaming laptops and portable workstations usually employ the faster 8 GT/s bus. RAM support is nothing to sneeze at, at up to DDR4-3200 or LPDDR4-3733. NVMe SSDs are supported, with data transfer rates limited to 3.9 GB/s (this is what four PCIe 3 lanes are good for). SATA drives and even eMMC chips are also natively supported here.

This is not a user-replaceable CPU, as it gets permanently soldered to the motherboard (BGA1526 socket interface).

OS support is limited to 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11, as well as many Linux distros.

Performance

The Core i5-1035G1 is a lower mid-range CPU, as of mid 2022. It is good for more than just the basics while being no match for true high-performers such as the mighty Core i7-10850H.

According to our in-house testing, the Core i5 delivers multi-thread performance that is similar to what the Core i7-10610U, the Core i7-1160G7 and the Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U have to offer. Your mileage may vary depending on how competent the cooling solution of your system is and how high the CPU power limits are.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15IIL05 is among the fastest laptops featuring the 1035G1 that we have tested.

Graphics

The UHD Graphics G1 is based on Intel's Gen 11 architecture. The UHD Graphics runs at up to 1,050 MHz and has 32 EUs for fairly unimpressive performance; the Iris Plus G4 has 48 EUs while the Iris Plus G7 has 64 EUs, for reference. This iGPU will drive up to 3 monitors simultaneously and is DX12-compatible. The resolution options are capped at 5120 by 3200. There is no hardware AV1 codec support here, meaning such a video will be SW-decoded with rather low energy efficiency. The usual HEVC, AVC and VP9 codecs are supported, thankfully.

The UHD Graphics is significantly faster than the UHD Graphics 620, yet it's still not as good as a proper discrete graphics card would be. It will let one play certain games, F1 2020 included, provided one is content with the 720p resolution and low quality settings.

Power consumption

The Core i5-1035G1 has a default TDP (also known as the long-term Power Limit) of 15 W. Laptop makers are free to increase that value somewhat, with 25 W being the upper limit, or reduce it (values as low as 13 W are possible). Clock speeds and performance will change accordingly as a result. Either way, an active cooling solution will be required to dissipate the heat.

The chip is manufactured on Intel's second-generation 10 nm process (not "10 nm SuperFin" or "Intel 7") for average, as of late 2022, energy efficiency.

Intel Core i7-7700HQ

The Intel Core i7-7700HQ is a fast quad-core processor for notebooks based on the Kaby Lake H architecture (7th generation Core), which was announced in January 2017 at CES. It is the successor to the Core i7-6700HQ from the Skylake generation and is manufactured in an improved 14 nm+ process, so the clocks are 200 MHz higher at the same TDP. The architecture was not changed, only the video engine got an update (see our Kaby Lake article).

The integrated graphics card is called Intel HD Graphics 630, but the architecture does not differ from the 530 GPU from the Skylake generation and only the clocks are slightly higher. 

Performance

Thanks to the 200 MHz higher clocks (5.5-7.6% depending on the Boost), the CPU performance is increased and roughly on par with the Core i7-6970HQ (2.8-3.7 GHz but with 128 MB eDRAM). The TDP can also be reduced to 35 Watts (cTDP down), but this will reduce the performance.

Power Consumption

Due to its 45-Watt TDP, the CPU will be used in bigger notebooks with at least 15 inches most of the time.

Intel Core i7-7660U

The Intel Core i7-7660U is a fast dual-core SoC for notebooks and Ultrabooks based on the Kaby Lake architecture and was announced in January 2017. The CPU has two processor cores clocked at 2.5-4 GHz (two cores up to 3.8 GHz). The processor can execute up to four threads simultaneously thanks to Hyper Threading. It is also equipped with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU with 64 MB eDRAm, a dual-channel memory controller (DDR4) as well as VP9 and H.265 video decoding as well as encoding. The chip is still manufactured in a 14nm process with FinFET transistors.

Compared to the Core i7-7600U, the 7660 does have a higher single-core Turbo of 4 GHz (+100 MHz), but a lower dual-core Turbo (-100 MHz) and a lower base frequency (-300 MHz). However, the CPU part can also use the 64 MB eDRAM as L5 cache.

Architecture

Intel basically uses the same micro architecture compared to Skylake, so the per-MHz performance does not differ. The manufacturer only reworked the Speed Shift technology for faster dynamic adjustments of voltages and clocks, and the improved 14nm process allows much higher frequencies combined with better efficiency than before.

Performance

At 2.5-4 GHz, the Core i7-7660U has a slightly lower frequency (except for the single-core Turbo) compared to the Core i7-7600U, but the CPU part can also use the 64 MB eDRAM, so the performance should be similar.

Graphics

The integrated Intel Iris Plus 640 Graphics is the GT3e model of the Kaby Lake GPU (Intel Gen. 9.5). It has 48 Execution Units running at 300-1050 MHz and the performance is comparable to a GeForce 920MX thanks to fast eDRAM cache. However, there aren't any significant improvements compared to the old Iris Pro 540, so modern games can often not be played smoothly or only at the lowest or medium settings, respectively.

Contrary to Skylake, Kaby lake now also supports H.265/HEVC Main 10 with a 10-bit color depth as well as Google's VP9 codec. The dual-core Kaby Lake processors announced in January should also support HDCP 2.2.

Power Consumption

The chip is manufactured in an improved 14nm process with FinFET transistors, which improves the efficiency even further. Intel still specifies the TDP with 15 Watts, which is typical for ULV chips. Depending on the usage scenario, the TDP can vary between 7.5 (cTDP Down) and 25 Watts.